I Choose You? [Pokémon]

Chapter 17

Two hours later, Ash and Misty met back at the tiki for their date. Misty took a deep breath.

"Your date today will be..", the announcer checked his envelope, "A picnic up on one of the volcanoes."

"Volcanoes?"  Ash repeated. Iris and Ash had done something similar earlier in the season.

"Oh, not those volcanoes", the announcer said reading his mind, "actual active volcanoes."

Misty's and Ash's eyes widened in shock. Pikachu held on tighter to Ash.

"An active volcanoes.. with like bubbling lava and stuff?", Misty asked blinking.

"Yes, that's what active volcanoes often do", the announcer replied sarcastically.
As he said that, a helicopter flew beside them. It hovered for a few seconds before dropping a ladder down. The announcer looked up.

"Your lift is here, don't keep them waiting", he said impatiently. Ash sighed and climbed up the ladder, Misty followed behind him.

...

"We're dropping you off here", the helicopter pilot said hovering over a spot. They dropped down the ladder, Misty and Ash picked up their bags. Misty held the picnic basket with one arm as she carefully climbed down, Ash followed her.

The skies were gray and the area looked bleak, they were far from the top of the volcano but the place still looked dead. The dark shadow of the volcano was visible among the smog, It was at least twice as big as the one Iris and Ash had scaled before.

"Oh my Arceus.. how are we going to climb up that..", Misty mumbled. Ash looked up at the volcano and then looked at Misty.

"We can do it."

"W-what.. but how?!", Misty said glancing at Ash, who was grinning childishly.

"We'll just have to figure that out", Ash said grabbing her hand as he started to run towards the shadow of the volcano.

What an idiot! We can't just started running up an active volcano without any sort of plan!
, Misty thought. But then she realized, that was one of the reason she liked Ash. His spontaneousness, his positive and naive persona. How he would never give up on something, no matter how many times he fails.

She cracked a smile.

...

After about an hour of hiking, Misty and Ash decided to take a break and have their picnic.
"Stop eating so fast!", Misty scolded. Ash pouted.
"But I'm so hungry", Ash said shoving a third sandwich into his mouth.
Pikachu suddenly stood up glancing at the picnic basket, as if it had sensed sometime. Ash glanced at Pikachu.

"Is something wr-."

Ash was interrupted by a Magcargo that had popped out of their picnic basket, eating the rest of the snacks greedily.

"Hey!", Misty said standing up, "Those aren't yours!" Misty tried to pull the snail-like fire type out of the basket.

"Pika! Pika!" Pikachu said in alarm as the their picnic was slowly being surrounded by what seemed like hundreds of Magcargo.

"U-use thunderbolt, Pikachu!", Ash said quickly. Pikachu promptly did the move, trying to electrocute the Magcargo. That didn't stop them from closing in on Ash and Misty. Magcargo are fire and rock types.

Misty took out a Pokéball from her pocket, "Starmie use water gun!"

The purple starfish pokemon doused all the Magcargo with water, making them retreat hastily.

Misty and Ash exhaled in relief.

...

It took at least three more hours of hiking till they eventually were at the top of the volcano. The oxygen levels were low due to them being up so high and they were already dizzy from all the climbing.

"We.. made it", Ash said panting.

"I didn't think we coul-"

That's when Misty tripped.

She was centimeters from falling into the volcano when Ash grabbed her arm quickly, pulling her back in. Misty's eyes were wide with shock, she couldn't believe what almost happened.

"I.. you..", she could hardly speak. He just saved her life, her life.

"T-thank you", she finally blurted out.

"Don't worry about it..", Ash replied, "Now how are we going to hike down from all the way up here.."

"The helicopter was supposed to pick us up by now..", Misty looked up at the sky searching for it. The volcano rumbled.

"I think we should start going down ourselves", Ash said looking at the bubbling lava. They started speedway king down the volcano, their legs sore and too tired to run any faster. That is until, the volcano erupted, a few seconds after.

SPU-WOOOSH!

Misty and Ash started to run down the slope, dodging rocks and twigs as they new the lava was traveling quickly.

"Where on earth is the helicopter!?", Misty said muttering curses as she ran for her life.

"There it is!", Ash said pointing to the silhouette of the ladder hidden in all the ash and mist (no pun intended).

Ash and Misty grabbed onto the ladder as if flies up higher above the smoke and the ground below them was covered in lava.

Misty and Ash were too tired to speak to each other or even shout at the helicopter pilot for being late.

There was no way the producers didn't know that this volcano was scheduled to erupt today, Misty thought.

She was right, the producer knew.. in fact that's why they chose the location. Would you rather watch two people on a boring dinner date or running for their lives from molten lava?
PokéBachelors' ratings would definitely go up from lather, even if it risked Ash and Misty's lives.

...

"They're not dead? Thank Arceus!", the producer said laughing, "This will make a great episode."
The announcer sat down at down at the chair across his boss, "Don't you think this was a little.. dangerous."

"Oh be quite! It's just showbiz~", the producer said doing jazz hands, "I've been in tv business for decades, I know what the people want."

"But that doesn't mean that's the right thing to do..", the producer said quietly.

"To hell with the right thing to do", the producers said, "Morals are subjective.. right? RIGHT?"

"Sure." The announcer didn't really want to get into an argument with his boss.

The producer scribbled something down onto a notepad, "So the gay date is next right? That'll be hilarious, great comic relief.. and the ladies love that Gary kid for some reason."

"I can almost feel the money flowing in", the producer said smiling creepily, "I've always wanted a gold plated hot tub."

"I need a raise for dealing with your crap daily", the announcer mumbled under his breath.

Tune in for the next episode of PokéBachelors!