Disclaimer: Everything here is copyright to other people, like Nintendo, not me.
Notes: Not really, but if you bother to read it all, I'd be really happy if you also bothered to tell me your honest opinion.
Rating: I just realized how funny rating is... PG-13 for future chapters, anyway.

********

Three dark figures, two tall and one small, jumped down from the high brick wall and landed silently in the grass beneath it, one of them clutching a pokèball tightly in his hands.
"Yes!" the other one cheered under her breath and high-fived her smaller companion, as the one with the pokèball threw it forward, and a furry creature formed from the white beam.
"Grow?"
"Growlie, it's me!"
The Growlithe cooked its head, looking at the black-clad man quizzically. "Me, James!" he pulled the elastic from his hair, and the blue locks fell down around his face. The pokèmon's face lit up and he lunged at James, knocking him to the ground as it licked his face.
Meowth peered over at him, laughing happily and looking like a five-year old under the overjoyed Growly, and then turned the Jesse.
"K-9, check."
She mirrored his smirk.

Ash Ketchum whistled a happy tune as he walked down Route 1 from Viridian, approaching Pallet Town.
"...oh when the saints come marching...." Brock joined in, "Ow! Misty, that hurt!" both he and Ash had received a smack with her paper fan, and she just stuck her nose in the air and marched past them. Ash made a face, and then caught up with her.
"Ooooh, I waaaant to be in that numbeeeer..." he bellowed into her ear. Brock sighed and looked at his watch.

"No! No, absolutely, no!" James yelled and backed away to find Jessie between him and the door. He tried to push her aside a couple of times, but at last gave up and bolted for the window, receiving a painful furyswipe before he found himself hyperventilating and desperately wishing for a quick death in the middle of the floor.
"Try having a little team spirit." Meowht suggested.
"But... but..." he yelped as they approached him from both sides. He briefly considered yelling for Growly, but then remembered that his beloved pokèmon currently was in his pokèball which was placed on a very high shelf on the opposite wall, and instead tried to dive under the bed, which failed miserably.
"James, you are the only one that can possible do this. Your hair is right, and you seem to have an astonishing talent of attracting other men." Jessie told him and pushed him over to the chair in front of the mirror.
"But he isn't..."
"You're not going as yourself."
Meowth pointed over at a costume from one of the countless failed Pika-swipe attempts, and James suddenly realized that not only did he so indeed have the right hair... but also that the chance of getting to wear one of those long, gorgeous dresses that he just loved was like zero while taking this role.

Brock's face lit up as he saw the three houses of Pallet Town come into vision and he took a good grab of the pokèmon master to be, yanking him away from Misty and pushing him in front of himself.
"Look! We're almost there!"
Ash cheered and started running with Misty speeding up as well, and Brock followed in a more modest speed, smiling at the thought of Mrs. Ketchum, Mrs. Ketchum's well-equipped kitchen, Mrs. Ketchum, Mrs. Ketchum's lingerie drawer (he had discovered it during his last stay there), Mrs. Ketchum, Professor Oak's granddaughter, and Ash being occupied with other things than Misty. Three weeks lost in Viridian forest without anybody to battle, zero interesting pokèmon to catch and, oddly enough, no Team Rocket attacks, had made the younger kids starting to take out their frustration on each other, and Brock had developed a nasty migraine that set in every time the voice of one of them rose above a certain amount of decibel. The last two hours had been hell. "Oh when the Saints" lost its charm when you weren't allowed to sing along and had to listen to somebody else yell it at a third person. Especially somebody who's voice that lately had gotten a nasty tendency to crack when pushed too high.

Things didn't really turn out the way Misty had hoped. Mrs. Ketchum's house was empty and locked, which meant she had to wait even longer to get a shower. Then Ash had decided she was most likely at Professor Oak's lab. Once there, they had found Gary, Tracey, and May, Gary's sister, all of them occupied with shuffling dung out from the Ponyta stable at Professor Oak's order, and all of them, Gary the most, looking none too pleased with the situation. Then, of course, Ash and Brock had starting cooing over May, who had looked a bit confused on them, Brock in particular, Tracey and Gary had scowled, and then May had stepped back taking Tracey's hand, to which Gary scowled again, but still had told Brock to 'keep his hands of his sister'. When the confusion about that matter was cleared out Ash had wanted to go find his mother and Professor Oak, and Tracey had told him that they were discussing something in private, Gary had gotten a look of horror by a sudden realization, May had looked even more confused and Brock claimed to be a bit nauseated.
And after that the conversation had more or less centered about May. What was of a conversation, anyway, which wasn't anything impressing. Tracey lapsed into cheesy grins every time he looked at her, Ash was telling her about his journey and blushed whenever she complimented him, Brock... well, Brock only blushed, and Gary obviously adored his sister as well, so none of them as much as looked at Misty.
What a bitch. She didn't train... heck, she didn't even have any pokèmon. She wasn't all that smart, straight out dense sometimes, she didn't seem to talk much out herself, only nodding and cooing over what the others said... and it wasn't like she was all that...
Misty sighed. May was pretty. May was very pretty indeed. And Misty HATED to be ignored like that, even if she didn't have any particular interest in any of the ones ignoring her.

Later that evening, after Mrs. Ketchum had announced that everybody was invited home to them for dinner to celebrate that Ash was home again and Professor Oak kindly had went beforehand with her, offering to help with the cooking so "you kids can catch up" (Brock, Tracey, Gary and Misty had exchanged a quite uncomfortable glance at this while Ash and May obliviously watched), they were now walking through Pallet Town.
It was a quite night, and nobody said much, before an Officer Jenny shot out from the bushes beside the road.
"Hi!" she said and looked Brock straight in the eyes.
"Uh..."
"Wow! Is it really a police station here in Pallet town too?!" Ash asked and looked at her. Officer Jenny glared at him and slid an arm around Brock's shoulders and took of into a smaller road, which soon led to a shabby hut where a smiling Nurse Joy stood waiting for them.
"Our first guests!" she said as she clasped her hands together and her eyes started to spark, but Brock didn't even notice her. Officer Jenny walked over to her.
"Welcome to the newly build Police station/Pokèmon center of Pallet Town!" she and Joy cheered and struck a pose as confetti started falling over them. "That's... nice..." Tracey said when the silence had fallen over the little group. Brock was too busy gawking on Jenny to speak, and everybody else looked puzzled at them.
When nobody said anything more Misty started to move.
"So..." she said slowly, "I guess we should go..."
"Oh, please no!" Jenny cried and ran over to Brock again, "Let me enjoy the company of such a... handsome young man some more..." she said and kissed his cheek, to which a grunt erupted from his throat.
"I REALLY think we should go." Misty said through clenched teeth and took his ear and dragged him away, the other ones following them silently. As soon as the little assemble left the road Officer Jenny turned to Nurse Joy, who had started filing her nails.
"Jesse! Couldn't you at least let me take the one with a girlfriend? This way we aren't ruining anybody's life but mine!"
"Oh, shut up." She snapped, "This is just as bad for me as for you. And somebody's life WILL become miserable after this..."

To be continued

********

Ooooh... evil plots! And I'm not really into youngstershipping (Tracey/May) either. I just thought I'd get our dear pokèmon watcher out of the way. Yaaah. Review, and I'll love you forever ^^.