Chapter 5:
Almost a Gentleman

    During breakfast the next day, Ash told his mom that today was his day off and that he’d be spending it out on the town, seeing what had changed since he’d last visited.  When he’d waved goodbye and turned the corner, he realized that he hadn’t talked to Misty since she’d helped him with the rapidash.  She’d probably still be in the gym, since she usually did mornings for them, so he went to the nearest payphone and dialed the gym number, getting Misty on the third ring.
“Hi”
“Hi, Ash.  Everything running smoothly at the lab?”
She could see his hesitation as he said, “very well, actually.  My current assignment should be interesting.  How’re things over there?”
“Quiet in the gym, chaotic everywhere else, as usual.  Trainers these days, they just don’t have the tenacity they used to.”
“Amen to that, no one yet has come back after we beat them, have they?”
“Not one.”
“Well, I was just calling to check in, see if anything required my attention over there.”
Misty noted his fingers crossed, but decided that whatever Oak was doing these days, she wasn’t interfering “nothing.”
“Well, good-bye.”
“Bye.”
    About three quarters of the way through the call, Ash had become aware of something right behind him.  When he’d hung up, he spun around as fast as he could, giving Gary, who’d been listening over his shoulder, a whack on the side of his head.  Gary gave him the best leer he could out of one eye and said, “Talking to that underdeveloped little girl you call a wife, ashy-boy?”
Ash rolled his eyes “speaking of girls, I note that your squad still hasn’t come back after I beat you the first time.”
“I don’t need cheerleaders anymore; I’m strong, unlike you.  You married yours.”
“Which one of us has the first position and the earth badge?”
Gary brushed his hair back, trying to look nonchalant “if I wanted the first position, I’d take it from you.”
“Well, now that we’ve gotten the ‘I’m better than you’ lines out, how about we go and find a place to get a drink.”
“Yeah, alright.  I can tell you about my new girlfriend.”
Ash almost lost his cool “What?”
“Didn’t expect me to have another?  Oh, come on, we both know I’ve spent enough time out in the wilderness to get back my dignity.  It’s time to move on, even if I still haven’t permanently gotten you sorted out.”
They found an ice cream bar, and ordered shakes.  “What’s she like?”
Gary rubbed the back of his head “well, I haven’t actually met her yet, grandpa is setting us up tomorrow, but he tells me she’s perfect.”
Ash stored this comment under ‘yikes’ and asked, “so you haven’t actually met her?”
“No, as a matter of fact I haven’t.”
“Where are you going with her?”
“Grandpa’s sending us to Celadon for the day to do whatever we want.”
“Ah.”  Ash decided to change the subject “how’re things going in the celestial studies?”
“Well enough, I just recently managed to summon one of those feathery flying serpents all the pictures go on about.  Still can’t pronounce the name except when I’m casting.  Too many consecutive consonants.”
    They finished their shakes and Gary joined Ash in seeing what was new in the Town.  Very little had changed, although they managed to spend two hours in the new arcade settling who was the best at everything.  Even though there were a few older kids in there, Ash was glad that they still looked like pre-teens, it saved embarrassment, except when they ran into a pokemon trainer, who knew exactly who and what they were.  When the sun began to set, Ash took his leave saying, “until next I defeat you.”
“And goodbye to you, may your Charizard slip from control and burn your gym down.”
    After breakfast the next morning, Ash had some difficulty with escaping, since Jenny was to meet Gary at the lab, so he couldn’t change there, and he didn’t want his mom finding out.  He compromised by locking the door to his room and putting the suit on in there.  Since it was going to be a day on the town, and a first date with someone he wasn’t supposed to know well, he decided on jeans and a green T-shirt with sneakers.  Before he could go any further, Pikachu hopped up off the bed and settled on his shoulder.  Reaching over, he picked up his companion pokemon and said, "not this time, buddy, Gary would be very suspicious to see you with me."
Pikachu gave him an amused look, that obviously meant, "I'm not missing this."
Ash sighed and said, "Well, if you must come, you'll have to be disguised too.  A cute girl would have a cute pokemon, and..."  He grinned slyly and Pikachu took a step back.   Ash reached into his closet and pulled out the vulpix costume.  Before Pikachu could dodge, he grabbed her by the tail and, struggling as she squirmed and tried to get out of his grasp, shoved her into the costume.  Holding her down with one hand, he pulled the zipper up with the other.  Pikachu offered up one more protest and even tried to shock Ash as he shoved her head into the mask of the costume and sealed the mask to the back.  He unlocked the door to his room and climbed the lattice by his window down to ground level, Pikachu in her disguise on his shoulder, sulking but insistent in going.
    He walked to the lab, finding Gary and the Professor already outside waiting.  He approached them saying, “Hi!  You must be Gary, it’s nice to finally meet you after all that I’ve heard.”
Gary replied, “Hi.  Grandpa hasn’t told me much about you, but already I can see that’s because you’re too amazing to describe.”
Ash could feel a blush on his cheeks, brushed his hand under his hair self-consciously and said, “That’s very nice, thank you.”
Oak gave them round trip tickets on the magnet line for Celadon and said, “Well, you two kids have a good time.”  When they’d left, he went into the lab and said to Duplica, who’d been watching from the window “I was waiting to make sure before I pass judgment, but now I know.  You also put in a behavior guidance system.”
“It was the only way I could make sure he acted properly, and it only activates when he’s unsure of what to do.”
“Like when he gets a compliment on his appearance from his male date?”
“He wasn’t sure, so the suit did for him what would be the most appropriate action.”
    In the magnet train, Ash had decided that if he was going to be a girl to date Gary, he’d give him the best he could.  With that, he sat down right next to Gary and began asking him questions about about his career as a pokemon trainer, master and eventually, mage.
“Of course I know everything official, including some very interesting rumors, but what I don’t know is why you did so many things.”
Gary looked slightly surprised, this wasn’t one of those brainless types he usually favored back when he had to know he was best.  “Like what?”
“Like” Ash replied, “disappearing so totally for so long.  Between your first trial at Indigo and your short ascension to first of four, you disappeared almost totally from league records and from the public eye, except during gym battles, tournaments and the few times Master Ash ended up nearby.”
Gary blew air “I needed some time to think about my position.  You must know just who it was who beat me out there.”
“I do.”
“And his subsequent defeat.”
Ash gritted his teeth “I do.”
Gary looked quizzically at his date, but continued his story “Then you know that it was a terrible shock to me to realize there were better trainers out there who weren’t ranked as masters.  Heck, the only person who ever beat me was Giovanni, and he cheated by creating a pokemon that was too powerful.”
Ash took the opportunity to ask “Haven’t you been known to battle with a hacked porygon?”
Gary opened his mouth, closed it, and then shook his head.  Ash giggled “On another topic, I find it interesting that you would do such a three-sixty as to study divine magic. You went from one extreme to the other so well.”
“Not entirely, there are some gods who are pretty open-minded about these things; I like the effects, although the cause is a problem.  I’m not the worshiping type, as you’ve pointed out.  However, there are those gods that give their power freely to non-worshipers on various conditions that I meet for them.”
    The magnet train stopped at Celedon, and they got out, Ash almost falling over as he rose and his center of gravity wasn’t where he expected it to be.  They continued their conversation, and Ash knew he’d chosen correctly when he’d asked Gary to talk about himself.  Gary seemed to know where he wanted to go, and Ash was content for the moment to see where he was being led.  As if hearing those thoughts, Gary finished a sentence and said, “Grandpa wants me to pick up something at the department store for him while we’re here.  It shouldn’t take long.”
    They went into the store and Gary walked up to the front desk.  “I’m picking up something for Samuel Oak.”
“Right here.”  The attendant handed Gary a bag with the store crest on.  Ash, curious, asked, “What did the Professor want?”
Gary reached into the bag and pulled out several wrapped objects.  “See for yourself.”
At random, Ash took one and unwrapped it, wondering why it was so warm, and revealed a glint of brilliant red.  “Evolution stones.”
“Grandpa’s studying them to see if he can find a way to replicate their radioactivity signature mechanically.  Just don’t put it too close to that vulpix of yours.”
Pikachu, who’d been leaning for a closer look, realized her current appearance and stepped back.  Ash, who had been watching the stone, noticed that the hand he was holding it in was growing, and an alarm went off in his mind, followed by a dialogue past his eyes ‘warning: radioactive interference has damaged hand and lower arm, please attempt to fix situation.’
Gary, who had also been watching, said “something wrong with your hand?”
Ash started, put his other hand over his mouth and said, “What could possibly be wrong?”  He giggled in what he hoped sounded an amused manner and thought fast “look, I’ve got to use the restroom, be right back.”  He tossed Gary the stone back and walked off quickly, leaving Gary staring appreciatively at his retreating back.  Ash, meanwhile, saw another message scroll by ‘regeneration cycle initiated, ten minutes until nominal function.’  Great, what to do now.   He realized he did actually have to go to the bathroom, and found his way to the nearest one in the department store.  Without noticing that he’d gotten himself into the proper room, he went into a stall.  At first, he wasn’t sure what to do, and made to deactivate the suit so he could go normally, but stopped himself.  Not a good idea, he realized, since one, the suit was repairing itself and he didn’t know what effect turning it off would have and two, what if he got caught with his skin off?  No, best not to chance it.  That left the problem that though he knew intellectually what he had to do, in practice it would be a little more difficult.  With a sigh, he pulled down his pants and sat on the bowl, attempting for all the world not to pay attention to what he was doing.  With more success than he’d expected, he pulled his pants and underwear back up and exited the stall.  By this time, five minutes had gone by, and he figured that by the time he found Gary, another five would surely pass, which it did, and he returned to Gary appearing totally female.  Gary put his arm around Ash and said, “Anything you want to do here?”
Ash thought a moment and said, “nothing that I can think of.”
“Well, it’s going on lunchtime already, how about we eat and decide.”
No matter what form he was in, Ash was an inveterate eater and quickly agreed “but where?”
“Well, this is more personal business than anything else, but there’s a restaurant that I think has good food and someone that I’ve been looking for.”
    Ash, having no better idea, once more allowed himself to be led down several streets into what was obviously the hip part of town.  It was becoming easier and easier for him to allow himself to be led by his “boyfriend” although he still tried to convince himself that it was because he wanted to do the best job of being the quintessential maiden.  They stopped in front of a nondescript building bearing the legend ‘Lucky Cheng’s.’
“Is this the place?”
“Yes.  There are several people that hang out here that I think I should talk to.”
    Gary gave his name to the pretty Asian receptionist and they walked in.  Obviously, Gary had planned to come here all along.  The entire staff seemed to be made up of pretty Asians like the receptionist, and Ash couldn’t help but wonder why.  Gary looked around, as if trying to find a particular table, and set his eyes on his target, one that way almost full already, with very attractive women mostly between nineteen and twenty-five by the look.  Gary pulled out a chair for Ash and sat down himself, when the waitress arrived they ordered.  Looking over at the other members of the table, Gary said, “I assume by your appearance, choice of restaurant and number that you are members of Her Disciples.”
One of them, it makes no difference who said what from their group, gave him a hard look and said, “and we assume by your appearance that you are a member of His.”
“I am.”
“Why seek us out?”
“Because you are also members of the Duplica league, you have to be to worship Her.”
“What of it?”
“She’s been acting odd of late, I’d like to know why.”
“We hadn’t noticed.”
“When last have you seen her?”
“Not for awhile.”
“I saw her not two days ago, and she’s changed.  I think that the neutral, if random, factor is going lawful.”
“How do you know she’s not doing it for the greater chaos.”  And with this, all eyes of the group other than Gary turned to Ash, and he saw a flicker in their eyes, and he knew he’d been recognized.  He also finally realized who it was Gary was talking to, and he confirmed with the slightest use of the true sight pendant he always kept over his eye that very few of the waitresses in the building were what they appeared to be, and neither were the people Gary was talking to.  Gary didn’t notice their move towards Ash, and they gave away none of the recognition to Gary that they had to him.  Meanwhile Gary was protesting to the disciples “but she was serving my grandpa, who is the archmage of Kanto and, by that measure, a servant of Him.  She is up to something, I know, and I beg of you to tell me what.”
All rose, and one said, “We shall not give the secrets of chaos to one such as you.  Go, servant of the law, there is no place for you in our ranks.”
    Gary finished his plate and motioned to Ash to follow as he got up, grumbling under his breath about damnfool priestesses.  Before he walked out the door, however, he muttered a phrase under his breath and grinned as he saw each one of the now seated disciples put their hands to their heads as they attempted to fight the sudden overwhelming urge to join the ranks of law.  “I would have told them what was up if one of the predictable neutrals was going chaotic.”
Ash was intrigued “what was that about?”
Gary shrugged “it’s a very quiet, very discreet and honorable war going on between followers of two interdimensional travelers whose names are very unwise to be spoken outside of their domains.  I serve Him, along with most of the magi, and the fringe supports Her.  There are neutrals among both, like Duplica, who is nobody’s servant, and Misty, who doubts their good intentions.  Neither side wants any of the neutrals to move for fear it’s to the other side, so Duplica’s current behavior is as concerning to me as it is to them.”  Ash was confused, he’d always just done what he’d been told during the times he studied magic, and was completely unaware that either of his patrons were being debated by fanatics.  He wondered if they even knew.”
    Neither knew yet what they wanted to do, so they just wandered around getting acquainted, Gary getting close several times to taking it to the next level, and Ash dancing around it and teasing him as much as he dared.  Eventually, their path wandered by the Rocket Arcade/Casino and Gary insisted they go in, amid feigned protestation of boredom from his companion, who was sure that he wasn’t supposed to like this.  All that changed when they got in and Gary playfully challenged him to a game of Marvel V. Capcom 2.  Well, Ash was not going to pass up a challenge, even in another form, and though Pikachu tried everything from nudging to growling warnings to even biting him on the ankle, Ash inserted fifty cents after Gary and chose Dr. Doom, Blackheart and War Machine.  Let the games begin.  He found that since he had to hide his competitiveness under a veil of embarrassed newbieism, his spirit bottled up and came out as cold, hard skill.  Gary at first wanted to take it easy on his date, but after “Jenny” opened up with a proton cannon supermove, following with a shouder cannon barrage mixed with acid demon hindrance, Gary knew he’d better end it quick.  Luckily, he’d managed to bring himself up to maximum power somehow, and he noticed his date had also.  He tapped in the code for a three character supermove attack, not noting that his date was watching and tapping the same code slightly differently just ahead of him.  He was too late to cancel his combined megaman barrage, venom web and royal flush as all three of Jenny’s character’s appeared right before his, armed for a similar blast, totally finishing him off with the proton cannon, floating energy ball and hellopener.  When he tried again, his date crushed him once more in similar fashion, cutting through his defensive measures like they were nothing.  Trying to brush it off causally, Gary asked Jenny if she was up for another game.  Ash giggled as convincingly as he could, brushed his hair back and acted as if the whole thing was just fun to him, as it was becoming when he beat Gary at everything in the room.
    When they finally exited, Gary in an incredibly bad mood, Ash decided perhaps it was time for a hasty retreat, and Gary quickly agreed to join him going back in the magnet train, but insisted on sitting across and saying nothing the whole trip.  When they arrived in Pallette and he walked home with Gary, he knew that he had to do something to cheer his date up, or this would end now.  Much as that would relieve Ash, he knew deep down he had to help Gary and Oak, and besides, he was getting paid to do this by the day.  When they reached the front gate of the lab, Ash steeled himself, stepped up to Gary and pressed him into a long kiss.  At first, even Gary was wide-eyed and reticent, but quickly got into it, and when they parted, he looked almost normal, if a bit surprised.  Ash spoke first, saying “an apology.”
“For what?”
“I didn’t realize you’d be so upset at me beating you.”
“Are you nuts?  This is great, I was just trying to think of the last time I was shamed so hard in one shot.  I always wanted a girl who could take me to the cleaners in an arcade, wow.”
Ash giggled again and said in a mock-whisper “don’t tell anyone I can do that.  They might get jealous.”
Gary laughed and said, “Yeah, ole Ashy-Boy would flip.  That wife of his hasn’t played him in years, not since she defeated him cold in SSB and refused a rematch.”
    Ash finished saying his goodbyes to Gary and hurried to his house.  It was close to dinnertime and he had to change back before Delila got home.  He climbed back up the latticework, preceded by Pikachu, whom he freed immediately from her disguise.  He then first deactivated the costume in the area of his head and pulled the mask down onto his chest, shaking his head to clear the weird emotions in him and feeling much better.  He felt even better when he’d removed all his clothing and gotten the suit off, replaced by his usual dress of jeans and his jacket.
    When he’d finished changing, Pikachu shifted to human form and gave him a look of both amusement and anger.  She stood up and said, “That was hilarious, although I wish you hadn’t stuffed me in that ridiculous outer shell.
“Oh?”  Ash chuckled “I didn’t even need to activate it, although it did automatically.”
“For that, I challenge you to a mage duel.”  Without further preamble, Ash found himself floating above Pallette with Pikachu facing him.  “We are now in a special zone of magic space, which causes all spells to be non-fatal, showing damage as a glow on our bodies.  When either one of us has taken too much or fallen out of the zone, the other is the winner.”  She started moving her hands in a spell, and Ash summoned his protective robes, pinned with the majority of his charms, the amulets and rings in the pockets.  He spoke the command words for several of his protective items, as a lightning bolt erupted from Pikachu’s outstretched finger.  She immediately went into another spell, and Ash also began, launching into as long and complex a spell as he knew as the lightning bolt harmlessly exploded off his shields.  Fireballs rained down on him, but he managed to keep his concentration long enough, and was rewarded by a green beam, his only shot at this, coming out of his finger, completely destroying Pikachu’s shield, and knocking her back several paces.  Pikachu, sporting a yellow patch on her chest, took a deep breath and grew a set of wings out of her shoulders.  Ash, meanwhile, pulled a ring out of his pocket and put it on.  When he spoke the command word, an arrow shot out of it, which Pikachu dodged, but it turned around and began chasing her.  She’d had enough, and opened up with one of her more complex spells, which rolled out like a shockwave, knocking Ash out of the air, and causing both his shields and the arrow to disappear.  He recognized an anti-magic sphere and panicked, realizing he might not be able to stop his descent.  Determined for a draw, or salvation, he spoke the only spell he could think of “Keeashka de Edverdo Numenore!”  He shouted, and then everything went black.