Dusk 'Til Dawn Action
"Hello." Humans
"Pika-chu." Pokémon addressing Human
"Hello." Pokémon addressing Pokémon
The sun shined high over Professor Oak's laboratory as Ash and his friends brought Dusk in to show him around. The normally easily distracted boy was more focused than any of them had ever seen as he quickly looked around his surroundings.
"Right, what do we start with first?" Dusk asked, cracking his knuckles before jumping up and down.
"Easy there, Dusky-Boy. It's your first day," Gary told him, trying to get him to relax.
Dusk slowly turned his head to look at Gary, before cocking it to the side in confusion. "Did you think I was a girl or something?" He asked, confusedly.
Gary then looked at Isaac. "Is being weird just a Sinnohian thing?" The young Oak asked the samurai.
Isaac glared at Gary. "How dare you lump me in with him, good sir! That mess is from Southwestern Sinnoh! I am a proud, honorable Eastern Sinnohian!" He snapped out.
"What's your problem with the kid? He's not that much weirder than Ash and I get along fine with him," Gary retorted, nudging Ash in the arm.
"Yeah!" Ash replied before what Gary said caught up with him. "... Hey!"
"So, this is what it's like to have friends," Dusk said as though it was a normal comment to make
Lillie, hearing that, instantly ran over and hugged him. "Oh, you poor thing!" She wailed as she pulled Dusk close.
"... Hugs are nice too," Dusk said with a small sigh, as he saw Gary and Isaac glaring daggers at him.
"Pika-chu…" The rotund rodent said, giving him the hand signal to cut it out.
"Is everything all right in there?" called out the voice of Professor Oak from a nearby room.
"We're fine, Professor. Just… a bit of an awkward moment…" Isaac replied, taking a deep, calming breath.
"I hear a new voice in there? Did you four bring over a guest?" Professor Oak's voice asked inquisitively.
"It's Dusk, Gramps," Gary told his grandfather.
Soon a nearby door opened, and Professor Oak walked out, wiping his hands off with a rag. "Oh right! He's the young new prospect you told me about earlier this week," he said with a smile before rubbing the back of his head. "I swear, my age might be starting to get to me,"
"Come on, Professor. You're still as strong as a Tauros," Ash told him reassuringly.
Dusk's eyes widened in shock at seeing the Professor. "Wow. You're taller than I expected." He spoke.
Isaac immediately elbowed him in the ribs. "Show some respect! Do they not have that in that hick town of yours?!" He whispered harshly.
"What? I didn't mention the grey hair or anything. Besides, old people are usually short," Dusk replied sharply, earning him a slap upside the back of his head from Isaac. "Ow!"
"Isaac, cut it out. I'm not offended," Professor Oak told him, putting a hand on his hip in annoyance.
"My apologies, Professor…" Isaac replied, bowing his head respectfully.
"Well, I'll be out of town again. Damnable conferences. But I will at least give you all a bit of good news for the weekend," The professor said, biting back annoyance at his predicament for the kids' sakes.
"Are we getting new Pokémon?!" Ash chipperly asked.
"No, Ash,"
"Are we going to Cerulean City to challenge that Gym?" Dusk asks.
"You haven't even beaten Brock!" Isaac reminded him in disbelief.
"Oh yeah," Dusk muttered.
"Don't worry, Gramps, I don't have a stupid question," Gary said with a smile.
"Because Ash already asked it?" Dusk asked with a smirk.
"Listen here, you…" Gary growled, pointing at the kid, only to get cut off by Professor Oak.
"That's enough. What I was going to say is due to your diligence in prepping for winter, you all can have the afternoon off. At the rate all of this is going, a team building exercise might prove pertinent," Professor Oak explained, causing Isaac to immediately chip in.
"BASEBALL!!!" Isaac roared out; he and his Pokémon decked in baseball gear.
"Splendid idea! I'm pretty sure I have some old baseball gear in the attic. After lunch, you all can play a game of Baseball," Professor Oak explained. "Lillie, you're the Umpire."
"Why me?" Lillie asked, surprised.
"Because I don't know the new guy and do you trust the other three?" Professor Oak asked, raising a skeptical eyebrow.
"... Fair enough…" Lillie replied, looking at the boys who were glaring competitively.
"Hey! I can be very impartial when I want to be!" Ash cried out indignantly.
"Not with that fat electric rat, you're not," Gary chirped back.
"Pikachu's not that fat! He's lost a whole pound!" Ash fired back defensively as Pikachu looked on proudly.
"That's wonderful to hear! That means he only needs to lose 24 pounds to be in healthy Pikachu range!" Lillie yelled excitedly, only for Pikachu to pout dejectedly.
"That's a Pikachu? I thought your Morpeko got into some yellow paint…" Dusk replied.
"You should see him before he lost weight. He looked more like a painted Togedimaru," Isaac chuckled out.
Hearing that, Pikachu turned to look at Dusk and Isaac with sparking cheeks. "CCCCHHHHUUUU!!!" He cried, shocking Dusk and Isaac with a powerful bolt of electricity.
"Gary. Go get the destatic kit," Professor Oak said plainly.
"On it, Gramps…" Gary sighed as he went to go get it.
Later: After Lunch
After cleaning up their lunch, which was whipped up for them by Mrs. Ketchum, Lillie assembled the four boys. Each one of them had all their Pokémon, except for Gary. He pulled a third and fourth Pokéball off his belt and threw them. When the light calmed down, they saw an imposing Pinsir standing before them, and a small two headed bird with two long beaked heads and spindly necks and legs. From their classes, everyone instantly realized it was a Doduo.
"When did you catch a Pinsir and a Doduo?" Ash asked.
"Unlike you lot, I'm not always walking around like a group of Latter-Day Trainers," Gary replied in a snarky tone.
"Pin-sir," The Bug type said.
"Alright. So, to make a full baseball team of 9, we will have two of you and your teams pair up," Lillie explained.
"I'll be with Ash," Gary immediately said, pointing to the red capped boy next to him.
"I was going to take Ash!" Isaac yelled out.
"Snooze, ya' lose. Like how you're gonna lose this game, bushido-boy," Gary said with a smile, before patting Ash on the shoulder.
"You can't expect me to partner up with that!" Isaac snapped, motioning to Dusk.
Dusk was not at all paying attention to the conversation. Instead, he and his team were sort of doing their own things. Mystery happily sat there with a bat in her mouth, wagging her tail. Shadow the Rattata sat there, munching his wooden bat in an equivalent manner to one would a corn on the cob. And Dusk himself was attempting, keyword being attempting, to get Honey the Beedrill to hold a bat.
"Alright, Honey. Now firmly grasp it in your hands." Dusk told his Beedrill, trying to hand it to her.
Honey put her stingers together, almost like chopsticks with a piece of food, and attempted to hold the bat. However, all that happened was that the bat slid down through the hole made by her stingers. Picking the bat back up, Dusk tried again.
"Firmly grasp it." He told her a bit more firmly, trying again.
Attempting it again, Honey tried her best to grasp it. But the end result was the same, as the bat slid down between her stingers. Picking the bat back up, Dusk gave an annoyed look.
"Firmly grasp it!!!" Dusk snapped out, grabbing her stinger and stabbing it through the base of the bat.
Everyone stared in shock as the stinger tore through the bat, causing a crack to grow through it, and splitting the bat into two. Both Dusk and Honey stood there in shock, before Dusk turned to look at the rest of the group.
"... Can you give us a minute? We gotta figure this out…" Dusk requested sheepishly.
10 Minutes Later
The two teams stood before Lillie again, after they had all worked to set up a makeshift baseball field. Complete with bases, pitching mound, and makeshift dugouts. Lillie stood before them now in a proper umpire attire. Complete with a whistle that she blew loudly while Snowy wore sunglasses and an adorable little baseball hat.
"All right! Today is the first ever match between the Away Sinnohian Sluggers, versus the Home Kantoian Kinglers!" She proclaimed proudly.
"I wanted it to be called, 'Dusk till Dawn'..." Dusk grumbled, his arms crossed.
"We were never going to be calling our team that," Isaac told him firmly.
"The away team! You're up first! Home team, to the outfield!" Lillie ordered.
Soon the teams began to take their places as Ash soon set up as the pitcher. Isaac growled as he looked at the immediate threats. Pikachu was first base, Squirtle was on second, Butterfree was shortstop, and Pinsir on third. Further back was a truly dangerous sight. Growlithe as the left fielder, Pidgeotto in the center, and Doduo in the right. Three fast and agile Pokémon in the outfield, and four solid ones in the front. The samurai's mood only got worse as he saw Mystery take the batter plate, with Gary behind him as the catcher. Mystery wagged the bat, that looked comically large in its mouth, got ready.
"This should be a walk of cake," Dusk said confidently from their makeshift dugout.
"That's 'piece of cake' you idiot…" Isaac sighed.
"Ah, tomato, tomato. There's no way Ash can throw that low!" Dusk replied confidently.
"I hope you're right…" Isaac muttered, watching the game.
Ash squinted his eyes as he threw one ball, two balls, three balls, and a fourth. Yet each of them went over Mystery's head. Mystery, for her part, sat there like nothing happened the whole time.
"Ball four! She walks!" Lillie called out.
"Oh, come on! That's cheating!!" Ash snapped as Mystery walked up to the first base with a sassy prance.
Soon, the next to the base was Honey, who now had her left stinger fitted with a red boxing glove. This, however, got an unexpected reaction from Isaac.
"That is an illegal piece of equipment!" Isaac yelled, pointing to the boxing glove.
"We're on the same team!!" Dusk snapped.
"I want it to be fair and square, dammit!!" Isaac snapped.
"Personal foul for bad language!! And on account of grasping limitations, it is ruled as okay!" Lillie yelled from behind Gary, blowing her whistle.
"Temper, temper," Gary said with a smile.
"Lose his head if it wasn't screwed on!!" Ash chipped in, with his own grin.
Isaac fumed as Ash wound up his first pitch. Letting loose a fast ball, Honey caught everyone off guard by punching the ball square on. With great force, the ball went flying into the outfield, causing the rest of the opposing team to scramble. Growlithe was able to rush over and grab the ball, before throwing it. However, Honey was faster, blazing through the bases. Eventually, she made it all around the bases and was touched by Gary with the ball.
"Out!" Lillie declared loudly.
"The Feraligatr you mean out?! She made it all the way around! Someone's bribing the baseball ref!?!" Dusk cried out.
"Umpire," Isaac corrected him.
"Gesundheit. But she got around the bases!!" Dusk yelled indignantly.
"She didn't touch the bases, so it doesn't count," Isaac sighed in frustration.
"Discrimination against flying Pokémon, I tell you," Dusk mutters
Lillie rolled her eyes at the assertion, before looking down at her clipboard. "Shadow is up next. Shadow, sweetie, please step up to the plate." She said.
Waddling dreadfully to the plate, Shadow held his bat in his mouth. Which for a Rattata was quite an awkward affair, and he could barely hold it up. Ash raised a skeptical eyebrow at this as he tried to figure out how to throw the pitch.
"Do we have any smaller bats? Shadow's having a hard time with this," Dusk asked Lillie curiously.
"Those are the smallest ones we could find," She replied.
"This game discriminates against flying and small Pokémon!" Dusk yelled.
Soon Ash rolled his eyes and threw the first pitch. Shadow swung forward his bat, despite it being a high ball, and spinning around on the plate like a top. Those in the infield began to chuckle at seeing it and started to chuckle at that. Growling, the rat Pokémon dug in his heels and bit down harder onto his bat. Ash threw again, still too high, but Shadow swung anyway. This got laughter from the rest of the Pokémon on the other team.
"Hey, little guy! Swing harder! It's really gonna work out for ya!!" Gary's Squirtle called out mockingly to Shadow.
"Hey, batter, batter! Hey, batter, batter!" Pikachu chipped in from first base.
Biting down even harder, Shadow stared at Ash with a fire in his eyes. Ash threw one more time, this time almost low enough to be a good throw, but Shadow swung still. However, as Shadow swung, he again missed. But this time, his powerful jaws and strong teeth broke and splintered the bat. As soon as he swung, large shards of wood went screaming towards the pitcher's mound, forcing Ash to jump out of the way.
"Aaaaaahhhh!!" Ash cried as he leapt for safety as the shards went harmlessly into the outfield.
"Out! And a warning for improper equipment handling!" Lillie declared as Shadow slunk off to the bullpen.
"Damn… it…" Isaac growled out quietly.
"Don't worry, buddy. Mystery will get us on the board!" Dusk said reassuringly as he pat Isaac on his shoulder.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Isaac picked up a clipboard and watched with Dusk as Mystery strutted up to the base. As she held her bat in her mouth, she stood there far calmer than the other batters. Ash readied a low pitch and threw. Unlike Honey or Shadow, however, Mystery put the bat up. This caused the baseball to hit the bat and drop to the ground. Shocked, Gary leapt forward to grab it while Mystery ran like a Tauros from the reverse world to First Base. By the time Gary could get up to throw the ball to Pikachu, Mystery was already sitting on First Base.
"Safe!" Lillie declared, throwing her arms out to the sides to help declare it.
"YES!" Isaac cheered in joy.
"Clever girl…" Gary grumbled as he dusted himself off.
"So, who's up next?" Dusk asked.
"Not one of yours for once," Isaac grumbled. "Zaraki! Get us back on track!"
With a snort, the Pig Monkey Pokémon grabbed a bat and marched up to the plate. Mystery watched from First Base, quite pleased with herself. That was until Pikachu opened his fat mouth.
"Lucky shot," Pikachu said backhandedly, looking at the back of his knuckles as he said it.
Mystery bristled at that and turned sharply to look at the electric rat. "That wasn't luck! That was your stupid trainer giving me an opening!" She replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
"Sure, it was." He answered dismissively.
With steam blowing out of her nose and ears in anger at that, Mystery then lurched forward, biting Pikachu's cheek. This caught both him and everyone else off guard as Mystery bit down as hard as she could and even shook her head to cause further pain. Pikachu cried out in pain and tried to get himself out of her grip. Lillie rushed over frantically and was just barely able to separate them.
"That is an out for the Sinnohian Sluggers, on one count of unnecessary roughness! Teams switch!!" Lillie called out, causing Ash and Gary's team to begin to move from the outfield to their own bullpen.
"RRRRRAAAAAAAARGH!!!!" Isaac roared in fury as he accidentally snapped the clipboard between his hands.
Later: Bottom of the 4th inning
"AAAAGH! Dgh, dhg, DGH!!!" Isaac howled in fury before kicking the dirt-covered ground in frustration as he walked onto the Pitcher's Mound.
"Well, this has been fun," Dusk said nonchalantly, looking at a flock of Butterfree flying in the sky.
"Fun?! FUN?! We! Are! LOSING! We haven't gotten a single run yet!" Isaac roared in frustration.
"Are we really losing if we are having fun?" Dusk asked
Closing his eyes, Isaac took a deep breath and walked up to the nearby tree. He then began hitting his own forehead repeatedly on the trunk of the tree.
"Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow," Isaac said as he kept bonking his head on the trunk of the tree.
"Is everything alright out there!?" Lillie called out from behind home plate concernedly.
"Yeah, Isaac is just getting in the zone," Dusk called back.
Isaac then began smashing his forehead harder on the trunk of the tree at that. "Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow!" He growled out in pain and anger.
"Hey Isaac! With teammates like that, who needs an opposing team!?" Gary called out from his team's bullpen.
Isaac growled as he glared at Gary and Ash, a bit of blood dripping down from his forehead.
"Do you require medical attention!?" Lillie called out in concern.
"NO…!" Isaac loudly growled in frustration.
"Alright! Pinsir, you're up!" Lillie called out, as Gary's Pinsir marched up to the plate.
Isaac groaned and dejectedly walked back to the Pitcher's Mound. Part of him was ready to give up, even with his Bushidō-loving pride yelling at him for even considering such an option. But with Dusk and his ragtag team of misfits, he simply did not know what to do. Ash and Gary's team, aside from Pikachu, were doing considerable damage. That Pinsir most of all, able to hit harder than even Yokozuna and Zaraki. Every time it went up to the plate, it was a score. And they were already up 7 runs. There was nothing, absolutely nothing… unless…
'That may work.' Isaac thought to himself, before turning around to look at Dusk. "Dusk… you love Pokémon battling, right?"
"Wuzzat?" Dusk asked.
"You love battling, don't you?" Isaac asked again.
Dusk blinked once, then twice at what he had just heard. "Yeah. Why?" He asked curiously.
"Think of baseball like a moveless Pokémon battle. You need strategy, tactics, and teamwork to win," Isaac explained.
"So, showcases but for all genders?" Dusk asked "Discount Kalos Tauros manure, I tell you."
"… Kind of. But actually fun," Isaac explained.
"So, contests? The thing showcases ripped off?" Dusk stated.
"Exactly!" Isaac replied excitedly.
"So, we can use moves to hit the ball to be more entertaining like my aunt would back in the day?" Dusk asked, eyes lighting up at the notion of contests.
"I mean… it's not traditional, but I don't see why not…" Isaac replied, a bit caught off guard.
To Isaac's surprise, Dusk's expression turned far more serious. "Steady up, people! Let's do this!!" He called out.
Soon, the rest of Dusk's Pokémon soon got more serious in the outfield. Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Isaac turned to pitch. Throwing a sidewinder, he had hoped to fake Pinsir out. The Stag Beetle Pokémon, however, was not so easily tricked. With a thunderous crack, he swung the bat and sent the ball flying. Unlike the other innings, however, Dusk saw it and ran after it. With surprising speed, the boy chased it down into the backfield and soon threw it to the nearest outfielder Zaraki. The Fighting-Type caught it and then threw it hard to Shadow at First Base. Pinsir soon dove to the base, and Shadow stood next to him with the ball in hand.
"Safe!" Lillie declared. But to everyone's shock, Isaac wasn't mad.
"We might actually turn this around…" He muttered with a smile.
Even Later: Top of the 9th Inning
Isaac tapped his foot as furiously as a Buneary's as he stood in the bullpen and looked out at the state of the game. By what he could only describe as an Arceus-given miracle; they had managed to tie up the game. They had Zaraki on Third Base, Mystery on second, and Dusk on first, with Yokozuna being up to bat. Most worrying of all, however, they had two outs to get to this point, and Yokozuna was getting tired. He was already panting and sweating as he got up to bat. They just needed to get something, anything, to try and get this.
'We just need one more run. If we can get Zaraki to Home, then…' Isaac thought.
As he thought that, he looked over at Dusk. The two, for a moment, locked eyes and Dusk gave him a reassuring nod from the plate. This caused Isaac's heart to skip a beat, wondering just what Dusk was planning. He soon found out as he leaned over to Pikachu's ear.
Dusk swiftly cleared his throat and whispered. "Hey buddy. You do know that Squirtle's been saying that you've been doing a lot of slacking at the plate, right?" He said with a small smirk stretching across his lips.
Pikachu's eyes widened in shock before he glared at Squirtle at Second Base. "You what, bro?!" He demanded in disbelief.
"What you yappin about?" Squirtle asked, turning his head with annoyance to look at Pikachu.
"You know what you did, you half-pint of water!" Pikachu called out in anger.
"What are you talking about, rat? I'm the one doing most of the work over on this side," Squirtle clapped back, squinting his brows in frustration
"You are not! I'm catching way more than you!" Pikachu roared in anger.
"And what was that in the sixth inning with the bee? You got juked by a Beedrill with a boxing glove!!" Squirtle yelled defiantly, soon turning his whole body to look at the Electric-Type. Not paying attention to anything else.
"At least I didn't miss a Munchlax!" Pikachu yelled back as sparks danced from his cheeks.
Ash rolled his eyes at the growing argument behind him as he threw the first pitch at Yokozuna. Seeing it go wide, the Munchlax let it go and got a ball called for it. The second pitch, however, was a fast ball. Digging deep, Yokozuna swung as hard as he could. With a crack like thunder, the ball went rocketing along low to the ground. Right between First and Second bases. With the arguing Basemen getting completely caught off guard by the swing. This even caused Doduo behind them to not initially react, as one of their heads was extremely focused on the argument of the Basemen. But those on base wasted no time to start running.
"RUN!" Isaac called out urgently.
Soon Zaraki made it over the Homeplate with Mystery rushing around Third and towards Home behind him. As Dusk reached over Second towards Third, Doduo had grabbed the ball in its right head, and spun it around to build up momentum. As soon as Dusk rounded Third Base and sprinted towards Home, the Twin Bird Pokémon launched the ball towards its trainer at Home Base. Dusk sprinted as hard as he could before leaping forward, sliding across the ground onto the plate as Gary caught the ball and touched him. Everyone, however, looked at Lillie, who looked down at Snowy, who saw it at the ground level.
"Vul!" The small fox called out.
"Dusk is safe!!" Lillie declared. "And the winner of the game is the Sinnohian Sluggers!!"
"WOOOOOOO!" Isaac cheered in joy.
"Dang it. Oh well. We tried Ashy boy," Gary sighed. "Need some help up, Dusk?"
"That'd be helpful," Dusk replied, still face down in the dirt.
As Gary pulled Dusk up, Ash smiled at Isaac. "Good job, Isaac. It looked like you were gonna lose there in the first half." He said with a knowing smile.
"What can I say? I figured out how to make them lock in…" Isaac replied with a grin.
Soon the rest of the Sinnohian Sluggers save Dusk, rushed over, and picked Isaac up before throwing him into the air. However, Isaac did not get to enjoy the victory celebrations for long…
"You know… baseball is kind of fun. Not nearly as fun as contests and battling, but still…" Dusk commented with a smile.
"... You Feraligatrin' what?!" Isaac roared out as he was being tossed into the air.
"It's too much work. And dusty. It's gonna take forever to clean these clothes…" Dusk grumbled, patting his pants and shirt to try and get the dirt off.
"THAT DOES IT! LET ME DOWN! LEMME AT 'IM!" Isaac howled in fury as he was still being tossed into the air repeatedly.
Dusk's eyes widened as Isaac, as soon as Isaac could, got out of the crowd that was throwing him up in the air and began to run after him. Seeing this, Dusk ran as fast as he could in the other direction. What followed was Dusk being chased around the lab building by an incredibly angry Isaac, screaming and ranting at him the whole way.
"This is gonna be a long four years…" Ash groaned as he shook his head.
"Maybe they'll learn to get along?" Lillie said, shrugging a bit.
"With friends like that, who needs enemies…" Gary muttered as he pinched the bridge of his nose, as they all watched the chaos unfold in front of them.