FicWad

Disclaimer: Don't own Pokemon or any intellectual properties tied to its name and franchise, but I own Josie Sheridan and miscellaneous characters I make up for her to battle...except gym leaders :D.

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At breakfast the next morning, Josie felt like she was still in bed dreaming. Bacon and eggs! Wow it was definitely her lucky day!

"Wow Nurse Joy," Josie beamed as the Nurse dished out the breakfast. "I had no idea that Pokemon Centres served bacon and eggs in the morning."

"Oh as a general rule we don't," Nurse Joy replied in a singsong tone. "Seems as there are so few trainers to feed this morning I just thought we'd do so for a change."

"Well thanks Nurse Joy..." Josie started, before adding with an afterthought. "So do you think they may be a chance of getting a gym battle today?"

"Oh most certainly," Joy smiled. "Most of the trainers left are just overnighters as I recall so you should be fine."

"Thanks for that Nurse Joy," Josie smiled, before going to get a table. Todd had said he was just popping to the Daily Kanto news offices and that he wouldn't be long.

As she sat at the table nearest Nurse Joy's hot plate she decided that he might be a little while, certainly longer than her breakfast would keep warm. It wouldn't do any harm to start without him anyway. So she tucked in with relish, thinking about what she had to do today, not that it was a lot. Eat breakfast, get her team together, go to the gym, beat the gym leader...she smirked a little as she thought that, like it was going to be as easy as that! She didn't doubt Misty would be hard, very hard, but still it was what she had to do. Well...that was it really. She didn't need poke balls or potions or anything like that from the Pokemart...although food, for her Pokemon and herself would be a good idea. The food for her Pokemon she could purchase here at the centre but for herself. Oh well she thought adding grocery shopping to the list in her mind...and set off for Vermillion, there done. As an afterthought she thought she might ring her parents, she hadn't checked in since Mount Moon...yep she'd better do that too. Maybe it'd be a busier day than she'd first thought after all.

"What are you thinking so deeply about?" Todd asked, sitting down beside her, surprised that, for once, she didn't choke on her food.

"Hmm," Josie looked up from her food. "Oh hey Todd, just what I have to do today is all...and it's a lot more than I thought too."

He laughed a little. "Yeah I've been sorting a few things out too and I'm afraid that after today you and I will have to part company."

"What?" Josie asked incredulously, more surprised than she really should have been.

"Yeah..." he sighed. "Work and all that. I'll be heading out to Saffron and commuting between there and Celadon for a while on an assignment I've been given."

"Oh the one you talked about the other night," Josie said.

"Still hey, I'll be there to cheer you on today," he beamed. "And get my obligatory battle shots of course."

Josie laughed. "Yeah I guess...too much to hope for that you could be with me the whole time huh?"

"Hey I'll give you my new Pokenav number, we can chat, maybe meet up...you'll have to go to Celadon and Saffron eventually right?"

Josie smiled. "True enough, what are you going to be covering?"

He winced a little, but laughed in the end. "Team Rocket...still if your luck holds out we'll meet up again just because of them."

"Ha-ha..." Josie smirked. "Well I hate to tell you but I'll be having no more dealings with those guys if I have anything to say about it."

"You might not though," Todd said. "No one knows what the future holds...or so they say anyway."

"Ah what does this mysterious 'they' know anyway," Josie laughed. "I'll be happy if I never hear the name Team Rocket ever again."

"Me too really but its my job, at least for now anyway," he shrugged, looking at the clock. "Hey not to rush you or anything but we might want to head for the gym soon or something."

"Na, apparently there won't be much of a queue for gym matches today, Misty and her Pokemon must've been off their feet yesterday," still she glanced at the clock...half nine! "Although on second thoughts..."

She began to wolf down her food at an amazing rate...a little too fast though as she began to choke, before grasping at the pitcher of milk at the table and taking a swig, before thumping her chest and, finally, swallowing.

"I hope you're going to drink all that milk now," Todd laughed as Josie sighed with relief. Some things about her were never going to change.

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"Oh man..." Josie groaned as they approached the gym.

There must have been a queue a mile long! How could there possibly be this many trainers waiting to go to the gym, there was just no way! One of the people at the back of the queue turned round to greet the newcomers to the back of the queue.

"You think you should have got here earlier too huh?" the young lady sighed. "I should have guessed that the show would be this popular, they always are."

"Yeah...wait show?" Josie said, a puzzled look upon her features has Todd snapped his fingers.

"Of course," he laughed. "Misty's sisters must be in town."

"You lost me..." Josie smiled, scratching her head.

"You mean you've never heard of the Waterflower's of Cerulean city!?" Todd asked incredulously.

The blank look on Josie's face gave the answer for him.

He put his head in his hands and shook it lightly. "They put on shows in the gym's main pool with some of the gym's water Pokemon...they've been away a lot recently but they're obviously in town today."

"Uh-huh..." Josie said, digesting that information before shrugging. "Guess I'll have to wait on my gym battle then...how frustrating."

"Char..." her partner voiced his agreement at that...what a pain.

"Oh you're a trainer," the lady in the queue said clasping her hands together. "Well in that case you can go right to the front of the queue, you'll be let in to battle."

"Oh really," Josie said brightening up. "Well thanks for that ma'am."

"Oh no problem at all," the lady smiled. "Good luck."

Both Josie and Charmeleon voiced their thanks at that statement as they all headed towards the gym entrance and the start of the process that would, hopefully, earn Josie her second gym badge.

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Wow this gym was big. It had very much an aquarium feel to it as Josie walked past a glass panel in the wall, a placing glace in which saw an ample amount of Goldeen and Seaking swimming around within the somewhat murky depths on the other side. She scratched her head, well of course it felt like an aquarium, it was a water type gym after all. Speaking of which, she was sure the ticket attendant had told her Misty was down this way somewhere.

"She said this way right...?" she began turning towards Todd who was taking pictures of the Goldeen and Seaking she'd just walked past...eh-heh nothing new.

"Oh sorry what?" Todd grinned turning away from his task as Charmeleon poked him gently with a claw to gain his attention. "Oh yeah, this way...sorry." He grinned sheepishly.

"Old habits and all that," Josie laughed. "Come on we have to find her sooner or later." She rounded the nearby corner to the panelled fish tank ahead of the others. "Wo-oh!" she could hear herself saying even as she tripped over a soft, feathery thing.

Todd and Charmeleon rounded the corner as she lay on her back, rubbing her head wondering what had hit her.

"Oh hey," Todd found himself saying. "You found Misty's Psyduck Josie, she can't be far away."

"Great," she grumbled as Charmeleon helped her up. "Remind me I need to watch where I'm going. I obviously keep forgetting."

Todd laughed a little as he bent down to the Psyduck. "Heya Psyduck, is Misty around?"

"Psy?" the Pokemon replied in a questioning tone, Charmeleon sweat dropped at its reply.

Todd sighed, getting up. "I guess you can't remember huh??"

Josie bent down and observed the rather...well she couldn't really think of a word to describe the look on the Psyduck's face. "Want to come with us Psyduck and find Misty?"

The Pokemon seemed to understand this, or at least some of it as he smiled. "Psyduck!"

"Cool, let's get going again then," she smiled warmly getting up just as an overpowering shout thundered from down the corridor.

"Psyduck," the female voice rang out, a slight hint of annoyance in it. "Where are you?"

Josie, Todd and Charmeleon stood frozen, looks of shocked bemusement on their faces at the shout...and at Psyduck seemingly remembering why he was there in the first place starting to run around in circles, apparently panicking.

"I hear him over here Misty," a male voice called out, bringing Josie back to an attentive state....Tracey?

Sure enough, running along the corridor, complete in light green swimming trunks and his usual red headband came Tracey, who smiled as he saw Josie and her Charmeleon. Josie smiled too, although it was actually more of a stifled laugh at his attire than anything at first.

"Heya Tracey, how's it going?" Josie smirked, still trying to suppress a laugh.

"Oh great Josie," he smiled, oblivious to the fact she was trying not to laugh. "Thanks for erm finding Psyduck here." He picked him up, still panicking away.

"Well we bumped into each other kind of," Josie blushed as Charmeleon laughed.

"I'll take it I missed something," Tracey continued regarding Todd for the first time. "I know you...Snap right?"

"Absolutely," Todd smiled. "And you're Tracey, Professor Oak's assistant."

Tracey smiled...no introduction needed then. "So here for your second badge I take it Josie?"

"You know it," Josie smiled giving him the thumbs up.

"Well I'd be happy to oblige you," a female voice said from behind them.

They all turned round to face the slim read-headed gym leader. "That is, if you can beat me," she continued smiling. "Heya Todd, long time no see, how've you been?" She seemed happy to see an old friend.

"Absolutely fine Misty," Todd said, smiling back. "Especially after getting that pic of Articuno a while back, my career has really taken off since then."

"So I've noticed," she smiled before regarding Josie with a smile. "So are you going to beat me?"

"Well that's the plan I guess," Josie laughed, scratching her head. "I'm Josie..."

"Of the Pallet Town grocery store, I remember," Misty smiled. "You were playing with your parent's Vulpix as I recall..." Misty observed Charmeleon. "And it seems you've kept up your obvious like of fire types too...hi there."

"Char-me-leon," Charmeleon beamed.

"So, will it be ok if we have a two-on-two?" Misty asked ahead of time. "We'll use the smaller pool seems as my sister's are putting on a show in the big one today."

Less water to deal with was cool, and the battle arrangements were what she'd hoped for too. "That's fine by me."

"Well just expect to earn that second badge of yours, because I'm no push over." Misty laughed.

"Neither are we," Josie said, pumping the air a little, as did Charmeleon.

Misty then turned her attention to Psyduck, still panicking in Tracey's arms. "Ok you win, no swimming lesson today!" she said kind of exasperated.

Psyduck immediately calmed down and smiled, much to...well almost everyone's amusement.

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As they walked out into the pool area, Josie regarded it with a little trepidation. It was small enough, but with only five fairly lightweight floats on its surface. Good thing she was using light weight Pokemon. She went and stood on the challenger's side of the pool ready for battle. Charmeleon stood a little way behind her, whilst Todd, Tracey and Psyduck stood on the sidelines as Misty got into position also.

Tracey coughed. "This will be a two on two Pokemon battle, no time limit. The challenger, Josie Sheridan from Pallet Town versus the Cerulean city gym leader, Misty. Choose your first Pokemon."

"Come on out Staryu!" Misty was quick off the mark in choosing her first Pokemon, the star shaped Pokemon appearing on one of the many floats in the pool.

A Staryu huh? She could work with that. "Ok I choose Spearow." Josie's Pokemon appeared to a flying start, choosing to hover above one of the floats rather than perch on it.

"The first match is Spearow versus Staryu," Tracey declared as Todd got his camera ready. "Begin!"

"Staryu, tackle attack!" Misty said straight away, she was obviously very quick with commands.

"Spearow fly out of the way!" Josie countered and her Pokemon flew out of the reach of the Staryu, tackle, causing the Pokemon to have to land on the float Spearow had previously been hovering above. Spearow kind of looped in the air, turning to reface its opponent.

"Staryu tackle again," Misty commanded, smiling.

Josie blinked. What, surely it couldn't! "Spearow move now!"

Spearow moved just in time as the Pokemon briefly brushed past each other. Wow that Staryu could jump high...this she had not expected.

"We've got them on the run Staryu, keep it up!" Misty commanded.

"Hya!" it shouted, bouncing back up into the air.

"Spearow, use pursuit, try and knock it in the water and give us some time!" Josie ordered.

The Pokemon flew at each other, almost head on, but in the air it was always Spearow's advantage ultimately, being able to change direction with his wings he easily came off better when the Pokemon finally collided, knocking Staryu off course and into the water whilst only being knocked back a little by Staryu's tackle. As the star Pokemon hit the water though the drawback of the delaying tactic hit her.

"Spearow keep on the move!" Josie commanded even as Misty smirked a little.

"Staryu water gun!"

Oh man, she should have thought of that! Spearow did an admirable job as spurt after spurt of water flew in his direction, dodging left and right, he couldn't do it forever though. She had to think fast!

"Spearow we need to knock that Staryu out of there now, fly down low as you can!"

It was a desperate move, she knew it but Spearow was a brave Pokemon, she'd known since the day she caught him and as he looped around in the air towards the water, Staryu still shooting water at him, she really thought he was going to dive right in! He pulled up however, the gust of his brave and slightly foolhardy move knocking the Staryu out of the water, at the expense of getting more than a little wet. She had to strike now, while the going was still good!

"Now Spearow, leer and straight into fury attack!"

The Spearow was already turning around as the Staryu was beginning to fall, it might not work but fortune favoured the brave, and Spearow was that and more!

"Spearow!" the Pokemon growled as his eyes glowed, the leer seeming to connect as he picked up speed for his fury attack. However Josie wasn't the only one with a plan.

"Staryu use rapid spin!"

Josie clenched her teeth a little as Spearow pecked furiously and Staryu began to spin with equal ferocity this was bad! Both Pokemon reeled from the respective attacks, flying backwards towards their own trainers...this was going to be a close one!

As the Pokemon landed on the floats they'd originally started out on they both struggled to get up...Spearow seemed to wince as he tried making Josie sad...she can't believe she'd made it so hard for her own Pokemon. She clenched her fist...damn it she really did have a lot to learn. Staryu was struggling too, a faint glow coming from its gem. Then they both collapsed, both unable to battle. Josie was shocked, and saddened in equal measure at that. Misty too looked kind of surprised.

"Both Pokemon are unable to battle, this match ends in a draw," Tracey declared.

Josie recalled Spearow to its ball, looking at it sorrowfully. "Sorry I made that so hard for you Spearow," she sighed. "But you did great despite me I'm proud of you."

"Hey," Misty called over, smiling. "You did well there, sure you need to learn, but don't be so down on yourself, your Pokemon wouldn't want that. Chalk it down to experience and get better. Now show me what else you can do!"

Josie nodded, brightening up, but still looking at the ball. "Yeah, I'll get better, and my Pokemon will help me." She turned to Charmeleon, who smiled and nodded, she might not be a Pokemon master yet, but no one could ever really, truly be one either.

Josie turned back to Misty, putting away Spearow's ball and getting out her next one just as quickly. "You're on!"

Misty smiled. "That's the spirit!"

"Alright then!" Tracey called. "Choose your next Pokemon!"

"Come on out Starmie!" Misty commanded.

Even has the evolved form of Staryu landed on the float, ready for battle Josie winced inwardly. Man Staryu was bad enough...still this time. "Alright come on out Pikachu!"

Pikachu was certainly ready for battle as it landed on the float from the ball's ever-present white light. Josie could have sworn she saw Misty smile faintly, but she shrugged it off.

"Alright, the final battle is Pikachu versus Starmie. Begin!"

Josie was going to get off the first attack this time! "Pikachu, let's go use thunder wave!"

"Pika!" the Pokemon shouted even as the electric attack left her body, seeming to bounce across the water towards her opponent.

"Starmie get into the air!" Misty ordered.

Starmie immediately jumped, barely dodging the paralysing attack as it hit the float.

"Thunder shock Pikachu," Josie ordered...this one wasn't going to get away so easily.

Even as the attack headed its way, Misty used her next command.

"Use recover as it hits you Starmie, then use water gun."

The attack undoubtedly hurt, not that you'd know it as the Pokemon immediately glowed, recovering instantly before spurting water straight at Pikachu. But Josie had already ordered a move.

"Double team Pikachu, lets do it!"

Suddenly there were five Pikachu, one on each float and the water gun harmlessly blew through the illusionary copy by Josie...getting her a little wet.

Starmie went in for a landing on the now empty float, now was her chance.

"Use thunder wave now Pikachu!" Josie order, spitting out a little water as she did so. The attack would show which Pikachu was real, but Starmie being paralysed would make it a little easier.

Sure enough the attack connected this time as Starmie landed on the float, sending a paralysing jolt through the unfortunate Pokemon.

"Starmie use swift on the Pikachu to your left," Misty ordered having seen the origin of the attack.

White stars shot out of the Pokemon at an amazing speed, Pikachu stood no chance as she was knocked clean into the water. The paralysis was having an effect though as the star Pokemon's movements got more stiff by the second. Misty had to be quick.

There was not much she could do though with her Pokemon's rapidly waning mobility, certainly she couldn't command it under water. Josie had the advantage and she knew it.

"Pikachu...thunderbolt!" Josie ordered. An underwater thunderbolt should have a good effect.

Good wasn't the word though as the attack electrified the entire pool, floats, Starmie and all...including Josie herself thanks to Starmie's earlier water gun.

As Pikachu surfaced onto the float afterwards to see itself rewarded with Starmie's collapse, Josie was still shuddering from the effects of the electric attack upon herself.

"Starmie is unable to battle," Tracy announced. "Victory goes to Josie Sheridan and Pikachu."

"...absolutely shocking," was all Josie could manage before she fell over.

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"Are you sure you're ok now?" Misty asked as Josie sat on the bleachers next to the pool a few minutes later. "That was quite a shock."

"You're telling me!" Josie grinned sheepishly, rubbing her Pikachu's head. "I should probably start getting immune to errant Pokemon attacks in battle soon enough." She finished laughing.

"Pikachu..." the Pokemon half-smiled, her left ear twitching.

"Charmeleon," her partner seemed to laugh at a little Pokemon in-joke so it seemed.

"Oh don't you start blasting me now Charmeleon," Josie laughed.

The Pokemon gave a 'who me look' but smiled all the same.

"Well you won," Misty smiled as a Dewgong cam waddling over before sticking out its tongue. Misty seemed to take something before giving it to Josie. "Here, you earned this."

Josie took the blue teardrop...the Cascadebadge, her second. "Thanks," Josie smiled. "Though it wasn't just me."

"True," Misty smiled. "Remember that and you'll always come through in the end...oh I should give you this too." She handed over $2100. "Don't go spending it all at once." She laughed.

"No ma'am," Josie laughed, standing up. She was a little woozy but she'd get over it.

"Well I'll give it to you two, that was a heck of a battle," Todd said. "Got some good shots too."

"Well we try, right Josie?" Misty laughed, as did Josie.

"So its off to Vermillion for you right now Josie?" Tracey asked.

"Yep just a few things to get them I'm all set," she smiled, turning to Pikachu. "Come on back now Pikachu and have a good rest."

"Pika," she called just before she returned.

"Well we won't keep you any longer," Misty smiled. "Good luck on the rest of your journey." She handed Josie a piece of paper. "Take this, it'll come in handy for when you get yourself a water Pokemon."

Josie looked at it...instructions for a move...water pulse? Cool! "Thanks."

"See you again soon, Misty, Tracey," Todd called as they began walking out.

"You too Todd," they both called back, waving as they again set off on their way.

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A/N: Remind me never to give myself another deadline ever again XD. Anyways next chapter, shopping, parents, farewells and hellos.