Now, they're vying for the final Pokemon to complete the collection of 149. (We disclude Mewtwo, who is one of a kind and its own master.) Whoever gets it first...
Online
by Leto
"I'm gonna get Porygon first!" Ash and Gary declare in unison.
Ash runs to his house, followed by Misty and Brock. In his room, he moves to his computer and switches it on.
In Professor Oak's lab, Gary does the same on one of his grandfather's computers.
"A cyberspace Pokemon should be found there."
And so, our heroes began to search...
***
Ash typed 'pokemon' into the search engine.
He hit search.
He facefaulted.
"439070 pages found..."
Misty sighed. "This could take a while."
But he dove in.
***
Gary, who had more common sense than Ash, typed 'porygon' into the search engine.
He facefaulted.
"800 pages found... this could take a while."
***
Ash became absorbed in the wonder of the WWW.
"This is really weird," he said to his friends, "but kinda cool. There are heaps of webpages that mention US. Apparently in whatever world hosts these sites, we're actually TV stars."
Misty's eyes sparkled, as she pushed Ash off the seat.
"Oooh, stars? Let me see?"
She immediately hit 'back' several times until she reappeared at the search engine, before typing in her own name.
"Wow, look at all these pages just for me! Misty's Page... Bubbles and Soap... Splash... haha, the world loves me!"
"Lemme see!" ordered Brock, pushing her away. "Oooh, Brock-O-Rama... Rock Solid. Nice pages here..."
"Just a minute! My turn!" protested Ash, edging his way back in front of his computer. "I'm the star of the show so... WHAT?!"
Misty and Brock tried not to laugh. Well, Brock tried not to laugh, Misty was killing herself.
"NOTHING?!"
***
"I wonder if I need a hacker to find it, or if it's in plain view," mused Gary, as he surfed to the 40th page.
"If I see another Pokeball background or animated Pikachu, I think I'll kill something. And Ash! ASH the main character?! Why do all these pages insult the wonderful Gary Oak?"
After waiting ten minutes for the website to load, Gary smacked his forehead with one palm in frustration.
"There isn't even any Porygon here! Just a weird 3D picture of the 150th Pokemon wearing some sort of suit. Didn't I see that on the last six pages I visted?"
***
"I hate the internet," groaned Ash, "this page claims to be the best... but it's just like the last twelve we visited that said they were the best..."
"I think I could design a better page than that, and I don't know HTML!" said Misty.
"Neither do they," muttered Brock.
Ash scowled as yet another Pokemon page made his computer crash.
"Ohh, I bet GARY's not having problems like this. Bet his computer at least works."
***
Gary cursed and hit his computer hard as the blue-screen-of-death appeared once more.
"I would gladly kill whoever came up with the bright idea of midis, clunky backgrounds, a server with half a dozen pop-ups for each page and Javascript errors..."
***
"Why are there so many pages for Team Rocket and none for me?"
"Did somebody say 'Team Rocket'? That's our cue!"
"Prepare for trouble!"
"Make it double!"
Ash sweatdropped as he heard the speech, then looked around for its source. He sweatdropped again as he saw Team Rocket trying to squeeze through the window to his room.
"Here," he sighed, and opened the window. The three tumbled in in a heap.
"Oooh, you have the 'net?" enthused James, before jumping into the chair and clicking away.
"Oh, wow! Look at all these pictures of me! Look at all these shrines! Jessie, somebody out there appreciates us!"
"Don't rub it in," growled Ash, before throwing them all down the stairs.
"Crashing... *oof* down... *oof* agaiiiiin!"
That concluded Team Rocket's obligatory inclusion in a fic.
***
Misty had taken over the surfing, and was having a great time, visiting all the less-than-average sites and ranking them as '1 out of 10' in Pokemon webpage competitions. She was also flaming anyone who criticised any water Pokemon or promoted Team Rocket.
None of them were sure where Porygon would be, but Pokemon sites seemed the most logical place to look. So they were just uncovering as many stones as possible.
Suddenly she froze in place, blinking at the screen in silent horror. Brock read over her shoulder and suddenly made a choking noise.
He knew that if he laughed, Misty would kill him, so he left the room, where he slid down against the wall, shoulders shaking helplessly.
Ash, carrying a beer (what's his mother been up to?), walked through the kitchen and stepped over Brock. Then he did a double take.
"Uh... Brock, you okay?"
Brock didn't answer, just wiped a tear out of his eyes.
"Oh, I gotta see this!" exclaimed Ash, running back into his bedroom. Misty was still sitting frozen in the same position.
He read over her shoulder and his face fell into a similar expression.
***
"Okay, that might be the nature of hentai fics, but that is THE most REVOLTING thing I've ever read... bleaah bleah bleah bleah bleah..."
Gary quickly tapped the 'back' button and jumped around the lab retching. It was this moment that Professor Oak chose to re-enter his lab.
"Uh... Gary? Gary?"
No response from his grandson who was rolling on the ground looking as if he were in great agony.
"Ash and Misty..." read Professor Oak. "Oh, I know this website. Grow a backbone, Gary. Be a man."
Oak walked out again. Gary just stared after his grandfather in disbelief. He really didn't want to know the sort of site he visited...
***
"YUUUCK!"
Ash and Misty shouted it in disbelief. Of one accord, for once.
"Eww, even if I did like you - which I don't," she hastily added, but with a faint blush, "- I would NEVER..."
"Misty," said Ash solemnly, "let us never speak of this again."
The two nodded and shook hands.
***
The next day, Ash was slumped over his keyboard, barely awake. He's clearly an inexperienced 'nettie. Misty was asleep on Ash's bed and Brock on the floor. (She'd wrestled him for it and won.)
"Gotta... find... Porygon before... Gary... before... it's too... late...
***
It was six weeks later, and Ash was on the internet as usual.
"Ash, I'm getting worried about you," said his mother, swaying unsteadily on her feet. "You've had a girl staying in your room for six weeks, and you're beginning to be addicted to the internet."
"No, Mom, it's strictly on business."
"You're IN A CHATROOM!"
Ash hurriedly typed in 'anyone know about porygon?'.
"See Mom, I'm looking for Porygon."
On the screen, a reply from 'Seksy43' came: what are you talking about, BuffBoy? That some weird band or something?
Ash sweatdropped and quickly closed that particular window.
Ash's mother left the room with a large sweatdrop, mouthing the word 'buffboy' to herself.
***
"I DID IT!"
Ash looked up blearily. He'd pulled another all-nighter.
Gary stood in the doorway, proud of himself.
"I GOT PORYGON!"
Ash was fully awake now, and stood up. "Let me see!"
"No way, Ash! I just came to gloat, not to let you anywhere near my newest and final Pokemon!"
That wasn't going to deter Ash in the least. He ran up to Gary and grabbed the Pokeball out of his hand.
"You could've showed a bit more ingenuity in getting it from me," sweatdropped Gary.
The Pokeball broke open on Ash's bed and a shape appeared. It was Porygon, for sure. It did not move.
"Um... is it alive?" ventured Ash, poking it.
Misty, who *had* been sleeping peacefully, woke to find a Porygon on her feet.
She cringed, then poked it. Then she hugged it to herself, happily.
"Ohh, it's so cute! Where did you order it?"
Gary and Misty got into a long conversation about ordering plush toys from the 'net, but Ash tuned out. He didn't care if Gary had gotten the last Pokemon before him. He had a new future now.
No more would he be a Pokemon Master.
Now, Ash Ketchum of the town of Pallet, was a certified (yes, it's on his wall) 'net junkie.
And Gary Oak, also from the town of Pallet, was his rival in that.
However, this time, Ash is actually in with a chance.
***
A miscelleneous employee for AOL smiled wickedly and rubbed her hands together.
"It's perfect, so perfect! Ever since we made up that garbage about a polygon cyberspace Pokemon, we've gotten more people signing up than ever!"