Second of Four, Mistress of Waters, Consort to the First Master, Fourth of the Sensationals.  So many titles, but I have but one name.  As you can imagine, this is a damn nuisance at parties where they insist on a formal introduction when I walk in.  If I’m with Ash, it’s even worse.  And if we’re with our friends . . .  well, it doesn’t bear thinking about.  Oh, I’d best introduce myself in my own way, in case the titles aren’t enough of a clue.  I am Misty Waterflower, now Misty Ketchum.  Don’t tell Ash, but I mostly still use my own last name.  That sort of thing upsets him, you see.  Why did I marry such a confounded moron with no common sense, and an ego to match the Third of Four?  I guess I’d have to say that it was his lack of what might be called sense.  He did understand the evils of the world, but there is something in him that makes him refuse to believe that anyone would actually do such things.  Except one group of people he has met, in the presence of which he protects his innocence with a sort of holy righteousness.  The crime teams, now dissolved, were those people.  Even in the presence of some of the most primal evils on the planet, he didn’t lose hope, and he was rewarded.  Mewtwo the Symbol of Man’s Neglect, The Revenants, even the Evil Seed, who once claimed to be the source of all evils on the planet.  We know better, now although I must say that Marlene still has a pretty bad mean streak in her, no matter how much she cozies up to Saliaven.  Between you, me and this page, I’d say she’s making Duplica jealous, and the other way also.  That seems like a very dangerous thing to be doing for either of them.  Duplica has had a lifetime’s experience at subterfugic combat, and Marlene has had several perfecting multidimensional combat.  I’d bet on Marlene, but Saliaven might step in.  Both are serious random factors.  Roll a die, flip a coin, you can’t be sure which side they’ll be on, or what they’ll do next.
     Now that I’ve waxed on, built up a head of steam, I guess I should start where Ash did.  It makes sense from a narrative standpoint, and besides, it’s our job to shed some light on what’s going on.  OK, let’s take a good look at what Ash said about how our wild ride began in the Town.  That is what I call it, since it doesn’t appear often, and I have a suspicion it only does when someone needs it.  If Saliaven is right about our destinies, we needed it incredibly badly, and what we needed was delivered.  What happened was that we weren’t allowed to go into a pokemon-infested area and Ash was, of course, angry.  When this sort of thing happens, his lack of common sense, total detachment from reality, “chosen one” prophesy, and peculiar talent for pokemon related things come into conjunction.  In other words, he got a really dangerous, unwise, arrogant and generally stupid idea that was bound to work because he thought of it.  Ash may be the idea man, but I’m the one who has to bail him out when those ideas backfire.  Ash can be very persuasive at times, and I found myself actually dressing up like a pokemon because he had said that if a human can’t get in, then we’d have to be disguised as pokemon.  I at least had gotten myself out of being in a two-person with either him or Brock. .  That kind of close quarters was not my idea of a good time then.  OK, I’ll admit here and now so that things don’t seem mysterious, by that time I was very much in love with him, and him with me, although we were too proud to admit it.  Which is why, when I asked him to help me with my costume, my excuse was lame, and his attempt at nonchalance was awful.  The first was a Jynx, it hurt and was the wrong environment anyway, the next was a Golduck, which Ash later bought a better version of me later, but at the time it felt good, but my human proportions stuck out a little too much.  The last also felt good, and it worked out, a pidgeot, with the capacity even to fly.  The rest of the story was told well enough, although I am deeply annoyed that Saliaven was working the strings for so much of this, even if it worked for good all around, he didn’t have the right to rush us through our romantic ideas of how we would first kiss.  It was nice, I’ll admit, and I’m sure it was more than Ash was expecting, but it was still a despicable thing to go around doing.  I’m not even sure I believe him, since the closeness of that costume was pretty arousing, anyway.  What Ash forgot to mention was that I ended up with Suicune.  Typical.
     Brock was being a really big jerk the next day, and I think my judgement was clouded by my natural urge towards revenge.  Going along with Ash again so quickly after just goes to prove that very well.   The fact that we pulled it off is also indicative of the incredible luck that goes into everything Ash does.  I really don’t want to talk about it.  Well, he’s done a reasonable job of telling the story from then until now, but I would like to add that our time in the gym was the happiest time of my life.  Just me and Ash in one place, no adventures to go on, no lives being risked.  The thing is, Ash could never sit still for very long, and I’m sure he was chafing at the bit even with the numerous vacations we took on the weekends.  On the other hand, I’m sure he appreciated not having to capture new pokemon, so that the ones he already had could be trained better.  I am loath to admit it, but I have to say that I’m beginning to realize why Ash likes to travel so much, though.  On the good days, there can be such wondrous things, and such incredible people.
     And also a note about Saliaven, the all powerful accidental leader.  I’m not even sure if he notices that he’s doing half the things he does.  He’s so distracted, and most of the things he does, although automatic and routine to him, are marvels of magic and science to us.  I always wondered where he came from.  I can tell he isn’t all he says he is, since if he were the author of all this, how can this keep going if he’s not writing?  Besides, I know I heard the word ‘avatar’ and ‘guardian’ used.  That makes a little more sense, but I know he has a homeworld other than our own.  Where has he been the last forty thousand years, anyway?  Does time move differently where he went?  Then there’s Marlene.  There’s something about her I really know I’ve missed.  Not that Saliaven likes to explain things overmuch.  I think he thinks that what he’s doing is disaster relief, and we need to learn the stuff he’s doing in our own time.  Typical prime directive.
     So now the whole crew are magi, and our ancestors from time immemorial have come back to teach us.  We’re all pokemorphs, and Pikachu is having a hard time not putting the moves on my husband, not that I make it any easier for him to resist her.  Humans have trouble aging, and a civilization more advanced than ours has just been discovered and released from their accidental prison.  Great, now we’re going to hear lectures from our ancestors and our ancestors’ ancestors.  All this seems to be a very confused situation, and Saliaven isn’t helping by bringing his high and mightiness to this.  What’s a girl to do?  Learn flame magic and give Saliaven a hot foot until he tells us what’s really going on.  I don’t think he’s allowed to kill any of us.  It’s not in his prime directive.  He can help, but he’s too guilty about the harm he’s done already to do any more.  I hope.  Well, now that I’ve wasted some time, let off some steam, I might as well hand it over to the next person, and maybe they can fill in my blanks.
Author’s note: Misty writes so much better, because she’s sharp, angry and notices things