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Ash sighed once more; he really didn’t want to do this but his two friends left him no choice.

“PAH-LEASEEEEEE?!?!?”  He said while giving them the biggest puppy-dog-eyes he could muster up, complete with holding his hat in both hands just below his ‘quivering’ lips.

“Geeze, Ash!  Try to have a little dignity?!”  His big haired friend replied while placing a few files back on the bookshelf of his section of the lab.  “I mean next thing you know you’ll be groveling at our feet.”

The softer hearted of the two finally spoke with a small sweat-drop, “C’mon, Gary, he wouldn’t go that far.”

Ash thought about it for a minute.  “Hmm… Well… If it would work…”  He suddenly turned to Tracy, knowing he already had him somewhat reeled in.  “Would it?”  He asked with a giant grin.

“Gah!  ASH!  Of course not!”  Tracy turned back to his sketch of Pikachu.  “Gary is almost a Pokémon professor now.  He’s swayed by reason and science!  Maybe something like… Oh, let’s say studying the natural habitat of water Pokémon near Pallet’s beach and then… I don’t know… comparing it to the natural habitat of the water Pokémon near a similar place such as New Bark Town or to a city with similar geographical placement such as Cherrygrove City… or maybe even both…  That would persuade him to do something.  I mean, he’d get plenty of information between those three experiments to do his Expert’s Thesis on.”  Tracy nodded to himself, “See, Ash, those are the types of things that persuade Gary; not groveling.”

Ash looked up to Gary and saw him frozen in place; he didn’t even completely remove the book he wanted from the bookshelf.  Ash glanced back at Tracy to see him wink at Ash with a small, well concealed, thumbs-up.  It took all of Ash’s self-control to keep his ear-to-ear grin from leaking out.

“You, too, Tracy?”  Gary finally spoke while placing his right hand back to his side, leaving the book halfway on the shelf.

Tracy only shrugged, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Gary turned around slowly and gave his assistant a dirty glare.  He knew it was a great idea; and it would indeed help him, at least a nudge, in his thesis.  But did he have to tell him the idea in front of Ash, knowing the second meaning it would have?  “Oh you’re evil, Tracy.”

Tracy let a small grin out and continued to sketch, “I still don’t know what you’re talking about, Gary.”

Gary just shook his head and let out the words Ash has been longing to hear for the past week.  “Fine.  We’re going to explore Pallet’s waters.”

“YAY!!!”  Ash jumped up in the air.  

Pikachu, who understood what this meant to his master and friend, jumped into Ash’s arms in congratulations. “Pika Pika-pi!”

“Pikachu, you know what this means right?”  He started spinning Pikachu around, “We’re going to see-”

“Pikachu-pi!”

“Pokémon!”  Gary interrupted.

“Pokémon…?”  Ash slowed down their spinning to a stop.

“We, as in Tracy and I, are strictly observing Pokémon and that’s it!”

Ash fell back in disappointment.

“Pika-pi?” Pikachu asked with a small sweat-drop.

Ash quickly sat back up, his temper matching his former energy, “Why can’t I look for Misty while you’re studying Pokémon?!”

“We need you to stay on the boat.”

“What about Tracy?!  He’s better with boats anyways!”  

“Tracy is my assistant; I’ll need him to help me film.”

“I’ll ask Brock to stay on the boat!  Richie!  Heck, even my mom!  I’m sure none of them would mind!”

“Brock is busy with the Gym, Richie is home - we’re not dragging him down here, and does your mom know anything about boating?  At least I know you passed the class.”

“BARELY!  You remember I was horrible at it!”

“Because you hardly studied, and you still passed.”  Gary said calmly with crossed arms, not leaving room for a full verbal battle between the two to take place.

“Grrr…………”  Ash quickly got up.  “C’mon, Pikachu, we’re leaving!”

Pikachu looked around between the three figures before returning to Ash.  “Pika…”  He replied rather solemnly while following his friend.

The loud slamming door evoked a period of awkward silence in the room before Tracy decided to speak.

“He’s only asking to explore the waters, Gary; what’s the problem with that?”  He asked calmly.

Gary let out a small, disappointed sigh. “Exploring isn’t the problem, it’s finding.”  He said while returning his attention back to the bookshelf.

“You mean the Maideen?  Misty?  I thought you didn’t believe him?”

Gary faced turned towards Tracy, “… I didn’t.  I don’t!”  He corrected himself with a loud interjection before he returned his attention towards the bookshelf to hide his somber expression, “But I promised Ash I’d look up information about the Maideen back in school…”

“And…?”

“And nothing…”  Gary said seriously while pushing in the book he was previously grabbing.  He turned around back to Tracy and all signs of remorse left his face.  His arms crossed, Gary made sure to speak as forthright as possible.  “If she does exist, which is - again – highly doubtful, I simply don’t want Ash to get involved.  An idiot like him couldn’t handle it.”

Tracy put down his sketchbook, got up, and stood beside Gary, a small, teasing grin playing on his features.  “You’re worried.”

Gary turned his face slightly away from his assistant.  “HA!  Good one.  Ash and I were rivals for a long time remember?  I just know how little he can handle.”

“Ah, but before that you were friends.  Plus your true rivalry didn’t last too long.  Perhaps three years?  And then you two had an unspoken ‘understanding’ for a few years until you two finally admitted you guys were friends again.”

Gary let out a small laugh, “Sometimes you’re too observant, Tracy.”

Tracy smiled once more, taking Gary’s statement as a sign of victory, “So you are worried.  What’s so bad about this Maideen anyway?  Is she forever cursed or something?  Randomly starts harming Pokémon trainers?”

Gary only shook his head, “I saw some snips of the legend; it’s actually quite sad.  I truly hope that this Maideen doesn’t exist because even before birth, if the legend is true, she had already been through enough.  I figured the snippets of how she came to be would be enough for a report we had to do but then the last snip I came across has me wary……”

Concern shown on Tracy’s face, “How so?”

“Well it was more like a warning; it said that should any human interfere with the Maideen’s life it will cause a series of events that will make the monster that destroyed the Johto Island reappear, but even more powerful this second time around.”

“Wow… Sounds serious.”  It took Tracy a moment to absorb the information, “So any idea which Titan Pokémon destroyed the island in the legend?”

Gary shook his head, “I looked, but I couldn’t find anything about which exact Pokémon.”

“Did you tell Ash?”

“Of course not!  I told him I couldn’t find anything beyond the basic legend.  He’s emotionally charged on the ‘Maideen’ subject as it is, I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire.  Heh, we both know how he would want to ‘save’ her from this Titan if he found out about it.”

“I guess…”  Tracy sighed and plopped back down onto the couch, “Well then, I suppose we should be prepared for everything.  I’ll have to start researching which of the legendary Pokémon are the most likely candidates.  We have the Land Titan, Sea Titan, and Sky Dragon.  If this was such an epic conflict in Pokémon history I wonder if more legendaries were there…”  Tracy mumbled off, now in deep thought.

Gary walked over to the couch and sat on the shorter wooden table in front of it.  “What do you mean ‘prepared for everything’?  Why start that research now?”  He asked while intensely focusing on his assistant.

“Well, if this Maideen is real and that warning is valid, then we better prepare ourselves for this monster.”

“I don’t see why.  If Ash never interferes again and given that no other human has ever really seen her… mind you, we’re not even sure if Ash really saw her or, again, if she really exists… then we should be fine.”

“But Ash is sure he saw her.  And he interfered with her life for six years when they were younger.  So, even if that swimmer never ‘saw’ her, Ash has already fulfilled that part of the legend and there’s nothing we can do about it.”

Gary looked down in thought, “I suppose…”

“Perhaps the swimmer was just part of the chain of events; perhaps they’re already happening around us right now.  If this Titan is going to come, it’s going to come regardless if Ash sees her once more or not.”

“…”

“At least if he finds her then they can be happy together, even if it is only for a short while.  Plus, if she does exist, she might even know a way to beat this monster!  If she doesn’t exist then we have nothing to fear, no monster, no prophecy, and the only thing we’ll get is Ash complaining about swimming all day long and finding nothing.”

“Okay!”  Gary interrupted while standing up.  Tracy merely stared back, a bit shocked by the sudden interjection.  “Okay,” He said more calmly this time.  “He’ll get one day and that’s it!”

Tracy couldn’t help but grin, “I’m glad.”

Gary crossed his arms and gave his assistant a sideward glance, “Well, don’t be too happy; you’re watching the boat in his place.”

“Fair enough.”  Tracy replied with a smile, “How are you going to record though?”

“I’ll scout for good spots to observe and record for the upcoming days.”

Tracy gave a small nod.  “Good plan.  Now, should I go find Ash to tell him the good news?”

“Do whatever.”  Gary responded while turning back towards the bookshelf, shuffling though folders of research.  It wasn’t until he heard the door click shut did he finally let out the exasperated sigh he was holding in, “What have I just agreed to?”

End Chapter 6