Episode 8, The Hunter and the Hunted
Already the eight episode in my Fan Fiction series about the Pokémon journey of Ash and Angie. Updated version with improved layout, with speech now clearly separated from narrative parts. Involves some MorpheusShipping (Ash and Angie liking each other) so if you don't like that idea, stop reading here. The rest, I hope you enjoy this fan-fiction.
After having enjoyed the dance yesterday, that was the closing event of the Cerulean Annual Water Pokémon Festival, it was time to travel on, for Ash and his friends. Misty's sisters had proposed they should stay for some more days, maybe perhaps still trying to match up Misty and Ash, but Misty told them that Ash really wanted to move on. And she was right, both literally and figuratively speaking. "I must really get over him now," Misty thought, after yesterday she had realized how well Angie and Ash fit together. And she had enjoyed Tracey's company last night. He had listened to her a lot, and she had even been able to talk with him a little about her being all sad over Ash choosing Angie. "He seems like a nice boy," Misty thought. She had never thought about anyone else but Ash, but now that she had to let go this dream about him, she realized how narrow minded she had been. Much to everyone else's surprise, she gave Tracey a swift kiss on the cheek, "for being such a good listener last night," she whispered to him. The others shook hands, and then took off for their next stop, waving until they disappeared behind the horizon.
"Where are we going, Ash?" Angie inquired.
"Well, this is Route 9, moving east, and leading to the Rock Tunnel," Ash explained.
"Rock Tunnel? Sounds a bit creepy," Angie said as she stopped walking.
"If you get scared, I can protect you," Ash said with confidence.
Angie did feel safer because of that remark, but she wanted to tease Ash.
"We'll see who needs protecting," she said, "I wouldn't be surprised when "little Ashy" comes to me to hold his hand when it gets all dark and scary in there."
"Or we might just end up with the two of you holding my hands instead, because you both get scared," Tracey intervened. "We'd better move on, since this is rough terrain, so we can't move as fast as usual."
Ash and Angie quit their little play-fight and took Tracey's advice to heart. The terrain was indeed more difficult than usual, and about one hour later they were all getting a bit tired.
"How about a little rest and some refreshments?" Tracey proposed.
"Yes, please!" Ash and Angie said at the same time, as they let themselves fall on the ground.
They took out some food they prepared earlier, and put it on a small blanket, they had spread out over the ground.
"It sure is quiet around here, Ash," Angie remarked.
"You're right. The last time I traveled along this route, there were Pokémon everywhere," Ash wondered.
"Maybe you caught them all, mister Pokémon Master," Angie said, laughing.
"That's not funny," Ash said, looking insulted, then continued at a much more sincere tone, "I have this feeling something's wrong..."
The next moment a Stantler jumped out of the nearby bushes, and ran towards them.
"Angie, look out!" Ash said as he pulled her away.
The Stantler ran over the blanket, right at the spot where Angie would have been if Ash hadn't done anything.
"Oh, Ash...that was close...thanks..." she stuttered.
"It's alright. The Stantler didn't hit you, or did it?" Ash asked.
"No, I'm still in one piece. But that's more than we can say about the food..." she answered.
Ash's face became sad, and then angry.
"Can't you see where you're going!?" he yelled in the direction in which the Stantler had disappeared.
Then they heard another sound, like the roar of engines.
"Now what?" Ash said.
"Ash! Tracey. Get down!" Angie yelled as she pushed Ash down on the ground.
"Hey, if that's your way of thanking me for rescuing you then...," Ash said annoyed.
But before he could finish that line, a six-wheeled vehicle jumped out of the same bushes as the Stantler had done just a few seconds ago. It flew over their position, and landed a few meters further, racing on.
"So that's why that Stantler came running right through our food. That vehicle must have been chasing it," Tracey explained.
"I've seen those before," Ash said as he clenched his fists. "Those are from Pokémon Hunter J!"
"Pokémon Hunter J?" Angie and Tracey asked.
"Yes. She is an evil person that hunts Pokémon to sell them to others," Ash explained. "She doesn't care about them at all, and treats them as merchandise. I've met her a few times in the Sinnoh region. She is very dangerous. I'm afraid she's up to no good, now that she has come here..."
"Well, then what are we waiting for? Let's follow her!" Angie said, since she cared just as much about Pokémon as Ash and had noticed that he was so angry and also scared about seeing such a dangerous person in his home-region.
"I don't want you to take that risk," Ash replied.
"Are you going after her?" she asked.
"Yes, of course," Ash said.
"Well, then I am going with you," Angie said, as she took Ash's hand, "how about you Tracey?"
"Three is better than two, so count me in!" Tracey answered.
"Okay then, let's follow the tracks, we should find them soon enough," Ash said.
They moved as fast as the terrain allowed them to go, but soon the tracks were lost, because the soil was nothing but rocks here.
"Now we're never gonna find that Hunter J.!" Ash said disappointed.
Tracey suddenly had an idea.
"Why don't you send out your Staravia? Perhaps it can see something from above," he suggested.
Ash released Staravia, and instructed the Bird Pokémon to look for the vehicle they had been following. "Starrravia," it sounded as it flew up high and begin circling around. After a while Staravia began flapping it's wings frantically.
"You've seen something?" Ash asked.
Staravia flew off to a patch of forest, about half a mile away from them. At the edge they found the tracks again.
"We must be quiet now," Tracey warned Ash and Angie. "In this forest they could be just around any corner, and we don't want them to spot us first."
They moved on more carefully. After a while they heard some Pokémon cry in fear.
"That's where they must be," Ash said, "let's hurry!"
A few bushes further Ash suddenly froze. Angie bumped into him.
"What is it?" she whispered.
Ash didn't say a word, but with an angry look on his face, he pointed right ahead.
"Oh..." Angie was startled by what she saw.
There was a woman, in some gray uniform, with a special device tied to her arm. With a cold look in her eyes, she aimed it at some shivering Pokémon that had been driven into a corner, and fired her device. The hit Pokémon, a wild Sandslash was immediately frozen, and fell over. The woman smiled viciously, and them took aim at her next victim, freezing it also in an instant.
"Come on, keep loading those Pokémon into the storage container!" she commandeered her aides. "We don't have all day, you know. Or do you want to wait before someone sticks their noses into our business like that officer Jenny or some Pokémon Ranger, like in Sinnoh? Now, let's see, which one of you will go first?" she continued, as she took aim again at the remaining Pokémon that had nowhere to go.
"You know it makes me so mad to see this," Ash said, "we must do something. Do you have an idea, Angie? Angie...?"
Ash saw no trace of her any more.
"Tracey," he whispered, "do you know where Angie is?"
"I thought she was with you," he said as he shook his head. "I was watching that Hunter J. all the time. Those poor Pokémon."
Ash looked around, hoping to spot his missing girlfriend somewhere. Meanwhile Hunter J. powered up her capture device again. This time a cute Pachirisu was her target.
"And here comes another one for our warehouse," she laughed.
Suddenly a loud "No! You have no right to do this!" sounded. Ash and Tracey recognized that voice as Angie's. And indeed it was her that had jumped out of the bushes, close to the scared Pachirisu. Angie's eyes looked very bright like flames, because of the injustice that she had witnessed being done to those poor Pokémon. Ash couldn't remember when he had last seen Angie this mad but he could fully understand her feelings, since he had been wanting to step up himself as well from the moment he saw Hunter J. in action.
"And who exactly may you be?" Hunter J. asked.
"Someone that thinks that Pokémon should not be treated as goods!" Angie replied. "Now you release all those Pokémon you captured, and then get out off here!"
Hunter J. laughed out loud.
"I mean it!" Angie yelled even louder.
"Did you honestly think that I am going to let our operation get interrupted by a single little girl?" Hunter J. said, still laughing. "Go play with your dolls and don't stick your nose in things that are not your business! Or else you may get hurt, and we wouldn't want that, now would we?"
Angie got a little scared at those threats, but she stood her ground.
"You are not taking these Pokémon!" she said even more firmly.
Hunter J. stood motionless for a moment, slightly surprised by the determination of this to her unknown girl.
"Fine! If that's the way you want it," she said, at an indifferent tone. "I've always been wanting to test my capture device on humans. You make a nice test subject," and she powered up the device.
"Hold it right there, Hunter J.!" Ash shouted as he emerged from his hiding place.
"You!?" Hunter J. said while looking at Ash like he was dirt. "I was hoping I'd never have to see that irritating face of yours again," she said.
"Well, that feeling is mutual," Ash said.
Hunter J. looked insulted at Ash's remark.
"That pesky little girl belongs to you, right?" Hunter J. said. "She is just as irritating as you, meddling with my affairs. What is she, your sister or what? Ah, never mind, I don't want to know. I'll both freeze you with my capture device and get rid of you," she threatened.
Ash knew he had to act quickly.
"Pikachu, do Thunderbolt on that apparatus on Hunter J.'s arm!" he ordered.
Pikachu unleashed a powerful electrical charge on it's target, causing the capture device to short circuit.
"You've just ruined an expensive piece of equipment!" Hunter J. shouted, "that's gonna cost you dearly!"
Meanwhile Ash ran to Angie to ask her if she was okay.
"I'm sorry I tried to take her on alone Ash, but I just couldn't stand there doing nothing as those poor Pokémon were getting..." she apologized.
"I'm glad you did what you did," Ash smiled at her, "but now we've got to find a way to get out of here in one piece."
Suddenly he got an idea.
"Pikachu, can you tell those wild Pokémon we are here to help them and that together we have a chance to beat the Pokémon hunter?"
Pikachu nodded and raced of to the group of wild Pokémon that were still trembling, stuck in the place where they had been cornered by Hunter J.'s men. It quickly told them what Ash had said and then went back to it's trainer.
"Will they help us?" Ash asked.
"Pikapika!" Pikachu said, indicating it had been able to convince the wild Pokémon.
"Great, go tell them they should attack now," Ash said.
"Piiikaaaachuuu!" they heard as "general" Pikachu ordered it's "troops" to attack.
"Ash, if we send out our own Pokémon, we'll have even more of a chance," Angie suggested.
"Great idea Ange!" Ash agreed with her. "Come all out you guys! Concentrate your attacks on Hunter J. and her vehicle!" Ash yelled.
The tires of the truck blew, and smoke came from the engine compartment, as it was hit by a combination of electric, fire and water-type attacks.
"Way to go!" Ash said as he jumped up, and gave Angie a high five.
"Okay, that's enough!" Hunter J. shouted. "Salamance, come out and do Hyper Beam on those pests!"
Hunter J.'s most powerful Pokémon appeared, and blasted away at Pikachu and his "army", driving them apart.
"Ash, it's no use. She's too strong!" Angie said, "Those poor Pokémon..." and tears formed in her eyes.
That made Ash even more mad than he had already been about Hunter J.'s actions. "There must be something we can do, if only we had enough power to beat that Salamence, then.. Wait a minute, we do have that power!" he thought.
"Chimchar, do Flame Wheel on Salamence!" Ash yelled.
"Char!" was his Pokémon buddy's answer.
"Ash, call Chimchar back. You know it's not strong enough to take on Salamence!" Tracey yelled.
"Not yet, just wait," Ash said with a mysterious smile on his face.
Hunter J. was now riding on her powerful Salamence, and she saw Ash's Chimchar come closer.
"Do Dragon Claw!" she commanded.
With a fierce blow Ash's Chimchar was hurled to the ground.
"Ohhh... Chimchar!" Ash yelled, but Chimchar got up on it's feet again. "Okay, hold on, do another Flame Wheel on Salamence!"
"What are you doing, Ash?" Angie said, a bit shocked by the way Ash seemed to be mistreating his Pokémon, "you know Chimchar will get hurt if you keep attacking like this."
"Trust me on this one, Ange," he said, as he looked deep into her eyes. "Do you remember that Monferno you had to train temporarily on the Pokémon Summer Academy?"
She nodded.
"Then certainly you also do remember it's special ability, right?" Ash asked.
"Now I see what you are trying to do," Angie said as she opened her eyes wide, "I hope it works..."
"So do I, Ange.. So do I..." Ash said.
Chimchar took another blow from Salamence, but didn't give up. It tried another Flame Wheel, with the same result.
"Call the mothership! We take what we have caught so far and get out of here!" Hunter J. commanded.
"Oh no, you won't!" Ash yelled, "Come on Chimchar, one more Flame Wheel!"
Hunter J. looked down on Ash and Chimchar. "Pathetic!" she thought. "If it wasn't for that damaged capture device, I would have simply caught those pesky kids and continued gathering those Pokémon." Salamence deflected Chimchar's attack with the same ease as the previous ones.
"Why don't you just give up, and be glad that you didn't get hurt,... yet!" Hunter J. shouted to Ash and his friends.
Then they suddenly heard a series of wild cries. It was Chimchar! "Alright, it worked!" Ash thought. Chimchar was enraged as his special ability, Blaze, had kicked into action.
"Now we'll show them a real Flame Wheel!" Ash said to his Pokémon.
Chimchar attacked once more, totally engulfed in flames, and Salamence took a direct hit. Even though Hunter J.'s Pokémon had extra resistance to fire-type attacks, it went down, and fainted. Hunter J. was dazed for a moment, by the sudden power Chimchar had displayed and that took down her Salamence, and by her falling on the ground, as a result of Salamence dropping out of the sky.
"Why... you!" She shouted at Ash.
Then all of a sudden dust was blowing around, and a large shadow fell over Ash. It was Hunter J.'s mothership! Angie had to hold on to Ash as the large craft descended close to them.
"Get our merchandise secured! Now!" Hunter J. shouted as she quickly boarded her ship, after she had made her beaten Salamence return to it's Poké Ball.
The large container, where the Pokémon she already captured had been put away in, was grabbed by the docking latch at the underside of the mothership.
"No way!" Ash yelled. "Chimchar, do Flamethrower on that docking latch!"
Being so much more powerful because of it's Blaze-ability that was now active, Chimchar's Flamethrower was powerful enough to simply melt the latch, and the container was released.
"Now do Mach Punch on the door of the container!" Ash commanded.
It burst open, and Angie and Tracey rushed inside, to release the Pokémon from their stasis chambers.
"Oh... those little annoying brats!" Hunter J. grumbled, as she saw Ash and his friends free the Pokémon. "Turn around!" she said to the pilot, "We'll blast them sky high for meddling with my affairs!"
Angie and Tracey had freed all the Pokémon by now, and stepped outside of the empty container.
"Ash, look out! I think that ship is about to attack!" Angie yelled as she saw the craft turn around towards them. "Chimchar, one more Flame Wheel please, this time aim it at the engines!" Ash yelled.
Ash knew that his brave Pokémon was getting tired, but this was their only chance. "You can do it, Chimchar!" he thought. Chimchar crashed at full speed into the right engine, causing a big explosion, only to fall down afterwards, completely helpless. Ash ran to where his fainted Pokémon was likely to come down. He was still too far away, so he jumped forward, with his arms extended, to catch Chimchar.
"I've got you!" he shouted as Chimchar landed safely in his arms.
"Way to go, Ash!" Angie shouted, while running towards him, "how's Chimchar?"
"A little tired, but I think he will be fine. That was really great, buddy!" Ash praised Chimchar as it slowly opened it's eyes again.
"We're losing power fast!" one of Hunter J.'s crewman shouted.
"Maybe if we cut the power to the weapons, we may be able to stay airborne!" the pilot suggested.
"Grrrrrr..." was the answer of the angry Pokémon hunter. "Alright then, make it so! We can't afford to lose even more resources on this mission." Hunter J. grumbled. "I thought I'd seen the last of that Ash Ketchum when I moved our operation to Kanto, but it seems I was wrong. And that girl he has with him now, she is just as much trouble!" she added
One of the crewman interrupted her carefully, since he noticed his master was not in a particularly good mood now.
"We're stable now. What are your orders?" he asked.
Hunter J. kept silent for a moment.
"Let's head back to headquarters immediately. I need some time to plan my revenge on those brats!" she commanded. "Roger!" the pilot acknowledged her orders, and the crippled craft flew off.
"Thats right! You run away! And stay away!" Ash shouted as if Hunter J. could still hear him. "You've come to the wrong region, this is my home!"
The released Pokémon thanked Ash and friends for their helping them to be safe again, then went off to their homes.
"All this action has made me hungry, how about you, Angie?" Ash said.
"Hmmmm, you're right, I would also really like something to eat," Angie admitted.
Tracey also agreed, so they made camp there, and Angie started preparing a meal as Ash took care of Chimchar. Tracey was checking the pictures he had made during their encounter with Hunter J. which he had taken to be used as evidence for the authorities. A little later they were having their well deserved dinner.
"Well, compared to this, that Rock Tunnel, will be pretty dull, I guess," Angie said.
Everyone laughed. Whether she would be proven right, would become clear the next day. But for now, they went to bed early, to be ready for the challenges that lied ahead for them.
My eleventh fan-fiction story. I apologize for any typing errors, or grammatically not 100% correct sentences. Remember, I am not a native English speaker or writer. I tried to make this story as close to the Pokémon series as possible, so that the characters will react roughly the same in this fictional story as they do in the series. Comments are always welcome, you can use the review function on this FanFiction site for that.
Disclaimer: I do not own or claim to own any trademarks of Pokémon. Any similarities to the works of others is purely accidental, and not meant as an infringement on anyone's achievements.
