Chapter 24: The Discovery

My brain felt foggy as I woke up slowly the next morning, sluggishly taking in my surroundings as I laid in bed, my eyes still shut with sleepy dirt.

Something poked my belly and I heard a crooning that reminded me of a shrilling bird. A small weight shifted on my chest. I opened my eyes, staring at the small body of Togepi.

"Ah!" I sat up quickly. Togepi began falling to the floor. I yelled again, hurling myself out of bed, catching Togepi, but landing in a heap on the cold, hard tile.

Groaning, I sat up and held Togepi up to my face. "Togepi, if you weren't so cute I'd be mad at you right now. I almost broke my back, you know. And you almost became a scrambled egg."

"Pri, pri!" Togepi smiled.

"Oh, you're awake." Misty walked in the door. "You sure do sleep like a Snorlax."

I banged my head on the mattress tiredly. "So I've been told a couple hundred times."

Mostly by you and Daniel, I muttered in my head.

"Everyone else is down at breakfast. You better hurry. Ash wants to get down to the gym." Misty grabbed her backpack. "If you could bring Togepi down with you, that would be great."

"Sure thing." I held Togepi up, who waved happily to Misty as she left the room.

I sighed, placing Togepi on the bed while I changed and got ready. In ten minutes (I'm super fast for a girl when it comes to getting ready, I know) I was making my way to the kitchen area, Togepi wiggling in my arms. My friends were all sitting at the same table as yesterday, but Ash seemed done eating this time and kept talking about his gym battle at the top of his lungs.

"You guys don't have to wait for me- let me just grab some fruit," I said as I handed Misty her Togepi.

"You don't want to listen to Ash tell us about how he's going to win his badge for the seventy-fifth time, Em?" Daniel asked politely.

"Haha." I rolled my eyes, then turned to face Ash who didn't seem to have heard. "So, are you ready for your gym battle?"

"Of course I am!" Ash stood up, almost knocking his chair over. "Let's go!"

We all made our way out of the Pokemon Center, squinting as our eyes adjusted to the sun, and walked the short distance to the Pokemon gym. It was a large building that reminded me of a mansion because of its classy design. There was even a gate at the entrance.

Ash was the first to notice the gate was locked. "Hello? I'm here for my gym battle!"

No answer.

"Hm, maybe he called in sick?" Daniel guessed. "Oh, I know! Maybe he got cold feet! Get it? Cold feet?"

We all sighed.

"Come on, that was a good one," Daniel argued.

"Well, looks like no one's here. Now what?" Anthony peered into the gate.

"But I have to battle the gym leader!" Ash whined.

"It doesn't make sense..." Brock trailed off.

"Hi there!" A woman's voice came from right next to us. We turned- she was standing so close to Anthony that he yelped.

"How'd you just... appear like that?" Anthony questioned, taking a few steps back.

She looked like she was in her fifties and wore clothes that reminded me of gardening- overalls matched with pulled back hair. Not to mention she was pretty muscular. Still, she sounded nice as she said, "I'm sorry, but the gym leader's not here right now. His name's Pryce and I'm Sheila. He goes up to the mountains every morning and meditates under a waterfall."

"I thought only Chuck, the leader in Cianwood, does that," Amanda whispered to me. I shrugged.

"Wow, that's impressive," Brock complimented.

"Do you think we can meet him?" my dad asked politely. I snickered, thinking he may lose it from having his match postponed for so long.

"Sure," Shelia answered. "I'll take you there myself."

We all exchanged looks up excitement at the prospect of meeting Pryce, especially with my parents and Brock who had never met him.

"Hey, where'd Sheila go?" Daniel scratched his head.

We all looked around- she was nowhere in sight.

"Yoo hoo!"

We turned. Shelia was already a hundred feet to the east on a trail. "Let's go, hurry up, come on!"

Misty's eyes were wide. "How did she do that?"

Brock gaped. "I wonder what she had for breakfast."

Either way, we ended up jogging after Shelia who had more energy than all of us put together- Pokemon and all.

She was sprinting, jumping from rock to rock as if she were some master of Kung Fu.

"She's one energetic woman!" Brock practically cried, though apparently not attracted to her because of her age.

"Wait... up..." Even Ash panted, climbing over a boulder.

"I never liked gym class. It ruined my perfect GPA," Anthony gasped, looking miserable.

"Hah, well I'm just getting warmed up!" Shelia called from ahead, not stopping. "You Squirtle better step on the gas!"

"I'm out of gas," Ash complained, slumping down.

"Come on, let's go," I tried to encourage them, but couldn't even stand back up.

"Can't we fly there?" Amanda pleaded.

"We don't know the way," Brock reminded her.

"I wouldn't mind flying." Misty sighed.

We continued as quickly as we could, following Shelia's booming voice calling out to us. I was just glad she wasn't insulting, or else I think a few of us would be in tears. Or passed out. One of those two.

"Woo! I just LOVE a morning run!" Shelia announced as we came in view of the waterfall.

She turned around just in time to see us crawling into view like zombies.

"Yeah, who doesn't love dying in the morning?" Daniel grunted, massaging his stomach. "Now I need to eat another breakfast! I hope she's happy."

"Over yonder is Pryce." Shelia pointed to the waterfall.

Ash looked up hopefully and noticed an old man with white hair and a scrutinizing face sitting shirtless on a boulder in the middle of the falls. "Hey, we've met him!"

"Oh, so that's Pryce," I said to Amanda. "He looks... well, I guess I should have expected him to look old."

"I think his granddaughter is a lot nicer so far," She whispered.

Daniel heard us. "I bet he's as old and cold as the Ice Age. Get it?"

I stood up, ignoring his jokes.

"I wouldn't expect such an old guy to be a gym leader," Brock said truthfully.

"He's not only old, but he's crabby as well," Misty sounded less anxious to meet him.

"Krabby. Get it?" Daniel grinned.

We ignored him.

"Crabby or not, I'm still going to ask him for a battle!" Ash exclaimed, getting up and marching over to Pryce.

"Hey, Pryce! This here kid wants to battle you," Shelia hollered.

Pryce's eyes remained closed, but Ash said politely, "It's nice to meet you, Pryce. I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town. I'd like to battle you for a Glacier badge."

Pryce opened his eyes which turned coldly to stare at Ash. "Hmph. I remember you. And I see your Pikachu is still out of its Poke Ball."

Ash turned to look at Pikachu who was resting on his shoulder. "Well, Pikachu and I are really good buddies."

"Ridiculous." Pryce stood up and put on his shirt without looking at Ash. "A battle with you would be pointless."

"What?" Ash's mouth fell open. "Why? How would you even know that without a battle?"

"Simple. In order to keep one's Pokemon in top fighting form they must always be tense and on edge. But if you become emotionally involved with your Pokemon it's that emotion that can cloud your battling judgment and cause you to make bad, dumb decisions!"

"You're wrong. People and Pokemon need to understand each other and be good friends so they can work together and battle at their best."

Pryce continued to frown. "Well, then. I'll just have to prove you wrong." He took out a Poke Ball. "Go Dewgong!"

His Dewgong appeared, its white gleaming body resting on the rocky shore by the waterfall, facing Ash and Pikachu.

Ash smiled. "So, I can have a gym battle if we beat you two?"

"Correct."

"Got it." Ash took out a Poke Ball. "Phanpy's been doing great lately. Phanpy, I choose you!"

A tiny blue elephant-like Pokemon appeared, flapping its ears up and down cutely.

"A Phanpy?" Anthony asked. "He's going up against a Water and Ice type and he chose Phanpy? Why not Pikachu?"

I shrugged. "My dad works in mysterious ways."

Anthony sighed, but didn't question me.

"Hmph." Pryce crossed his arms. "All the affection in the world isn't going to make you win this."

"We'll see!" Ash exclaimed. "Phanpy, use Rollout!"

Phanpy curled into a ball and rushed at Dewgong.

"Ice Beam," Pryce ordered.

Dewgong sent a blue beam right at Phanpy. He stopped spinning- in fact, he was frozen.

Anthony, Misty, and Brock shook their heads while I sat squirming, feeling like my dad had let his winnings in the past couple days get to him.

"You let your emotional attachment get in the way," Pryce said again, recalling Dewgong.

Ash recalled Phanpy, staring at his Poke Ball sadly. "I'm really sorry, Phanpy."

"So now don't you see how a gym battle would be a waste of your time and mine?" Pryce smiled coldly and began walking away.

"Whoa, wait Pryce!" Ash called, running after him.

After a minute of all of us hesitating, mostly because our legs all felt like jello after that run, I stood up and sighed. "We should follow."

"But I'm tired-" Anthony began before seeing my glare. "Oh, fine."

We all ran after Ash, searching through the forest and calling his name.

"Hey, there's a cliff over there." Amanda pointed.

Together, we found Team Rocket at the edge, peering over the side and arguing.

"Would you two stop acting your own age instead of your shoe size!?" Jessie screamed at them.

"Team Rocket...?" Brock questioned.

"Why are you sitting on the edge of a cliff and yelling at each other?" Misty asked.

"Have you seen Ash or Pikachu?" Daniel asked.

They all scrambled up and stared at us wide-eyed. "Of course we haven't!"

James and Jessie ran in different directions while Meowth stood looking both ways then back at us and chuckled. "Huh? Me? I don't know nothin' 'bout Ash or Pikachu or that old man flyin' off this cliff."

"What, Meowth!?" Misty gasped.

"Uh, nothin'! Gotta blast!" He ran off after Jessie.

We approached the edge with caution, yelling for Ash and Pikachu.

Shelia whistled. "I say that sure is one nasty drop."

"We have to go help them," Misty said.

"They could be dead," Daniel thought out loud. I hit him. I was worried enough as it was without bringing worst case scenarios to mind.

"How can we get down there to help them?" Brock asked.

"There's a small gully there we can climb down." Shelia pointed to the right.

"What the heck is a gully?" Daniel asked.

Anthony muttered something under his breath then said louder, "I'm not climbing or running any more. We're flying down."

We all sighed in relief, except for Shelia who looked disappointed from the lack of activity and sweat.

Anthony stood up and vented, "And you know what, I'm putting on my saddle this time. No more free flying. My whole body is sore from running and flying and being stuck in a jail cell-"

"Jail cell?" Shelia repeated. "What did ya'll do, rob a bank?"

"And I'm sick of it!" Anthony yelled into the canyon, making his words echo.

"Well, that does give me time to tell you fellas a story," Shelia said. "Get your Pokemon ready and I'll tell you all about Pryce."

Hello Pokemon Trainers!

So, here's the latest chapter, as you can see. And for reminders, yes, this is based off the anime. The legitimate fictional time stream. So I did my research. And I would apologize for it's cheesiness, but Daniel just adds more cheese so there's really no point in that, is there?

I hope you enjoyed it! I always do. And, I would like to announce for those of you who read First Light, I've been working on First Faith a lot lately :) Just finished writing a pretty cool battle scene even. Paul's trouble never seem to end, do they? So yeah, I'm letting you know I'm super excited. I have a lot written already and this is going to be a very emotional story with characters I know you'll love, more background on Paul, and a lot of love. So I'm really looking forward to beginning to post that soon and to write more of it. I really want it to be perfect, which is why I haven't been posting anything more about Paul and Dawn. Don't worry, it will be worth the wait!

And for those of you who just read Next Gen, I'll be writing this too. I can't abandon these guys. This story is too much fun to write, so expect updates (just at unexpected times I guess :P)

Pokemon Question of the Day: What would you do to be in shape in the Pokemon world so you could keep up with Sheila?

Thanks for reading! God bless!

-Flips