Kidnapped! Chapter 1:

A Call for Help

Note: This is set before Journey, but after More Troubles.

A month after Emiko helped Ash recover from falling off a cliff, she was in the kitchen with Ichigo, teaching her how to make miso soup. It wasn't a hard recipe, so Ichigo was doing pretty well.

Suddenly, in the middle of explaining how to add the right amount of leeks, Emiko heard Pikachu's panicked voice in her head, and stopped in the middle of her sentence. Ichigo looked at her quizzically, and Emiko said, "Something's gone wrong in the other dimension. Can you handle the rest?"

"Sure," Ichigo said. "I'll tell Kisshu you've gone."

"Thanks," Emiko said gratefully, and went to get her boots. She put them on and teleported out.

She landed in a clearing. May, Max, Pikachu and Brock were sitting on the ground, looking gloomy. "Hey, what happened?" Emiko asked.

They looked up, startled. "You're back!" May said.

"Pikachu called me," Emiko said. "So why's everyone so glum, and where's Ash?"

"Team Rocket kidnapped Ash," Brock said. "We don't exactly know why, either. They didn't say anything, they just knocked him out, grabbed him, and left in their balloon."

"We couldn't stop them, because they used Ash as a shield, so we couldn't attack," May continued.

"And now we have no clue where they are!" Max said.

"I'll see if I can sense anything," Emiko said. She closed her eyes, and focused on Ash's face, but couldn't sense anything. "This isn't good, I think they're out of range," Emiko said. "I can't sense him."

"Can't you just teleport to him? You said once that if you know what someone looks like, you can teleport to them no matter what," May said.

"Yeah, but I can't take all of you with me," Emiko said. "You'd have to pick one of you to go, since I would need to teleport Ash back as well. I can teleport Pikachu and one of you."

"We can make that work," Brock said. "After all, one of us at least would have to stay behind so you could find us."

"Alright," Emiko said. "Which one of you is coming with me besides Pikachu?"

"I'll go," May said. "Brock, take care of Max."

"Okay," Brock said. "Be careful, all of you."

Emiko, May and Pikachu nodded, and Pikachu jumped onto Emiko's shoulder. Emiko took May's hand, and focused on Ash's face. Then she teleported.

Hmm, I wonder if they'll end up where they're supposed to?