A Day in the Life (née filler)

**"A Day in the Life (née filler)"** is the eleventh chapter of *Pokémon Reset Bloodlines.* After leaving Cerulean City, Ash and Misty continue to travel to their next stop, Vermilion City, doing some training along the way. Meanwhile, another of Ash's female companions is seen nearby Kalos, while Giovanni continues to oversee Ash's movements as closely as possible.

## Plot

In Vaniville Town, Kalos, a certain wild girl ponders about how she doesn't like humans very much, and despite looking a lot like one of them, she doesn't consider herself such. Nevertheless, her appearance does have the advantage of allowing her to interact in human settlements to get food and medicines when necessary, and even Poké Balls so the Pokémon she befriended in their travels can accompany her. She then sees a mother and her daughter trying to ride a Rhyhorn, with the daughter yelling at the mother after being slammed to the ground, before she decides to leave them alone and continue traveling with her own family.

A few days later, in Team Rocket's HQ, Giovanni watches the news about many strange incidents in several places, which he suspects might involve Bloodliners. He's interrupted by the alarm of the trio he assigned to watch over Ash, and upon answering, he's greeted by James doing some training with his Koffing in a Battle Club. James explains that since Ash has stopped to do some training himself, he figured they should do the same while Meowth keeps an eye on him. When asked about Jessie, James explains that she's decided to enter Pokémon Contests, trying to follow the example of Hoenn Gym Leader Juan, who combines strength with finesse and elegance in battles. Giovanni, who doesn't have fond memories of the aforementioned Gym Leader, grudgingly listens to James until he's done explaining, and after ending the call he goes for some a drink while mentally cursing Juan.

Back with Ash, he has Pikachu practice Counter Shield against Charmander's Ember while Bulbasaur, Pidgeotto, Aipom and Squirtle watch with interest, with Butterfree and Krabby at Oak's lab to train on their own. Charmander thinks it's a silly technique, possibly due to the fact his tail didn't allow him to perform it. Bulbasaur inquires as to why he never saw any of his Unovan Pokémon perform it, to which Ash recalls that his attempts resulted in Oshawott getting Dizzy, Tepig rolled on his back and unable to get back up, and Snivy giving him a nasty death glare, but he limits himself to say that it didn't work well and he never had the time to try it harder. Ash takes advantage of the H.O.P.E. Glove and brings back Butterfree to practice turning Confusion into Psybeam, while Charmander continues practicing with Ember. By the end of the day, Pikachu has managed to successfully pull it off while Aipom and Squirtle get close enough. Bulbasaur, however, decides he's good enough using his vines to deflect incoming attacks, after too many failed attempts result in him crashing against hollow trees.

A bit later, Misty recalls that they had to go back to retrieve their stuff before leaving Cerulean, only to discover that wild Bug Pokémon had eaten their tents leaving them full of holes, but fortunately leaving everything else intact. Thankfully, her Psyduck knows Secret Power, which she has him use to build a couple of Secret Bases for them to sleep comfortably at night. Psyduck is annoyed to have to make two of them when (in his opinion), Ash and Misty could easily use one together and "mate" with each other, earning him a glare from Misty. The redhead had sent Horsea and Goldeen to Oak's lab while now having her new Gyarados in her active team, thinking that it was nice of Ash that he caught it for her instead of himself, before going off to sleep.

Misty starts dreaming of herself winning Pokémon battles and rising through the ranks as a Gym Leader, then going off to challenge the Elite Four, even owning Legendary Pokémon like Suicune and Kyogre, also being surrounded by paparazzi who ask her if she's aiming for the spot of regional champion, and lastly, of having a daughter whom she's named Cordelia, trying to encourage her with some words: *"Going forward, is the only way to live."*

Upon waking up, Misty finds herself being stared at by Psyduck, who reminds her that she was the one to tell him to wake her up. After getting dressed, she recalls the words she said to her dream daughter and decides that, indeed, going forward was the only way to live, with no point in dwelling on the past if she wants to fulfill her dreams for the future. She takes her fishing rod and spends a few hours thinking, before a tug in the line alerts her, and she pulls a Poliwrath out of the water. The Pokémon tries to attack her, and while she's tempted to use her mind control abilities like she did Goldeen before, she decides to battle it instead, bringing out Gyarados to do the job. She congratulates him afterwards, while Psyduck stares in horror and muses how he liked his life before Gyarados came along.

At the same time, Ash is trying to release Lucario from the staff, but it's not as easy as it was in The Old Timeline, and after several failed attempts, he decides to give it up for now. Right then, a familiar trainer with a Sandshrew shows up and calls out to him, wanting to battle him for his 100th victory in a row before challenging the Pokémon League. Upon recognizing the guy as A.J., he accepts the challenge and calls Squirtle. While Sandshrew easily tanks Squirtle's Water-type attacks at first, Squirtle in turn manages to dodge his own, and they catch him off-guard when they deflect a Rock Tomb with their recently perfected Counter Shield, giving them the opening to go for a decisive blow at point-blank range. A.J. seems disappointed at losing after all that training, but Ash approaches him and assures that his training paid off and he's more than ready to go to the league as is. A.J. asks if Ash has gym badges of his own already, so Ash shows the two he's earned so far, and the two promise to meet again at the Pokémon League, parting on friendly terms.

Later arriving to Vermilion City, Ash feels ready for his third gym challenge, already having done training with Pikachu and the others to have a solid team for whatever Lt. Surge can throw at them. The two punks guarding the entrance tell him that Surge is having a second badge challenger today and he can enter the gym after he's done, but he'll have to go through them first. The two bring out a couple of Magnemite, which Charmander makes short work of in less than five minutes. Ash is then allowed in and taken to the arena, where the aforementioned battle is currently underway, with Surge's Voltorb having just defeated the challenger's Dugtrio. Being in the shadows, Ash doesn't recognize him at first, but once he talks, Ash hears a voice that utters a line that he knows all too well: "Standby for battle!"

## Continuity

* First appearances of Iris, A.J., and Paul. Serena also makes her first appearance proper in the new timeline.
* Ash captures Snivy.
* Ash decides to get some of his Pokémon to relearn the Counter Shield, while also explaining why he didn't use it after Sinnoh.
* Ash arrives to the Vermilion Gym, but his challenge begins on the next chapter.

## Characters

### Humans

* Iris
* Grace Gabena
* Serena Gabena
* Giovanni
* News Reporter (Video)
* James
* Ash Ketchum
* Misty Waterflower
* Cordelia (Dream)
* Lorelei (Picture)
* A.J.
* Vermilion Gym Trainers
* Lt. Surge
* Paul

### Pokémon

* Rhyhorn (Grace's)
* Koffing (James')
* Charmander (Ash's)
* Pikachu (Ash's)
* Bulbasaur (Ash's)
* Squirtle (Ash's)
* Aipom (Ash's)
* Pidgeotto (Ash's)
* Butterfree (Ash's)
* Pysduck (Misty's)
* Gyarados (Misty's)
* Pinsir (Dream)
* Poliwrath (Misty's)
* Sandshrew (A.J.'s)
* Magnemite (Vermilion Gym Trainer's)
* Voltorb (Lt. Surge's)
* Dugtrio (Paul's)
* Pikachu (Paul's)