Chapter 12:
Problems on the set

It had been about a month and three weeks since Ash’s wandering thought hit him strong, and since then he had done something totally new to him - be on a set: part of the act. ‘That experience is seriously goin g to keep with me.’ The trainer thought with a smile after he fed his two friends, The trio were about to relax in front of the TV until the phone rang. “You two go on over there.” Ketchum said to them with a smile before going over to the horn.

‘That thing is not the same without your lap as my seat.’ The gray furred one thought as she walked over to the seat in question.

“Hello?” The Pallet Town protector questioned once the phone was raised. “Yes, Mr. Plotz, they’re here.” THe human added after hearing the question from the man that gave him this roof. “I’ll send them straight away.” He said and hung up.

“What’s wrong, Ash?” THe canine of the duo questioned once the boy made it to the couch.

“Nothing’s wrong, Runt, but for some reason Mr. Plotz wants to see you two in his office.” Ash informed them causing the animals to become a little nervous. “I’ll walk you over there CEO building.” The hero suggested before picking Rita up, put her in cradle position.

‘I wish I could have this feeling for days to come.’ The former street-cat thought as she listened to the steady heart rate of the boy before her.

“Come on, Runt.” Ketchum called out before walking to the elevator. Nothing happened on their way to the building, and when they got there the out of towner decided to part company. “He said that he wanted to see you two. So, I guess I’ll just have to find something else to occupy my time.” He said to them before transforming:

“Chromastone!” The purple themed rock said aloud before flying off. In the month he discovered that little secret and liked it. Without another word the two of them went into the big meeting room. In the room were all of their fellow workers from Animaniacs, Pinky & the Brain, and Freakazoid all asking the same question: what was going on?

“No doubt all of you are wondering why you are all here today.” The white haired man questioned after walking to the podium, and took the mike in hand. “Well, the answer is I am here to discuss the Ketchum calamity.” He explained to them rather calmly before waiting a few minutes for the someone spoke out:

“What do you mean by that?” THey all questioned, but stronger from some than others.

“Relax, I meant nothing bad about that. It’s just that he didn’t do so well when we re-vamped some of out best moments.” Thaddeus said before activated a big flat screen to show what he meant. “The first thing that we decided to do was add him to our movie - Wakko’s Wish.” He said while showing them the starting footage.

“I don’t know why your showing us this. He did great on the movie.” Minerva said as she that with a smile on her face.

“You just like that practically hugging scene.” Hello countered with a humph since she wanted to be close to him on the movie; no offence to Doctor Scratchnsniff. At this moment Plotz came up to Ash’s part after Wakko lost his hay penny:

“Good thing I remember how that glass bower did things.” A marsh themed man said as he started up another glass sculpture after feeding the fire pit with a fireball.

“Should we be concerned about the others considering they aren’t as gifted as we are.” The crystals apian Diamondhead commented as he whittled away at another figure.

“Ah, here’s the moment I was talking about.” Their boss said as he showed off the moment after the big song about the wishing star.

“You ladies are planning on sledding all that way?” Ash questioned to the three females in question which caused them to look at him oddly; like he was making fun of their plan. “I got just the thing.” He said and disappeared into his workshop, but reappeared just as quickly. “One of my buyers - Hugo Jackson gave me this in payment of that life sized wood sculpture of that weather witch.” The human explained before tying their sleighs to his ride.

“I don’t get it. You have the Ultimatrix, so why are you taking a bike when you could just fly up there.” The grey furred cat stated to the human before going over to the wagon.

“Where’s the fun in that?” Ketchum questioned back with a smile of nervousness.

“You used it’s power through the night. Didn’t you?” The whited furred one stated to the hero who just rubbed the back of his neck in nervousness.

“Anyway this will work, but I may need a bit of weight on my bike just in case.” The maker said to them and in that instant Minerva hopped onto the seat. “That answers that.” He admitted before sitting before her and riding off.

“Everything looks okay so far.” The minks that watched this commented with a smile while her fellow female workers glared at her with daggers.

It’s not that part I’m worried about, or this one.” Plotz said before activating the scene after Pinky’s lover destroyed the bridge.

“The bridge is out.” Ash said to his tagalongs before looking at a button on his left handle. ‘I hope I know what I’m doing.’ The hero thought before pressing the button and at that moment they went much faster.

“Now this is moving.” One of the sliegh riders said as she too felt the suge of speed. Ketchum saw the gap closing in on them, but he decided to tell them something.

“The problem is that I don’t think we can make this jump without jetison something.” The humanoid animal heard his comment and decided to do something about that.

“Sorry, nothing personal.” She said to her female friends before cutting the line. In doing so the bike was able to make it, but the others were slammed into the other side of the chasm.

“I can assume that we’re not at the dreadful part.” The smart mouse questioned and received a nod from his boss. They watched the: Warners being gunned down, saving the mice, and the avalanche; which went differently:

“Yes, your fully charged.” Ash said while riding his bike, after deactivating the high speed mode, and slammed down on the Ulitmatrix.

“Humungasaur!” The tan lizard shouted before running as best as he could so he could collect as may as he could before the splash down. The capture scene went the same even though the hero in him only wanted to smash the tools of the villain, but luckily he restrained himself.

‘I liked this part.’ Chicken Boo thought as he saw and remembered the Trainer stop by everyone to make sure that they were alright. For that the bird was happy that someone cared about his wellbeing.

“The giant lizard wasn’t the bad part. We still have a ways to go, remember.” The CEO said before continuing the feed, and that’s when they saw it: when Dot got cannon blasted.

‘My…friend. My…no, his fault.’ Ash thought as he adjusted his sight from the tearjerker scene to the king responsible for it all. ‘Must pay.’ He thought before activating the watch.

“What was---.” The king started to speak, but was cut off by a orange/black wall of muscle.

“Let me tell you something, King Salazar no body hurts Rath’s friends without getting a major beating!” The cat shouted before twisting the man’s ankle almost all the way around.

“He was only doing tha because I was hurt.” The youngest of thre three said before pointing and showing herself stopping the cat from ripping the king’s leg right off.

“True, but there were other moments.” Plotz said as he showed them an altered version of ‘This pun for hire.’ Everything was the same - Ash even played the role of a modern Sherlock Holmes, but the thing that didn’t go over well was the slide part.

“Humungousaur!” The hero shouted even though the human was trying for something else. The Warners three got through, but the dino got his body stuck: his head made it through, but his body was still on the slide.

“Still not that bad.” Yakko said with that usual strain at the start. They watched as Minerva appeared on screen and asked for the bird followed by her: ‘I’m packin a heater’ line, but that’s when something new happened.

‘Not gonna happen.’ The lizard thought before ripping away a small piece of the slide to activate a new form.

“Goop!” The green slime slide through the hole and then he slammed the symbol again.

“Swampfire!” The plant/fire class man shouted before summoning a fireball and pointed it at her. “Let’s see how a heater stands up to a fireball.” He said before seeing everyone wear gasmasks. “Come on. Swampfire can’t smell that bad.” The trainer questioned before sniffing his own armpit.

‘I guess that part was pretty bad.’ The mink thought since she didn’t like Ash to raise a hand to her; even though she had a feeling that it was mearly a bluff. She then returned to the cartoon.

“Minerva, watch out.” The nearly imortal man said before activating a new form.

“Watherhazard!” The clam headed man called out before looking at his hands, and muttered, “The one time I wanted Rath, but I can still make this work.” That said the water alien leapt up and fired a gatling water blast move to force the girl’s attacker away, and after landing began to treat the assailant like a punching bag.

“Yo, anyone but me wander if the kid actually wanted that water-guy.” Pesto hollered out for all to here, and at that moment the entire room just went cold due to the girls since they knew he was not like that.

“Let’s move onto the episode shall we.” Plotz said since he wanted to avoid this awkard moment as quickly as possible. They watched the rest of the episode until Ralph grabbed Minerva’s tail which earned him a visit from the angry one.

“Let me tell you something: security guard Ralph playing the role of a fat bongo player, just like I told those dirty people - nobody touches the hot Mink while Rath is on the job.” The tiger shouted to him, and the viewers watch him perform the wrestling moves on the round one.

‘Okay, so Rath is a little defensive.’ The group thought as they looked in the back of the room and saw Ralph in a body cast, and the King in a leg cast that went all the way up to his pelvis.

“Since we have shown that alien twice I will show you a couple that don’t have the cat on them.” Thaddeus said to them and showed off a couple of Freakazoid episodes, and the first one was - Sewer or later. The story played out the same until it came to fighting the snakes. The first battle went:

“Don’t worry Freakazoid. I can handle this.” Ash said, causing his hero instincts to go before his logical side.

“Echo Echo.” The small white alien called out before dividing into three men. “Okay, now for part two.” The main clone said before the three of them changed again.

“Thunderstein!” A tall monster said as he stood in the river of waste.

“Ampfibian!” A jellyfish man said as he stood on the right side of the tunnel.

“Brainstorm!” A big headed crab shouted on the left side of the tunnel. The trainer would use Buzzshock, but his size was a reason why he wasn’t there. “Here’s a charge of electro-magnetic might that I know you’ll get a charge out of.” The crab said as the three of them attacked, and thanks to stein Freakazoid was safe from the electricity coming to him.

“Simple misunderstanding.” Cobra Queen said as she relived the footage while trying to defend the cutie. He heard her and continued with the second snake.

“Big Chill.” The blue moth shouted out as to fight the second snake. “On second thought maybe this will do me better…” The insect said before slamming the symbol again, “Ultimate Big Chill.” He shouted once the evolution was complete.

“He did thaw him out after the take, and nurse him back to health.” Cobra Queen countered as they all watched their handy man fire freeze the bigger snake where he stood.

“That’s all well and good, Audrey, but Ash just doesn’t get that all we do is pretend. He still thinks its all real, and if that doesn’t maybe this last bit will.” Plotz said as he gave them the last bit of his presentation. The moment he showed to them was the episode - Two against Freak.

“Humungousaur!” The tan one shouted as he and Freakazoid arrived on the battlefield. “You take on those two, and I’ll handle my distant cousin.” The Vaxasaurian said before going into battle.

‘So, I won’t be electrocuted this time.’ The snake thought before charging as well. The two had a bit of back and forth with the trainer trying to remember the moves Lucy used on him, and when that failed:

“Time to go Ultimate!” He shouted before slamming the symbol on his chest and after a few moments his transformation was complete. “Ultimate Humungousaur!” He shouted and immediately tried slamming both fists downward on the snake, but he caught them with his tail.

‘Now what are you going to do.’ The opponent thought, but only grew concerned when the now green scaled man smiled.

“Surprise!” He shouted before transforming his hands into missile launchers, and opened fire. It was then the feed cut out due to a rouge shot taking out the camera.

“As you can see Ash is a hero first and an actor second. He did all those fights out of hero instinct. Despite his time with us the young Trainer still doesn’t get how we do things.” Plotz said to them calmly.

“So what do you plan on doing?” Rita questioned to her boss even though a not in her stomach for what he was about to say.

“For the moment…I haven’t got the foggiest, but this was to show that Ash is best used as a stage hand and not part of the actual stage.” The CEO man said to them calmly which put most of their fears to rest.

“What will you do when you do have a plan?” They all whispered once he gave them the go ahead to leave. Ash on the other hand was still high in the air: not even thinking what went down below him.

Copy Rights:
Ash Ketchum, and the others, are owned by Gamefreak/Nintendo and Cartoon Network.
Animaniacs, and the others, are owned by WB.
Ultimatrix, and all forms, are owned by Man of Action and Cartoon Network.