Hocus Pocus 1.5 Chapter 4

"Another Team Rocket?!" shouted Misty.

Brock looked over at Jessie and James.

"Friends of ours?" he asked with a glare.

Jessie, James, and Meowth looked up in the tree that this different Team Rocket was in.

Jessie quickly made a angry frown when her eyes laid upon the female named "Cassidy".

"Cassidy," said Jessie.

Cassidy looked down at Jessie.

"Jessie," said Cassidy. "Getting beat up by just a couple of twerps, I presume?"

Jessie's face seemed to be turning redder and redder by each word that came out of Cassidy's mouth.

"You shut up, up there! Or I'll —"

"Or you'll what?" asked Cassidy. "Look at you: all of your Pokémon have already been beaten, your 'opponents' still have every one of their Pokémon awake and ready for more, and you still haven't caught a single rare Pokémon yet!"

"I said shut up!" shouted Jessie, now red as a apple.

Jessie quickly turned towards James, now directing her maddened glare at him.

"James, do something!" she commanded.

James, scared of Jessie now with the glare she was giving him, threw his hands up in the air in a means of surrender.

"I can't. I hate to admit it, Jessie, but she's right. We have no Pokémon," said James.

Jessie, still maddened by all of this, raised her hand to prepare for another slap across James' face, but stopped when Cassidy said something.

"Well, while you two are talking this over, me and Biff —"

"Butch!" shouted Butch next to Cassidy, annoyed yet again.

"Me and . . . him," said Cassidy, correcting herself. "Will be kindly taking some of these Pokémon."

Butch, still in the tree with Cassidy, pulled out a large bazooka that seemed to come from nowhere and pointed it right at everyone's Pokémon. Then, he shot out a large net out of the bazooka, aiming at Staryu and Vulpix.

"No!" shouted Brock and Misty.

They ran over to their Pokémon, trying to help and save them, but the velocity of the net was too fast for them.

The net flew over the two Pokémon and quickly tighten up to where they could not escape. Then, the net was sucked right back towards Butch's bazooka, up high in the tree.

"No! Vulpix!"

"Staryu!"

Brock leaped in the air to try to grab hold of the net, but it had already gone too high for him to reach. Misty also tried, but nothing worked.

"Nice one, Clutch," said Cassidy.

"It's Butch! . . . And, thank you," said Butch and aimed at the next Pokémon.

Ash, wanting to help, reach back in his belt to pull out a Poké Ball. However, when he reached back, he was reminded that he didn't have a belt for he was now a Pokémon.

"Hey! Give me back my Staryu!" shouted Misty. "Go —"

Right before Misty had the chance to throw out her Poké Ball, she noticed that it seemed to be pulling away from her hand. Then suddenly, it flew out of her hand and up into the tree that Butch and Cassidy were in.

"What?" said Misty.

Then, Misty felt her bag starting to become strangely lighter. She reached back to try to hold her bag down, but then saw all of her Poké Balls with all of her Pokémon in them also fly out of her bag and into the tree.

Misty turned and looked back up into the tree. There, next to Butch, Cassidy was holding out another weapon. This one was shaped like a large magnet, but was held like a gun.

All of the Poké Balls flew over to the magnet shaped weapon and stuck to it like glue.

"Haha! Don't even try to butter me up, kid! All of your Pokémon are now mine!" said Cassidy, laughing. "Poké Balls are made out of a very special type of metal, which is the only kind of metal that this magnet can attract!"

Brock, who was standing near Misty, suddenly felt his belt feel lighter. He knew that it was filled with all of his other Pokémon, so he tried to hold them down. However, nothing worked, and the Poké Balls just slipped right threw Brock's fingers and flew onto the magnet.

"Hey! Give those back!" shouted Brock!

"Ha! Like we would!" said Butch and aimed for Pikachu.

Butch pulled the trigger and fired another net, this time at Pikachu.

Ash saw it coming. He sprinted over to Pikachu to try to save his best friend, to help it, to somehow stop the net, but Pikachu was just too far away for him to help.

"Pikachu!" called Ash.

The net opened up and fell right over Pikachu.

Ash leaped forward at the net, but ended up falling straight onto the ground as the net was hoisted back up into the tree.

"Pikachu!" shouted Ash again as he watched his best friend being pulled away from him.

"Pikapi!" shouted back Pikachu.

Pikachu reached out one of its paws through one of the holes in the net, trying to reach for Ash. Ash reached up into the air, trying to reach for Pikachu as it was taken away from him.

"Nice shot, Clutch," said Cassidy.

"Once again, it's Butch!" corrected Butch.

"Whatever," said Cassidy, pulling out a random bag and stuffing all of their caught Pokémon into it. "Just get that Alakazam and that last Pikachu, then we can leave."


"James!" shouted Jessie.

"What?" quivered James, covering his face from any future slaps.

"Do something!" shouted Jessie.

"What?"

"I said do something and do it now!"

James looked through his covering hands and at Jessie.

"Why?"

Jessie took James' small opening and slapped him hard across the face with the back of her hand. James' face spun to his other side.

"We can't just stand here and let the ugly, preppie, know-it-all Cassidy get everything we have been working for! We got to do something!" said Jessie.

James turned his head back around to face Jessie. A large red bump now rested on his cheek were he was hit.

"Are you actually saying what I think you're saying, Jessie?" asked James.

"You want us ta' help the twerps?!" said Meowth, shock filling his face.

Jessie hung her head low, hiding her emotions from the other two next to her.

"Y-yes . . . that is what I'm saying . . ."

"But, why help the twerps? Wouldn't that just get us in more trouble?" asked James.

Jessie swung her head back up to face James. The movement frightened James for a second that he jumped back a bit.

"I would rather help those twerps than see that Cassidy run off with our Pikachu! We have worked too hard to get what they have just got in only seconds," said Jessie. "I'm not letting her steal from me again!"

Meowth sighed and shrugged his shoulders.

"Okay . . . so we'll help the twerps, but how we gonna do that?" asked Meowth.

Jessie thought about it. How were they supposed to help when all of their own Pokémon have already been beaten?

Jessie looked up into the tree. There, her nemesis, Cassidy, was smiling. Her oh-so-perfect smile just made Jessie even madder every time she thought about it. Jessie just wanted to run up that tree and tare off those pretty lips of hers . . .

"Wait . . ." said Jessie.

"What?" asked James.

Jessie looked up and down that tree, checking every branch, every leaf, every piece of bark, everything.


Butch aimed his bazooka straight at Ash. Just as soon as the Pikachu with the hat was in the scope, Butch pulled the trigger and shot out the next net.

Everything seemed to happen in slow motion for Ash. He could see the net coming, he knew that it was heading straight for him, he could even feel the wind blowing away to make room for the net, but he didn't move.

For some reason, Ash couldn't move. He was stuck there, shock stricken. His mouth was left open from when he shouted Pikachu's name, and he couldn't close it.

The net was right in front of him now. Ash still didn't move or even flinch. He could hear Misty's and Brock's voices calling him . . . saying . . . something, but they seemed far away from him.

The net was just about to enclose around Ash, then . . .

SSSSSssshhhhh...

Ash was pushed aside, away from the net. He fell over to his side, but quickly looked over to see who had saved him.

It was Colby. Somehow, the teen had gotten back up from being electrocuted and pushed Ash away from being caught in the net! However, in doing so, the net had caught Colby instead!

The net engulfed Colby, who was laying down, probably from still being weak from the thundershock, and the net was now taking him back to the Team Rocket.

"Colby!" shouted Misty. "Hey, he's not a Pokémon! Give him back!"

Butch pulled in the net with Colby still inside it. He gave Colby a look, shrugged, then placed him in the bag with all the other caught Pokémon.

"He might be useful for Giovanni," said Butch.

"How?" shouted Brock. "Like what Misty said, he's not a Pokémon!"

"Maybe not," said Cassidy. "But we saw what he did with those fools Pokémon. We could kidnap him and make him work for us."

She turned to Butch.

"A great idea, don't you think, Dutch?"

Butch spun his head around to face Cassidy, filled with annoyance yet again.

"It's Butch! How many times do I have to remind you?!"

Cassidy rolled her eyes.

"Sorry . . . just hurry up and get the last two."

"Can't," said Butch.

Cassidy turned her full attention to Butch.

"And why can't you?" she asked.

"Because that was our last net. I don't have any more to shoot," said Butch calmly.

"Then why don't you just use one of the nets we just used. All of the Pokémon are already in the bag, right?"

"They don't work that way! Once you reopen the nets, they can't close anymore!" said Butch.

Cassidy turned away from Butch and stuck her chin up in the air, annoyed.

"Fine, then we'll just do it the old fashioned way," she said.

Cassidy tossed her magnet into the bag filled with Pokémon and jumped down from the tree.

Now on the ground, Cassidy reached down to her belt and pulled out a Poké Ball.

"Go, Raticate!" she shouted.

She threw out the Poké Ball towards the ground. The ball flew through the air and hit the ground hard, opening it, and releasing a white light that turned into a large Raticate.

"Raticate!" said the Raticate.

"Raticate," said Cassidy. "Use Bite on that Pikachu!"

Ash saw the Raticate turn its attention towards him. From there, the large rat pounced right at him.

"Ash!" shouted Misty. "Run!"

And he did just that. Ash spun around and dashed away from the pouncing Raticate.

The large rat landed on the ground where Ash was once at, but then chased after Ash in full sprint.

Ash was still not used to his new body. He tried to run on his two feet, but ended up tripping over himself and fell head-first onto the ground. The Raticate saw its chance and pounced straight at Ash, baring its teeth and getting ready to bite down.

Ash quickly rolled over his back and over to his side.

The Raticate landed straight on its teeth onto the ground, inches besides Ash. It would've landed on its face, but because its teeth were barring out so much, it was almost like it bit into the ground.

Which is what it did. Its teeth were now stuck into the ground because it did indeed bite into the ground.

Ash, who was still on his side, saw this as a chance. Without thinking, Ash swung over his small foot and dug it deep into the Raticate's side.

The Raticate made a whine of pain, but still couldn't get its teeth out of the ground. Ash got up to his feet and landed a quick punch on top of the Raticate's back. Raticate made another whine and continued to pull out.

"Raticate!" shouted Cassidy. "Use Super Fang to get the ground out of your teeth!"

The Raticate's teeth started to glow, then it bit down harder into the earth, breaking the dirt its teeth were stuck on.

"Uh, oh," mumbled Ash.

Ash saw it coming, so he quickly turned around and ran to try to get some space between him and Raticate.

The Raticate was now free and pulled its head out of the ground.

Butch jumped down from the tree while holding the bag.

"Need some help?" he asked Cassidy as he walked up to her.

"Just get that Alakazam while I try to get this Pikachu," said Cassidy. "Raticate, Quick Attack!"

While Raticate was about to do its move, Butch pulled out his won Poké Ball and threw it out.

"Go, Primeape!"

The ball opened up as soon as it hit the ground and released a Primeape.

"Primeape!" said the Primeape.

"Primeape, High Kick on that Alakazam!" commanded Butch.

"Wait," said Brock, thinking. "Alakazam is a psychic type Pokémon. Why would he use a fighting type?"

Brock thought for a few seconds, then ran over to Alakazam.

"Alakazam," said Brock. "Push Primeape away with Psychic!"

Alakazam's eye started to glow and Primeape sta—

"Alaka!"

The band around Alakazam's head was shooting out electricity all around Alakazam's head, stopping it from using it's attack.

The Primeape rushed in towards Alakazam, using the distraction to its advantage, and swung up its High Kick across Alakazam's chin. Alakazam stubbled backward, but quickly regained its balance.

"Wha—?" said Brock.

Butch saw Brock's face and started laughing.

"I don't think so," said Butch. "That band around Alakazam's head was made just for psychic type Pokémon. Whatever psychic move Alakazam does will just end up it hurting itself."

Brock clenched his teeth in frustration. What other moves can this Alakazam know that are not psychic? Most Alakazams know only psychic moves.

Ash leaped over to the side as Raticate did another Quick Attack.

"Again, Raticate!" commanded Cassidy. "The Pikachu is getting tired!"

Raticate charged towards Ash again with amazing speed. Ash waited for the last second, then jumped out of the way, avoiding the attack.

"Raticate," said Cassidy. "Use Scary Face!"

The Raticate turned and faced Ash, but this time didn't charge at him. Instead, Raticate made one of the most scariest faces Ash had ever seen, and it was looking straight at him.

Fear swelled up inside Ash. His body couldn't move due to being paralyzed by fear.

"Now Raticate!" said Cassidy. "Use Hyper Fang!"

The Raticate's face was back to normal and it charged again towards Ash.

Ash tried to move . . . He wanted to move, but his body was even slower than before. That image of Raticate's face was burned into his mind that his body reacted slower to his mind's commands.

"Dodge it!" shouted Misty, trying to be of some help.

The Raticate still running towards Ash, baring its teeth and getting ready. It was already right in front of Ash, and if one second passed by it would be too late.

Ash finally got his body to move, but it was already too late. The Raticate (once it was close enough) leaped forward at Ash with its teeth at ready. Ash did move away, but the Raticate's teeth caught hold of Ash's arm right before he managed to escape.

The body weight of Raticate along with the momentum it brought pulled Ash down to his back onto the ground. The Raticate still had Ash's arm between it's teeth and would refused to let it go.

Then, the pain came.

The Raticate bite down hard with its teeth, using its Hyper Fang move on Ash's arm. Ash yelled in pain, but didn't give up. He tried to pull his arm out, he tried to slip away, he tried to squirm . . . but his arm stayed.

"Primeape, use Focus Punch!" commanded Butch.

The Primeape nodded and dashed towards Alakazam, charging up it's hand and making it glow.

The Alakazam stood there, not moving, and not avoiding the powerful oncoming punch.

"Alakazam!" shouted Brock. "Dodge it!"

But, the Alakazam didn't move. It wouldn't listen to Brock.

The Primeape was now inches away from Alakazam and swung it's glowing fist over to the psychic's head.

But suddenly, right as Primeape's fist was zooming over to Alakazam's head, the psychic raised up its own arm in a swift motion and simply pushed the fist away, making Primeape hit nothing but air.

The Primeape lost some of its balance, expecting to actually hit the Alakazam, but quickly regained it.

"What?!" said Butch, shocked. "Primeape, Close Combat, now!"

The Primeape started to throw all kinds of offensive punches, kicks, chops, and everything else right at Alakazam. But somehow, the Alakazam just swiftly blocked every single attack with a simple move of the arm or paw or leg.

Then, right when the Primeape threw another punch at Alakazam's chest, the Alakazam raised its arm underneath Primeape's fist, pushing the punch over Alakazam's head. From there (and very quickly) the Alakazam slammed a short punch right into Primeape's stomach. The Primeape had to stop its own attack due to the blow, but Alakazam pressed forward.

After doing the short punch, the Alakazam swung over it's elbow across Primeape's cheek. Then, while keeping the elbow dug into Primeape's cheek, the Alakazam swung a chop over Primeape's face using the hand that was connected to the elbow that was still on Primeape's cheek. After that, Alakazam pulled it elbow away and swung over a side palm right at the side of Primeape's head, then, from there, swung around its back foot all the way around itself and slammed the heel right on Primeape's nose. A spinning back kick.

The Primeape flew backwards after the powerful kick was done. It flew back all the way into a tree, which it hit with a loud THUD.

Alakazam brought its right foot in front of it and got both of its hands up in guard.

"Wh-wh-what w-w-was that?!" said Butch, shocked from all of this. "D-did that Alakazam just do fighting moves?!"

Brock was just as shocked as Butch was. He looked at Alakazam's stance, then noticed that the stance seemed very familiar.

Then, he remembered.

"That's," said Brock. "That's the same stance Colby was in when he fought!"

It indeed was. Down to the very last detail, Alakazam was in the exact same fighting stance as its trainer was.

Primeape, who hit a tree very hard, slid off the tree, knocked out.

Butch got out his Poké Ball and returned Primeape to its ball.

Then, Brock heard someone yell in pain. He turned and saw Ash on his back with Raticate bitting his arm.

Brock turned back to Alakazam.

"Alakazam, help Ash!"

Alakazam turned around to look at Ash, then nodded at Brock.

Ash moaned in pain again. The Raticate was biting even harder now and refused to let go.

"Use Quick Attack!" commanded Misty. "Use Thundershock, use Tail Whip, use . . . something!"

Ash groaned. She knows that I don't know any of those moves, so why does she keep telling me that?! Thought Ash.

Ash knew he had to do something, otherwise this Raticate would bite off his arm!

Without thinking, Ash lifted his head up to Raticate's and bite his own Pikachu teeth into Raticate's nose, trying to do some sort of damage.

Raticate quickly released Ash's arm and wailed with pain from Ash's bite. The rat raised its head high in the air, but Ash kept his alien fangs into the Raticate's nose.

The Raticate brought its head back down. Then, it tried to swing Ash off of it by swinging its head around.

Ash was jerked to the left, to the right, up, down , left again, and back up. Eventually, Ash's hold couldn't keep, and he was flung right off.

"Raticate!" commanded Cassidy. "Quick Attack and finish it off!"

Raticate shook off the pain from Ash's bite, then dashed forward in Ash's direction.

Then, Alakazam, seeming to come out of nowhere at the time, rushed in and slammed its head straight into Raticate's side while it was doing a Quick Attack at Ash.

Raticate flipped over to its side, having its air knocked right out. Alakazam brought up a Front Kick underneath the Raticate, kicking it into the air. From there, Alakazam jumped up into the air and slammed a Flying Round Kick right onto Raticate, sending it flying.

Raticate flew all the way over to Cassidy, slamming into her. The momentum from the kick on Raticate and it slamming into Cassidy flung the Rocket member back into another tree.

"Oof," was all Cassidy could say when Raticate got her and she got the tree.

"Cassidy!' said Butch when he saw what happened.

His face turned into anger and he turned his attention to Alakazam. He reached back to grab another Poké Ball, so he could get that darn Kong-Fu Pokémon back.

But, as he reached back, a large stick swung over onto Butch's back, pushing him down onto his stomach.

"Ha! Now who's getting beat up?" said Jessie, lifting up her stick high in the air like a trophy.

"Jessie?" said Misty, bewildered.

Jessie, hearing Misty's shock, turned to her and pointed her stick at her.

"Hey! Don't think I'm going soft on you!" said Jessie. "As soon as these two are gone, we're enemies again."

"Wait," said Brock. "Does that mean that you're helping us now?"

"Don't get cocky!" warned Jessie.

She turned her head over to face James, who was behind her.

"Quick! Get Cassidy's and Cutch's—"

"Butch," corrected Butch, but couldn't say it very loudly due to his blow on the back.

"Quiet, you!" said Jessie, stomping her foot on his back.

Butch fall flat on the ground with a soft "Oof" when Jessie did so.

Cassidy, still in front of her tree, staggered back up and pushed her Raticate away to the side.

"Jessie!" she shouted. "You backstabbing thief! Giovanni will kill you if he finds out what you've done with your fellow members!"

"'Fellow members'?!" said Jessie. "You are no 'fellow member' to me, you stupid witch!"

"Jessie," warned James, overhearing their conversation. "She's right. If the boss finds out that we stopped them from getting Pokémon, he'll kick us out of Team Rocket for sure!"

Cassidy grinned.

"So then maybe I should hurry up and get going," she said.

Cassidy reached over to her belt and pulled out two Poké Balls. The first one, she used to return the Raticate, the second one she threw out.

"Go, Houndour! Use Flame Thrower!" called Cassidy.

The ball hit the ground and released the Houndour. The Houndour immediately opened its mouth and blew out a large line of fire straight towards Jessie.

Jessie saw it coming and tried to move out of the way, but the flames engulfed her.

She stood at the same position she was in before she was burned, but now she was covered in black ash. Her face shown a smile of pain.

"O-Ow," was all Jessie said.

Butch, now having Jessie's foot off of his back, got back up to his feet and staggered over to Cassidy.

"Lets go. Get the Pokémon," said Cassidy. "Houndour, return!"

Cassidy held out her Poké Ball and returned Houndour to it. Butch grabbed the bag filled with all of the stolen Pokémon and slung it over his back.

"No!" called Misty. "Give our Pokémon back!"

She ran over to Cassidy and Butch in an attempt to get the bag, but as soon as she reached them, they jumped back up into the tree that they were in before.

"Sorry, kid," said Butch. "But we'll see you later!"

Then, they turned around and leaped onto the next tree, then the next, and the next, and the next, etcetera.

Ash ran up to the tree that the two jumped out of.

They took it. They took all of them . . .

"Pikachu!" called out Ash, hopping to hear his best friend call back.

But as he watched the two dots jump out of sight, he heard no answer.