Chapter Two

'Oh no!' Misty gasped. 'Our backpacks!'

OK, so that was misleading narration in the last chapter, but hey.

'Oh no!!' Brock moaned. 'All my pokémon were in that backpack! All FOUR of them!!! Whatever will I do??'

'Hey, where's Togepi?' Ash asked. Misty freaked.

'Togepi's gone!' she squealed. She grabbed hold of Ash's shirt. 'This is all your fault Ash Ketchum, if you'd just weakened that Jigglypuff enough in the first place I could have captured it!'

'Oh, so now it's all my fault!?' Ash demanded. 'You were the one that made it angry by throwing the pokéball! Why'd you want to catch it anyway, aren't you meant to be a water pokémon trainer!?'

'For your information, water pokémon are just my speciality, that doesn't mean I only train water pokémon!' said Misty.

As they went on arguing, Brock sighed and sat down. 'Pikachu, you're my friend aren't you?'

'Pi?' Pikachu asked, titling its head.

'Ha ha! Prepare for trouble!'

It was about time, too.

'Make it double!'

Unfortunately for Team Rocket, Ash and Misty were too busy arguing, and Brock too bored, to even notice them. Still, they recited the rest of their motto. You already know it though, so I don't need to type it.

'Pi Pikachu!' Pikachu exclaimed belatedly.

'We're here for Pikachu!' said Jessie. She then realised no one was listening to her, and started getting those weird marks on her head that anime characters have when they're angry.

'Wooooobuffet!'

'Get back in your pokéball!' said Jessie angrily.

'Pikachu, come with us,' said James, trying a different tactic. 'We're much better than those losers you hang around with. I mean, we've got cool hairstyles, my voice always sounds like it's breaking, and we repeat the same over-used motto every day.. we're much better masters than that Ash guy. I mean really, what's he got? A couple of badges sure, but has he got love and loyalty to his pokémon? I don't think so. You and Bulbasaur are the only pokémon left from the first series, and Bulbasaur will probably leave soon too. Look at us, we've still got Arbok and Weezing, they've been with us all the way.. it's touching really.'

Pikachu titlted its head as James wiped a tear from his eye. Pika pika pi pikachu, it thought.

Meanwhile, Jessie had gotten Wobbuffet back in its pokéball. Brock was still sitting around being bored, and Misty had remembered that Ash still owed her a bike, so their argument was getting worse.

'The only reason you won't give me my bike is so I don't leave and there's no female hero, isn't it Ash!?' Misty demanded. 'Come on, admit it!'

'Pikachu,' said James. 'Seriously, just take a look at them. She's still going on about that rusty old bike.. do you really want to have to put up with that?'

'Pika,' nodded Pikachu.

'Rrrr.. Pikachu just come with us!' said James angrily.

'PIKACHU!' said Pikachu, and used some kind of electric attack on him. James fell to the ground. At the sound of the thump, Ash turned around.

'It's Team Rocket!' he gasped. He looked at them angrily. 'What are you doing here!?'

'What do you think we're doing here?' James asked, standing up. 'We're here to use all sorts of weird contraptions we obviously couldn't afford to try and catch Pikachu for ten minutes or so before you defeat us and we "blast off again".'

'Um,' said Ash, taking a step back. 'OK.'

'So anyway...' said Misty, realising the plot was going nowhere. 'What about our backpacks?'

'Ha ha!' said Jessie. 'That reminds me!'

'We have your backpacks!' said James, and gave an evil laugh (well, his attempt at an evil laugh, which was really more of a girly laugh).

'Give us our backpacks now!' said Ash, just waiting for the chance to demand something.

'Oh, we'd be happy to,' said Jessie patronisingly, holding out Ash's backpack. As Ash reached for it, she snatched it back. 'Right after you give us Pikachu!'

'That's not a bad trade, really,' commented Brock.

'Pika!' said Pikachu angrily.

'Er, I mean, you'll never get away with this!' said Brock. 'Go Onix!'

'Go Victreebel!' said James. He threw a pokéball; his pokémon promptly started chewing his head. 'No not me, attack Onix!'

'Treeee!' (or whatever it says) said Victreebel. It let go of James and leapt at the onix. Opening its huge mouth, it practically swallowed Onix's head. This didn't look good.

'Um,' said James. 'Was that meant to happen?'

Onix started thrashing about (er.. Brock must have taught it Thrash), trying to get the thing off its head.

'Hang on a moment,' cut in Misty. 'If all your pokémon were in your backpack, how did you just send out Onix?'

'You know what?' said Brock, in thought. 'I'm not really sure.'

As the author realised the gaping plot hole, the onix disappeared. So much for that then.

'Er.. PIKACHU! It's up to you now!' said Ash.

'Pika!' nodded Pikachu.

'Pikachu, thunderbolt!' said Ash.

'Chuu!' said Pikachu, and blasted Victreebel with electricity. Despite the fact that electric attacks are weak against grass types, Victreebel collapsed.

'Oh no!' said James. 'Well, um, go Weezing! Weezing, Smokescreen!'

'You'd think they'd have gotten sick of that by now,' said Ash, then realised he was meant to be coughing and covering his face with his arm.

'James,' said Jessie. 'I'm just a bit confused as to why you told Weezing to use Smokescreen when it was really no benefit to us at all.. don't we usually use it to escape?'

'Oh yeah,' said James. 'I guess I was just used to it.'

'Who cares, let's just get Pikachu!' said Meowth, realising he hadn't been in the story yet.

'Good idea!' said Jessie. She pulled on her rubber gloves and grabbed hold of the electric rat. 'Ha ha ha, now we have your backpacks AND your pikachu! Goodbye, twerps!'

'Noooooooo!' cried Ash. Had Team Rocket really defeated them for good?