On a sunny, late morning in Pallet Town, Ash Ketchum walked down the path to Professor Oak's laboratory. He was planning to leave on a new journey soon, but had decided that this time around, he'd like to stay home for a bit longer, and see all of his friends who still resided in the Kanto region. And today, he was going to visit Professor Oak and all of his Pokémon at the lab. He knew Tracey would be there as well, so it was a worthwhile trip. At fifteen, Ash was quite a bit different from when he had started his quest to become a Pokémon master. He was taller, and not as thin. There was actually some muscle on him now. The raven hair was longer, but still boyishly messy, with the one piece of hair that hung between his dark brown eyes. As always, Pikachu sat on Ash's left shoulder, the sunlight making the yellow mouse Pokémon's brown eyes glow and sparkle.

"So Pikachu, are you excited to see all our old buddies again?" Ash asked, turning his head to his partner Pokémon.

"Pika pi!" Pikachu exclaimed. Yes, of course!

"You wanna race there?" the competitive glint that Ash possessed appeared in his eyes at the suggestion.

"Pika!" You're on!

Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder and began sprinting ahead.

"Hey! No fair!" Ash laughed, "You got a head start!" He began to run as fast as he possibly could, still laughing as his surroundings became a blur of assorted colors, all flying past him in the blink of an eye. Ash, of course, tried his hardest in everything he did, even if it was just a friendly race between him and his Pokémon. Not paying attention, Ash let his guard down and just ran freely along the path.

Thud.

Ash had smacked into something, hard. And now he was on the ground, moaning in pain. Then, he realized, he had smacked into a person.

"Ah!" Ash jumped up, horrified, "I…I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to…" and when he looked down, he became even more horrified.

He had smacked right into Misty.

Ash stood there, shocked to the core and unable to move. Misty lifted her head and shook it vigorously side to side, her fiery red ponytail flying back and forth, quick as a whip. She pulled herself up slowly, a low growl emanating from her throat. When she turned around to unleash her anger, her dark green eyes opened wide at the person she saw.

"Ash?" she asked, sounding absolutely stunned.

"Uh…hi Misty," Ash stammered a bit.

"What's the big idea?" Misty's tone became angry at this point, her eyes burning into Ash.

"What do you mean?"

"Why did you knock me down like that?"

"I didn't do it on purpose," Ash responded, aggravated, "why are you here anyway?"

"None of your business." Misty crossed her arms.

"Huh? Why not?"

"Because I don't like your tone."

"What are you, my Mom?"

Misty rolled her eyes, turned around, and kept walking.

"Tell me where you're going," Ash ran up next to her. Misty said nothing.

"Okay, fine. Please tell me where you're going."

Misty's eyes flickered a bit, clearly because she knew she had won the battle. "Well, if you must know, I'm going to Professor Oak's laboratory."

"Hey, so am I!" Ash grinned, "Why are you going there?"

"I need to show Tracey something."

"What?"

Misty stopped walking and turned to Ash, a bewildered look on her face. "Full of questions today, aren't we?"

Ash laughed a bit and shrugged, "just curious."

Misty smiled a bit, "well, I guess I can show you first."

"Really?" Ash was now smiling. The fact that Misty seemed to be showing something important to Tracey, but was going to let Ash see first, made the boy feel rather…special.

"Sure, why not," Misty shrugged and pulled out a poke ball. She threw it up into the air, and it burst open, revealing a small, bright eyed Marill.

"Marill!" it greeted Pikachu, who had walked up to it.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu waved back.

"Hey, your Azurill evolved!" Ash beamed at the smiling red head.

"Uh huh, just yesterday, during a battle. I thought Tracey would like to see it newly evolved."

Marill used its tail to bounce up into Misty's arms. The girl smiled and continued to walk. Ash followed suit.

"So, did you win?" Ash asked.

"Win?" Misty raised an eyebrow.

"The battle."

"Oh. No," Misty blushed, "I didn't. It was my second gym battle that day. I was tired, I guess."

"Did you win the first one?"

Misty stayed quiet for a few seconds before shaking her head, "no."

Ash's face became awash with a sympathetic look. He knew how much he hated losing, and Misty wasn't much different. She was very competitive too.

"To tell you the truth," Misty looked down, "I haven't been winning many gym battles at all lately. I don't know what's going on with me. I just can't seem to win. I feel like the badges are being handed out like candy."

"Well, they aren't really, cause you are battling," Ash tried to reason with her, "This isn't like where your sisters just gave badges away."

"No, of course. I would never do anything like that. It's just…I don't know. I haven't been in a very good mood lately, and it's affecting my battles."

A bad mood? There's a shocker. Ash thought to himself. That was the biting sort of comment that would have Misty smacking Ash over the head. But, not in the mood to start another argument, Ash kept his mouth shut. He wanted to help Misty, but he wasn't really sure how. He felt strange all of a sudden; his heart felt like it was beating weird. But when he looked forwards, he was able to shrug it off.

"Hey, there's the lab!" Ash grinned excitedly, "We're here!" Not wanting to wait any longer, Ash darted off, quickly as possible.

"Ash! Wait up!" Misty called, running after the boy. He's still as crazy as ever, Misty thought, so why am I still crazy about him?