"Mmmm, this triple-decker-double-cheeseburger is gonna hit the spot!" Ash said eagerly as the waitress at the Dodrio Diner brought him his order.
"You think you can handle all that, Ash?" Brock smiled as Ash reached for the ketchup.
"Course I can," Ash replied as he poured the ketchup on his burger and fries. "Remember when I ate seven hamburgers at one sitting?"
"Yeah, and then you had a horrible stomachache afterwards," Misty reminded him as she nibbled one of her french fries.
"Want some ketchup, Pikachu?" Ash offered the bottle to his Pokémon, who took a taste.
"Pika!" said the little yellow Pokémon enthusiastically. It then proceeded to slurp down half the bottle.
"Hey, go easy on that stuff, Pikachu," said Ash. "Save some for Brock and Misty." As Ash reached for the bottle, Pikachu growled and slapped his trainer's hand away. "Pikachu!"
"Looks like Pikachu really loves his ketchup," smiled an amused Misty.
"Okay, that's enough, Pikachu. Give me the bottle," Ash ordered.
"Pikachu!" As Ash grabbed the ketchup bottle, Pikachu sank his teeth into Ash's hand.
"Ow! Pikachu, what are you doing?!" Ash yelped as he dropped the bottle and Pikachu caught it.
"Wow, I don't think I've ever seen Pikachu do that," said Brock, who was shocked by Pikachu's actions.
"It's almost as if Pikachu's addicted to that stuff," said an equally surprised Misty.
"Yeah, well, I don't like how Pikachu's acting," said Ash angrily as he picked up a napkin and began dabbing at the blood oozing from the teeth marks on his hand. "Gimme the bottle, Pikachu!"
Pikachu, clinging tightly to the ketchup bottle, began growling and sparks started flying from its red cheeks. Ash, realizing that Pikachu was ready to Thundershock him, backed off. The three friends then watched Pikachu rapidly guzzle down the rest of the contents of the bottle with a crazed expression on its face. Tossing aside the empty bottle, Pikachu then spotted another bottle on the next table and made a jump for it.
"Oh no, you don't!" cried Ash as he lunged for his Pokémon.
"Hey, there's Professor Oak and your mom," said Misty as a gray-haired man in a lab coat accompanied by a pretty auburn-haired woman entered the restaurant and sat down at one of the booths at the far side of the dining area.
"So what would you like, Delia?" Professor Oak asked his lunch date as the waitress brought them their menus.
"I think I'll have a salad," Delia told him as she scanned the menu.
"That's it?"
"Uh-huh, gotta watch my figure, you know."
"Why don't you let me do that?" Professor Oak smiled as he peeked over the edge of his menu and let his eyes rove over Delia's curves. Delia giggled and smiled flirtatiously at her date. "Sure I can't interest you in something else? You're going to get hungry later if a salad is all you're going to have."
"Well, maybe I will have something else," Delia said as she returned to the menu. "Maybe I'll have a bacon-lettuce-and tomato sandwich. Although I hate the tomatoes that most of the restaurants serve. They're so small and mushy."
"I think your tomatoes are nice. They're big and round and firm." Professor Oak smiled dreamily in the direction of her chest, then his face reddened when he realized what he had just said. "Uh, I meant the tomatoes in your garden are nice and firm." He then ducked behind his menu to hide his burning face.
Delia giggled again.
"Pikachu, stop!"
A crazed Pikachu jumped in the middle of Professor Oak's and Delia's table.
"Pikachu, what on earth are you doing?" Delia asked her son's Pokémon.
Pikachu didn't respond, but instead grabbed the ketchup bottle off of their table, pried the lid off, and began to gulp the contents. Both Delia and Professor Oak watched in amazement as Pikachu proceeded to down the bottle rapidly.
"Hi, Mom, Professor Oak. Sorry about Pikachu," Ash apologized as he reached for his ketchup-covered Pokémon. As soon as his hand touched Pikachu, the Pokémon snarled and swung the ketchup bottle at Ash.
"Pikachu! Professor Oak, Pikachu's acting really weird," Ash said as he drew back.
"Yes, I can see that," Professor Oak said as he watched the Pokémon slurp the ketchup greedily. "When did Pikachu start acting this way?"
"When I let him have a taste of ketchup," Ash replied.
"You know, the way Pikachu's acting, it's almost as if he's intoxicated," Professor Oak said as he studied the Pokémon's behavior and facial expressions carefully.
"Intoxicated?" Delia said, surprised.
"Yes. It's not unlike the way Meowth and Persian react to catnip. There must be some compound in ketchup that acting as an intoxicant to Pikachu, perhaps the tomatoes," Professor Oak explained. "It's actually quite fascinating, really. I don't think there's ever been a study on the effects of ketchup on Pikachu. I must do some research on that."
"But what do I do about my Pikachu now?" Ash whined. "He's so whacked out that he won't let me touch him."
The three watched Pikachu finish the last dregs of ketchup, toss the bottle aside, and stagger drunkenly off of the table in search of more. Spying a truck in the parking lot with a picture of a huge bottle of ketchup on it, Pikachu raced out the door.
"Pikachu! Stop!" Ash yelled as he dashed out the door after his Pokémon, with Misty and Brock at his heels.
"That was bizarre," Delia said as she grabbed a handful of napkins and started cleaning up the ketchup-smeared table.
"Actually, it's not," Professor Oak said thoughtfully as he took some of the napkins from Delia and helped her wipe up the mess Pikachu had made in its ketchup-induced frenzy. "Tomatoes are in the nightshade family. Perhaps a similar compound in the tomatoes in the ketchup is causing Pikachu to act this way. I really do need to study this further."
"I can believe he's acting crazy because of tomatoes," Delia said as she began to wipe the ketchup smears off of her menu. "Do you ever act that way when you're around mine?"
"Oh yes," Professor Oak smiled to himself. But he wasn't referring to the ones in her garden.
"Where did it go?" Brock asked as he surveyed the parking lot, looking for the truck that Pikachu had gone after.
"I don't know," said Misty. "Wait! There it is!" She pointed to the truck heading down the street with a small yellow Pokémon racing along behind it.
"After him!" Ash cried as the three friends took off after the ketchup truck.
---
"Please, Jessie? Can't we stop for a bite to eat?" pleaded James as Team Rocket flew overhead in their balloon.
"Eat what, James?" Jessie shot back. "We have no money!"
"Forget about the food right now," said Meowth as he pointed to the ground below. "Look over there!"
All three looked down and saw a yellow Pokémon in hot pursuit of a truck.
"Is that Pikachu?" James wondered.
"Sure looks like it," said Meowth.
"Well, don't just stand there staring! Let's catch it!" ordered Jessie as she began manipulating the Pokémon -catching arms of the balloon in the direction of Pikachu. "Ha! I've got you now!" she smiled triumphantly as she directed the arms towards Pikachu. Unfortunately, at that moment a gust of wind caught the balloon, sending the robotic arms away from their target.
"YAHHHHH! Let go, Jessie! Let go!" screamed James as the arms clamped onto the bumper of the truck Pikachu was pursuing.
"I can't! They're stuck!" Jessie said frantically as the balloon began zipping along behind the truck.
"Hey!"
"MEOWTH!" Jessie and James cried in unison as Meowth tumbled out of the balloon's basket. Both watched in horror as Meowth bounced off of the top of the truck and landed atop Pikachu, sending them both rolling into the woods beside the road.
"Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa!" yelped Meowth as the two Pokémon tumbled down a grassy hill and landed in a field of wildflowers. Dazed, Meowth slowly sat up and tried to figure out what had just happened. "Hey, where am I?"
"Pika?" a still-intoxicated Pikachu replied as it sat up.
"Hey, what's wrong with you?" asked Meowth, noticing the goofy expression on Pikachu's face. "Falling down the hill didn't make you that dizzy, did it?"
"Pikachu," replied the other Pokémon with a dreamy glance in Meowth's direction.
"What th'?" Suddenly, Meowth caught a whiff of something wonderful. "Mmmm! What's that?" Meowth followed his nose and to his delight, discovered that they had landed in a field of catnip. "Yippee!" cried Meowth happily as he began rolling among the catnip plants.
"Where are they?" panted Ash as he, Brock, and Misty ran along the road that the ketchup truck had taken.
"Pikachu can't go too far," said Misty. "He's bound to get tired out soon."
"Yeah, but you've got to remember that Pikachu is on a ketchup high," Brock reminded them. "It may take some time for it to wear off. He might not run out of energy for some time."
"Come on," Ash motioned to the others. "I'm not gonna stop looking for Pikachu until I find him."
---
"This is interesting," Professor Oak told Delia back at his laboratory. "This article in one of my scientific journals says that the compound lycopene in tomatoes acts as a natural stimulant for mouse-type Pokémon like Pikachu and Raichu."
"So that's why Pikachu was acting so wild at the restaurant?" Delia asked.
"Apparently so," replied Professor Oak as he continued to read the article. "And it...oh my."
"What?"
"Apparently the lycopene in tomatoes isn't only a Pikachu stimulant, but it's also an aphrodisiac."
"An aphrodisiac?" Delia echoed.
"Yes, and it's quite a powerful one, evidently," Professor Oak continued as he scanned the rest of the article.
"Does the aphrodisiac work only on Pikachu, or does it work on other Pokémon?" Delia asked.
"Hmmm, this article doesn't say," Professor Oak said as he finished his journal and put it down on his desk.
"Oh my, I guess I'll have to keep Pikachu away from my garden from now on," Delia said. "I didn't realize my tomatoes would be so arousing."
"Oh, yours definitely have that effect on me," replied Professor Oak, who was wondering if lycopene would produce a similar effect in humans. "I…I mean…" he stammered as his face turned bright red. "The ones in your garden, I mean."
Delia, amused by his reaction, giggled.
---
"Oh man, I haven't felt this good in a long time," sighed Meowth blissfully as he lay in the patch of catnip and watched the clouds drift by.
"Pika," Pikachu agreed as he lay next to Meowth.
"You too, huh?" said Meowth. "Ya' know, for a Pokémon, you're a pretty nice one."
"Pikachu," the other Pokémon smiled back.
"Over here! I found him!" yelled Brock as he came running through the field.
"Hey there, twerpos," Meowth smiled as Ash, Misty, and Brock came over to where the two Pokémon lay.
"Pikachu," the Pokemon smiled with a wave in Ash's direction.
"What's wrong with Meowth?" Misty asked. "He looks almost as goofy as Brock does when he's around a girl."
"I think I know why," said Brock as he knelt down next to the intoxicated Pokémon. "This field is full of catnip."
"You mean Meowth's wasted, too?" Ash asked as he carefully picked up Pikachu, who, surprisingly, offered no resistance.
"Looks that way," said Brock as he watched Meowth break into a fit of giggles.
"Tee-hee, that cloud looks like Jessie's hair!" Meowth snickered as he pointed skyward.
"Let's get Pikachu home," said Ash as he cradled his Pokémon in his arms. "He's totally worn out."
"Probably from chasing the truck," Misty said, although she had to admit that Pikachu didn't really look tired. If anything, he looked relaxed…relaxed and satisfied.
"Should we leave Meowth here?" Ash wondered.
"Yeah, he'll just sleep it off," said Brock as the three friends headed for home, leaving a giggling Meowth behind.
