3. The Yellow Ribbon
"AAAHHHH!" I screamed as I opened my eyes. My white ceiling flooded my vision as I was pulled back into the real world. I sat abruptly in my bed, almost afraid that the giant versions of my friends in the nightmare woud pull me back into that dark abyss if I remained lying down. Cold sweat poured down my temples and my matted hair stuck to the back of my neck. A tingling sensation crawled all over my skin, and it felt as if the floor beneath me would give way any time. I huddled up in the sheets with a pillow tightly clutched to my chest to brace myself, even though I knew in my logical mind that it was ridiculous for me to be afraid of something like that.
"Nightmare?" Gary's voice jolted me out of my dark little bubble, which I was grateful for. He was standing at the window with Bulbasaur and Pikachu perched on the window sill. I was slightly embarrassed, and hoped that Gary hadn't seen all the raw emotion that I displayed on my face. Pikachu leaped off the window sill and hopped over into my lap. I sure stank off sweat that had been fermenting overnight, though it wasn't anything that Pikachu wasn't used to.
"Chuu?" He asked, with one ear slacked and a look of concern on his face.
"I'm ok Pikachu, thanks for the concern. I had a... nightmare, yea." I said, turning to Gary as I mumbled the last few words. As I gave him a weak grin, I noticed that the sky was painted in a pink hue.
"Umm... Gary, what time is it?"
"It's 7:30."
"What? But that means that we barely got four hours of sleep! I'm going back to bed." I said as I yawned and stretched.
"Toughen up dude, surely you can go one day with less than adequate amount of sleep! Besides, I'm sure you wouldn't want to miss this sight, come take a look!" Gary waved a hand to motion for me to come over to the window.
What did he want me to see? The sunrise? I've seen that many times already. It took a lot of effort for me to pry my eyes open, and a wave of grogginess as I forced my weary eyes to do their job. Whatever it was, it'd better be good. I slowly trotted over to the window, still fighting to keep my eyes open. What I saw when I looked out the window took my breath away and I completely forgot about how tired I was.
"Woah!"
Across the fields, above the mountains that stood in a distance, was a swarm of Butterfree! They wafted across the skies, their large, white, striped wings beating slowly and softly. The air around them sparkled in colours of purple, blue and yellow, which I reckon came from the powders from their wings. The powder filled air glowed softly with the light from the warm morning sun that was peaking out of the mountain ridges. That majestic view was aptly complemented with the Butterfree's shrill, yet mild cries.
"You're right Gary, this is great!" I couldn't help but smile from ear to ear as I looked on.
"The Butterfree cross the sea from over at Vermillion City back to the Vermillion Forest where they came from to lay their eggs during this time of the year. Pallet Town just happens to be in between these two places so the Butterfree pass by here along the way. Some of them even settle down in the mountains to take a break. But," He paused to grin at me after that scholarly speech. "I'm sure you didn't know that, did you, Ashy-boy?"
"What? I did too! In fact, I happened to release my Butterfree in Vermillion City so that he could find a mate back when I was still in Kanto! Besides, you'd think that I'd have already seen Butterfree flying by when I was growing up in Pallet." It felt good to be able to rebutt one of Gary's snide remarks for once. Gray just snorted in reply, never one to truly admit defeat.
But it was more friendly little shots that we took at each other now, it wasn't serious and neither one of us intended to hurt the other's feelings.
We stood there in silence for awhile, mesmerized by the Butterfree fluttering across the mountains.
"Say Gary, you think we could head up the mountains to get a closer look at the butterfree?"
"Sure thing. Butterfree are quite timid actually. So I guess there wouldn't be any danger. But we'd have to be quite though, it's their mating season and we don't want to disturb them."
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After two hours of trekking, we finally arrived at the top of the mountain. Butterfree were laying down on a vast flower field, mostly in pairs. Flowers were scattered all over the plain like a rainbow mosaic, and the black and white splotches of Butterfree wings brought out the colours even more. Gary and I crouched down behind some bushes, being careful of where we placed our feet so that we do not accidentally snap a fallen branch and startle the Butterfree.
"It's really beautiful huh Pikachu, Bulbasaur?" I said to the two Pokemon who were crouched at the bottom of the bush where their little bodies were easily concealed.
They didn't really give me an answer apart from squeaking quietly, I'm sure they were as captivated by the sight as I was. We saw more Butterfree were fluttering down from the skies to take their landing looking a lot like snowflakes tumbling from the sky.
Just then, Bulbasaur barked excitedly and sped off into the grassy plain, scaring away any Butterfree that was in it's path before diving into a deep flower patch.
"Hey Bulbasaur! Wait up!" Leaving my hiding spot behind the bush and running towards him with Pikachu and Gary following behind me, startling even more Butterfree along the way.
"Bulbasaur, you're not supposed to come out here, you're disturbing the Butter- huh?" I was cut off mid speech by what I saw. There was a Butterfree standing in front of Bulbasaur, and the two of them seemed to be engaged in a... conversation of sorts.
"Pika-pi!" Pikachu hopped toward them both and joined them in their animated chatter.
"Say, what's going on?" I scratched my head, confused, and still feeling a little bit bad about disturbing the Butterfree.
The three Pokemon stopped their conversation and looked up at me. Both Bulbasaur and Pikachu's eyes were sparkling with glee. Then the Butterfree flew up to my face and circled me a couple of times before landing on my shoulder.
"Pikachu!" Pikachu nodded in approval.
"Waa-?"
"Wow, this is pretty fascinating Ash. I don't think I've ever seen Butterfree so friendly towards humans before. You sure have a knack for befriending Pokemon!"
"Huh? Well, if you say so!" I chuckled, blossoming with pride at Gary's complement.
"Pi...Ka!" Pikachu frowned, his ears twitching in irritation. He pointed a tiny paw at Butterfree and waved his arms about in the air.
"What is it Pikachu? Are you trying to tell me something about this Butterfree?" I said, turning to look at the Butterfree that was perched on my shoulders. It was then that I noticed that this Butterfree was wearing a yellow scarf. A yellow scarf? Hmm... why does it seem to remind me of something? It's like one of those things that you just know is buried deep within the dusty, forsaken corners of your mind, but can't quite spit out.
"Oh, it has a yellow ribbon. Pikachu have we seen this ribbon somewhere before? It reminds me of something, but I don't know what!"
"Pi!" Pikachu gasped in shock and toppled over in mock unconsciousness. Bulbasaur laughed. Whether at Pikachu or me I didn't know.
Then it struck me.
"Wait! I've got it! It's umm... a scarf right! So it's got something to do with Pokemon Contests? No wait, that doesn't seem quite right..."
"Pika! Pika! Pikachuuuu!" Now Pikachu was starting to get really frustrated with me, making all sorts of facial expressions and jumping all over the place in a frantic attempt to jog my memory. Then Butterfree flew off my shoulder and started to flutter in mid air in front of me. Somehow, looking at Butterfree dancing like that in front of me with that yellow scarf, however torn and tattered, triggered a whole series of memories with the same Butterfree that I caught back when I was travelling in Kanto. It couldn't be...
"Wait a second, t-this is Butterfree, isn't it? Pikachu, is that what you were trying to tell me? That this Butterfree was the one that we met in Viridian Forest?" I was a little embarrassed and felt bad for Butterfree for not remembering him, at the same time I didn't want to get my hopes dashed. Pikachu confirmed it with a delighted nod of the head, however.
"Man Ash, how could you forget something like that?" Gary sighed and so did Pikachu and Bulbasaur. I wasn't paying any attention to them though. I couldn't believe it, after so many years, I thought I'd never get to see Butterfree again. See, Butterfree was the very first Pokemon that I'd ever caught, and I was really sad to see him go, but I did so anyway because it was the best thing to do at the time.
"Hahaha, Butterfree! It's really you! How have you been buddy? You look like you've grown bigger and stronger since the last time I saw you!"
Butterfree let out a high pitched shrill and nodded his head in agreement, spinning up and down in front of me. I guess Butterfree was really happy to see me too.
Then another Butterfree flew down towards us. It was the pink one that caught Butterfree's heart back in Viridian City.
"Hey. You're Butterfree's girlfriend aren't you? It's nice to meet you!" The pink Butterfree blushed and nodded shyly.
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Meanwhile, in Cerulean City...
"Huff... Huff..." I breathed heavily as my feet pounded against the concrete pavement. Breathing through my mouth left it dry, and my feet were sore from running over long distances, but it didn't matter. If you want to be a respectable Gym Leader, you have to work hard.
Opps, I'm sorry, I didn't introduce myself. Hi, I'm Misty. I'm the Cerulean City Gym Leader. I haven't been in this position for very long. My three older sisters used to be in charge of the Gym until I took over when they went for a vacation.
"Come on Misty, can we take a break? My legs are like killing me." Lily, my third sister, cried out from behind me.
"Yea, we've been at this for hours!" My second sister Violet joined her in protest. Both of them were trailing far behind my oldest sister, Daisy and I.
"No way! If you have the energy to talk like that you certainly have the energy to run! We're not stopping until your feet fall off!" I roared, and continued to jog off, leaving Lily and Violet to reluctantly shuffle their feet to catch up. See, this was the reason why I had to take over. My sisters used to be wonderful Pokemon trainers, but for some reason they lost their drive and became interested in silly things like painting their nails and going shopping. I mean, there's nothing wrong with doing those things for fun, but it has utterly consumed their lives. At first I thought it was just
a phase that they would get over, but they've been this way for over five years now. They still do help out with Gym Leader duties, but of course, I take care of majority of the battles. The part that infuriates me the most? Their attitude. It's one thing to lose, it's another to simply give up whenever the going gets tough, and that's exactly what my sisters do all the time. At least Daisy shows some level of maturity. But for the most part, trying to keep these three motivated is an absolute pain.
"I don't see what's the point of all this training anyway, we could be like some cute clothes right now instead of getting all sweaty and stinking in these ugly outfits!" Lily groaned, being mindful of complaining loud enough for me to be able to hear her from a distance. I felt my neck muscles stiffen.
"We should never have sent her to collect badges from Mr Kinzo. It's bad enough that we have to break our backs every time we run out, but now that Misty's gotten all serious about being a Gym Leader we have to do Mr Kinzo's workouts everyday!"
Sigh... I'm doing the best I can to help us become better trainers and also make things fun and engaging for them. Ok fine, maybe part of the reason why I'm so motivated is because I get to torture my sisters. Still, one can only listen to so much complaining before they go crazy.
We continued to jog three more times around the neighbourhood before we finally headed back to the Cerulean Gym. Determined to get the most out of my workout, I burst into a sprint, leaving Daisy trailing behind. At least she was still maintaining her speed. Violet and Lily had already given up and were strolling back. Upon reaching the Gym's doors, I turned around.
"Hurry up you three! We're not done yet!"
"I don't think I can take this anymore, Misty." Daisy moaned as she collapsed at the entrance of the gym.
"Mist-iii, it's late already! Can we eat something and go to bed? We can always train tomorrow!" Violet cried out as she sauntered her way towards the Gym. Lily nodded vigorously. I wanted to slap them both.
"Oh no you don't! You may be older than me but I'm the leader of the Cerulean City Gym so I'm the one in charge around here! We're going to train our Pokemon at the pool now, and nobody gets dinner until I see you three put in a hundred percent! Lily, I'm training with you today!" I knew that Lily and Violet would slack off if they trained together. I knew what was coming next.
Lily and Violet groaned.
***
We stood on random floating boards scattered across the pool where we held our battles. The pool was divided by an imaginary line across its length with Daisy and Violet facing off in one half while Lily and I faced off in another. Daisy and Violet were training their water gun attacks with Luvdisc and Goldeen respectively. They were focused, but neither of them were particularly excited about having to train on an empty stomach. My training session with Lily on the other side of the pool however, was much more... heated, to put in nicely.
"Corsola, use Spike Cannon and don't stop until I tell you to!" I commanded. Corsola's voice rumbled in her throat as her body glowed white and bright white bullets fired out of her horns towards Lily's Seel. Seel gracefully dodged the attacks by swimming away, and Corsola adjusted her aim to follow Seel.
Battling against my sisters is honestly quite boring since we all know each other's tactics so well. After battling the same people so many times you kinda get this numbness that makes you wonder if training with them is going to do you any good since you know that nobody else will be so boringly predictable.
"C'mon Lily you can't keep dodging forever! Tell Seel to attack!"
"No way! If Seel goes in, he'll definitely get knocked by Corsola's Spike Cannon! Why don't you move in?"
"Ugh, Corsola would have already hit Seel by now if I wasn't taking it easy on you, just- just come up with an attack right now!"
"Fine! If it'll shut you up, Seel! Aurora Beam!"
Seel dived into the water and swam towards Corsola before surfacing again and shooting a rainbow coloured beam at the Coral Pokemon. But before the beam could hit its mark, Corsola started to glow red. The beam bounced off Corsola and went right back towards Seel, knocking it backwards a couple of feet into the air before it landed with an emphatic splash.
"See! I knew that would happen! Look Misty, I'm just not as good a trainer as you alright, what do you expect me to do?" Lily's stiffened her lower lip as she folded her arms and looked away in anger.
"Come up with a strategy to counter Corsola's Mirror Coat! I can't do all the thinking for you!" I sighed. I can't stand my sisters' defeatist attitude. At least try! If I can just find a way to tear off that facade of shopping, manicures and underwater ballet that they wear to escape the incompetence that they feel deep down. Not that they would ever admit something like that to me. It's some older sibling pride thingy. Or maybe they got so good at acting stupid that they really were becoming stupid.
