Johan07: The poll for the pairing is still up. There's still time to cast your votes. If you can't log in or don't have an active account, then leave an anonymous review in the review box. Also, if you guys were wondering about Ash and his past history with a firearm, then go back and read chapter 3. There's s few parts where they explains it. In the series, not once did they show what Ash does on his free time. There's a good possibility that he might be doing something other than his regular routine. This thought came from my beta-reader Vandenbz. Oh, and one more thing. If you guys were wondering, Ash is 16, not 10 or 13 in this story. Just to let you know.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters from Pokémon or Resident Evil: Operation Raccoon City.

Rated: T

Word Count: 4,709

Pairing (s): To be determined

Summary: With Mistralton City and Ash's sixth gym battle just days away, Ash and his friends decided to take a short break from their long journey. But soon trouble begins to surface as Team Rocket appears and spoils the group's relaxation. During the heated confrontation, something unexpected happens, sending Ash, Pikachu, and Team Rocket into a whole new adventure, with danger lurking in every corner. Learning that he was no longer in Unova and now in a city where it's being overrun by flesh-eating zombies, Ash must find a way to get back home while dealing with problems, like Team Rocket, the undead, Lickers, Hunters, Mr. X, Nemesis, and two groups (U.S.S. and U.S. Spec Ops) who are interested in his unique ability, aura.

Dancing With Umbrellas

…

A cold chill.

The raven-haired boy felt a cold chill ran down his spine. Was it from the atmosphere? No. It seemed more like a feeling than anything else.

It was fear.

Small droplets of sweat were dripping down his face. His throat was a little dry. He was nervous and… a bit scared, being held at gunpoint by an unknown foe.

Slowly, Ash looked over his shoulder and spotted a mysterious hooded figure in black pointing some sort of rifle at him. Just by looking and studying his unknown assailant's features, there was no doubt that this person was a man. His uniform seemed to be highly customized with various gear but the strange thing about the older male was that he was wearing some kind of special gas mask over his face. The most noticeable part of the mask was those blue eye lenses.

"I'm not going to say this again kid." The gun-wielding man cocked his weapon for the second time. "Don't take another step!" he repeated himself, but this time in a much darker tone.

Ash gritted his teeth.

How did this happen? How did he sneak behind them without them knowing about it? Did he use some kind of sneaky tactic? So many questions were going through Ash's mind right now.

"Face forward." The young trainer didn't budge. Pikachu's cheeks were sparking dangerously at the man. "Now!" the dark hooded male barked with his finger on the trigger.

Ash clenched his fists. It looks like he has no other choice but to follow the man's orders, for now at least. Any sudden movement on his part would cost him dearly.

The raven-haired boy quickly turned his head and looked forward.

"You too, you freak of nature!"

Pikachu gave the man a hard glare. Who was he calling a freak of nature? Was he looking for a fight? If so, the yellow mouse would gladly give him one. A Thunderbolt could easily shut him up. However, one look from Ash told him that he shouldn't do anything reckless until the time was right.

For the sake of his friend, Pikachu had no choice but to stand down and behave.

"Good, now hands up where I can see them, both of you!" the masked man barked his second order with his finger still on the trigger. "And don't try anything stupid either." he added with his weapon still on the pair.

The boy and the mouse again did what the man told them to do. They lifted their hands up and remained still. Once he had a strong feeling that he had everything under his control, the masked scoundrel took a step forward.

A smirk suddenly tugged against the corner of Ash's lips. "Now Pikachu!" he shouted.

Without warning, Pikachu jumped off Ash's shoulder and latched himself onto the evil gunman's face. "What the-" The man stumbled backwards a few steps. "Get off!" He tried to shake Pikachu off, but it was completely useless. The yellow mouse was hanging onto his face for dear life.

Ash was waiting for this opportunity. This was his chance to run while he still can.

"Come on Pikachu!" the adolescent male called.

With a quick nod, the electric rodent used the older male's face as some kind of springboard to leap off. The masked man grunted before staggering backwards a few more steps. Once he quickly recovered, he took notice that his targets were escaping from his grasp.

"Shit!" the angry man cursed.

How the heck did he screw this up?

The man in black quickly went after the boy and the mouse.

Just when the duo was about to exit the alley, five figures in black abruptly cut them off around the corners and stood before them with weapons in hand. Immediately, Ash and Pikachu stopped in their tracks and backed away a little, only to found themselves cornered from both sides.

Great. Just great.

The pair didn't know who these five individuals were, but judging by their dark appearance and similar gear, not to mention those odd masks there was no doubt that they were working together with the hooded man.

This was bad.

"Where do you think you're going, kid?" the one with the shotgun asked.

Ash and Pikachu took a step back.

"You're not going anywhere." a dirty blonde woman with a gas mask stated.

Ash and Pikachu took another step back.

"We got a few questions we would like to ask you, boy," another female stated. "So you had better start talking now before things get really nasty for you." she threatened with a venomous tone. Ash figured that she must be the leader due to the authority in her voice.

The duo glared at the woman who simply glared right back at them through her clear blue mask.

Tension was in the air.

"Now then," Soon the young trainer and the yellow mouse snapped their undivided attention over to the third and final female of the group who turns out to be an Asian woman with a mask covering only her nose and mouth. "What's that thing next to you?" she asked with interest in her tone.

Pikachu was greatly offended when the black-haired woman called him a 'thing'. He was not a thing. He was a Pokémon, for Arceus' sake. Can't she see that?

"From what Spectre has seen and told us, it can use electricity as its own power and fight with it." By the sound of her tone, she sounded like she was intrigued. "Is it a new type of a B.O.W.? If so, how are you able to control it?" the female Asian asked waiting eagerly for the boy's response.

Ash blinked.

Pikachu blinked.

"B… O… W…?" The raven-haired boy was quite baffled. He didn't know what that was. This was his first time hearing such a word. "What's-"

"We're asking the questions here!" the hooded man abruptly cut the young teenager off. "Now answer her!" he barked with authority as he pointed his gun threateningly at the back of the boy's head.

It seemed like Ash had no choice but to cooperate. He was in no position to ask questions.

"I don't know what a B.O.W. is," he started. "But Pikachu is NOT a B.O.W., he's a Pokémon and my best friend." he strongly stated with a hard glare.

There was a brief moment of awkward silence.

No one spoke a single word.

That is… until someone broke the awkward silence.

"What the hell is a Pokémon?" the masked man with the shotgun asked. The duo stared at him in bewilderment as if he grew a second head or something. "And what the hell is a Pikachu?"

Ash couldn't believe what he was hearing.

'They don't know about Pokémon?' He was in utter disbelief. 'Who are these guys?' It wasn't every day that the young teenager came across a group of suspicious people who didn't know a single thing about Pokémon. What was the deal here?

Now that Ash thought about it, he did find the whole situation completely strange if not bizarre. Ever since his arrival at Raccoon City, not once had he seen a Pokémon. The only thing he had encountered thus far in the city was nothing but trouble. Why was that?

"Does it really matter, Beltway?" The raven-haired trainer quickly snapped back to reality when he heard the hooded man scolded at his teammate. "That thing is nothing more than a giant yellow fuzz ball."

Pikachu shot the man a glare.

"Hey, it's not my fault if I'm damn-"

"Vector, Beltway, enough!" the female leader intervened with a loud shout. "This isn't the time for your shit. Stay focused!" The two men did what they were told to do, keeping their mouths shut and focusing on the group's objective.

With Vector and Beltway no longer an issue, the brown-haired woman turned her attention right back to Ash. "Now then, what's this I hear about you and the ability to regenerate…" Once she said that all eyes were glued on the clueless boy.

Ash merely blinked.

"Regenerate?" He had no clue what she was talking about. "What are you-"

"Don't play dumb, kid." Soon Ash turned his attention over to a masked man who no doubt was the one that informed the group about him and his uncanny ability to heal. That person was none other than Spectre. "I saw everything..." the group's marksman said in a creepy tone.

The raven-haired male gave the creepy man a look.

"W-What do you mean, everything?"

"It's useless to hide it." the Asian woman by the name of Four Eyes interrupted. The boy turned to her. "Spectre already informed us all about your little incident." The young male didn't quite follow. "When you first arrived in the city, you encountered a group of infected, one of which that bit you. And at that moment, you did something that caught his attention." She took a brief pause to see if Ash was listening. He was and soon the realization came to him. "Judging by your face, it seems like you remember."

'W-Wait… Is she,' Ash glances down at his once injured forearm. 'Is she talking about my aura?' He kept his gaze on his forearm a little bit longer. 'And how it helped me when I got hurt?'

While Ash was lost in deep thought, Four Eyes kept her eyes on the ball, wondering if Spectre's words were true about the boy. 'Does this boy really possess the ability to heal from an infection of the T-virus?' she pondered. 'It seems a bit skeptical…' But after studying the boy a little bit closer, the female scientist can't help but get a nagging feeling about him. 'But this boy is quite different from the rest. I can't put my finger on it… If he can use such of an ability, there's no doubt he'll a big problem in the long run unless…' A thought abruptly came to her. 'We capture him and bring him back to Command. I'm sure they will pay double, if not triple for a unique test subject who is immune to the infection and has other uncanny abilities to back it up.'

That was a nice thought.

Too bad some of her teammates didn't share the same view.

"Stop stalling," Both Ash and Four Eyes immediately snapped back to reality and turned their attention over to the blonde woman by the name of Bertha who was running out of patience with the boy.

"Why are we even having this conversation with this kid?" Vector intervened, giving everyone the hint that he was really annoyed. "So what if he has some kind of weird ability or weird freak on his side." Pikachu sent a hard glare at Vector. "He's not part of our main mission." the hooded man pointed out.

"To some degree he is." Spectre spoke.

"That's still not enough." the group's recon expert said, not satisfied with his comrade's answer. "Why don't we just kill them both right here and now?" Ash and Pikachu both froze. "Command did order us not to let a single survivor escape from Raccoon City." he reminded his teammates about their orders. "So what's stopping us?" he asked, waiting for a response.

"Now that you mention it…" Beltway thought for a moment before aiming his shotgun at the boy and his little mouse. "You're right. We've got a mission we need to finish." Soon he was joined by Vector, Spectre, and Bertha.

Ash couldn't believe it.

Were these people really going to kill them for something they didn't do? If so, for what purpose? What sadistic reason did they have to do such a thing? So many questions were going through his mind right now and the biggest one was… what should he do now?

…

Not too far from where the event was taking place, there was a young blonde woman in her early twenties on a rooftop. She was looking through a sniper rifle scope at the group. 'Survivors? Good.' But once she took a closer look at the scene, something didn't feel right. 'What's going on down there?' She immediately took notice that some of those suspicious people in black were advancing forward towards the boy and the cute little thing with weapons in hand. 'What are those people doing? He's just a kid!'

Zooming in, the blonde-haired female spotted a familiar red and white logo on the group's outfits. 'Umbrella? What are Umbrella special ops doing here in Raccoon City?' She was getting a bad vibe about this, but there was no time to worry about that.

The boy was in deep trouble.

'I need to help him. Well, just long enough for him and his little, um…pet to escape.' The blonde sniper chambered a round in her rifle before locking in on her objective. 'Well, here goes nothing…'

…

As Vector, Beltway, Spectre, and Bertha were inching closer and closer to Ash and Pikachu, their team leader Lupo intervened and said. "Wait!"

Her teammates immediately paused and turned their attention over to her. "What is it, Lupo?" Vector asked, annoyed.

"Yeah, what gives?" Beltway the demolition expert didn't like it when he was being disturbed on the job.

The female leader threw a quick side-glance in Ash's direction before turning her attention right back to her team. "He could be useful to us." she said abruptly.

"Useful?" the shotgun user repeated. "As in how?" he asked, waiting for a response.

While the Wolfpack were having a little discussion over the matter, Ash, for whatever reason felt like something or someone was watching them from afar. And just like that, his aura senses were tingling. They were detecting a nearby source that was giving off a positive aura flow unlike Delta team who were giving off a massive negative feeling. Whoever it was, the young male had a strong feeling that they were here to help him and Pikachu.

"Pikachu…" the raven-haired boy whispered to his yellow buddy, in hopes to get his attention. The yellow mouse immediately turned to his human friend. "When I give the signal, you jump into the air and attack with a Thunderbolt."

Pikachu merely blinked.

"Just do it." the young teenager said in a quiet tone.

Pikachu didn't know what kind of plan Ash had up his sleeve this time, but he'd try anything to get out of this predicament. He had the utmost faith in his friend and his plan.

("Alright…") the yellow mouse squeaked quietly so only Ash could hear him. ("Whenever you are ready, let's do it.")

With the pair on the same page, it was only a matter of time until they made their move and strike.

Timing was the key.

Slowly, the adolescent trainer closes his eyes and counts to ten. 'One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten…!' Soon the young male shot his eyes wide open and gave a loud shout. "Ready!"

The USS was taken aback by this.

Why was he shouting 'ready'?

Unless…

"The kid may be wearing a wire! Check him Vector!" Lupo ordered.

Before the recon expert could even take a step forward, a speeding bullet out of nowhere flew right past Beltway's shoulder and impacted the wall behind Vector, startling the group and distracting them from their two captives.

Less than a second after the impact Ash yelled, "NOW!"

With no time to waste, the yellow mouse quickly jumped into the air and unleashed hell. His Thunderbolt immediately shocked everybody including Ash until they dropped to both knees. Once his attack was over, Pikachu quickly hurried over to Ash's side.

("Ash!")

This was the second time the young teenager suffered a Thunderbolt today. Pikachu was really worried now. Getting shocked twice so soon wasn't healthy for the human body, even for someone as accustomed to it like Ash. Pikachu knew that his Thundershocks back in Kanto that he hit Ash with at the beginning of their Pokémon journey had been very weak compared to his present Thunderbolt.

"I'm okay, Pikachu." Ash tried to ease his friend's worries with a weak smile. "You don't need to worry." His little friend didn't buy into that lame story for one second. "Let's hurry up and leave!" Pikachu nodded to that.

Once the Pokémon trainer got up to his feet, the duo ran past all the members of the USS. While they were making their escape, the blonde woman who helped them out from earlier continued to keep a close eye on them from her position. She didn't know who they were, but she had a strong feeling that there was more to them than meets the eye. Overall, the female sniper was pretty much intrigued by them. It's not every day she comes across something unusual like this.

'Who would have thought a mutant rat like that could pack such a serious punch?' She pondered. 'But what surprises me the most is that kid…' She eyed Ash suspiciously. 'He somewhat knew I was going to help him and took advantage of that. The timing for that maneuver was unreal!' The blonde woman took a pause. 'Who is this kid?' Then she took another pause before shaking her head. 'There's no time for that. I need to get out of here while I still can. I don't want to get pinned down by those guys.'

Just when the female sniper was about to leave her position and report back to her team, she threw a quick side-glance over at Ash's prior location. 'Good luck, kid. Hope you stay alive…'

Seeing that the boy was escaping from their grasp, Delta team quickly got up to their feet after shaking off the cobwebs from Pikachu's Thunderbolt. "Shit! He's getting away!" Vector cursed.

"After him!" Lupo ordered with an angry tone.

The chase was on.

…

They were running, again.

Ash and Pikachu were running for their lives, again.

To where they were heading, they had no idea. As long as it was somewhere safe away from the those people they wouldn't complain.

That is… until trouble reared its ugly head once again.

Suddenly, several bullets flew past the pair narrowly hitting them in the process. Ash and Pikachu looked over their shoulders and noticed that the Wolfpack was chasing them down despite their head start. The worst part about it was that they were shooting at them.

Their situation wasn't improving by any stretch of imagination.

The young trainer and the yellow mouse were running and dodging, trying desperately to evade each one of Delta squad's bursts of gunfire. They were lucky to have cars around to absorb some of the rounds, not to mention the distance between the two groups and the fact that the pursuers were shooting at moving targets while running. But even these factors weren't going to protect the duo from the ongoing danger forever.

As the pair was heading into an open area, one of the bullets from Delta team grazed the side of Ash's abdomen causing him to fall forward to the ground with a hiss of pain. Pikachu immediately stopped in his tracks and turned around to his fallen trainer.

("Ash!") The yellow rodent quickly rushed over to the young male's side. ("Are you okay?")

There was no time for chitchat. They needed to get a move on as their enemies were approaching fast.

Despite the pain and the bleeding, Ash quickly got to his feet with his hand covering the wound before taking off once again, only this time at a slower pace. Pikachu quickly followed right behind him.

'I need to keep moving…' He ran and ran. 'I can't let this pain slow me down…' The pain was getting worse and worse each time he moved. 'No matter what!' It was quite hard not to think about it.

The pair continued to run with all their might until they cut a corner around a building. Several seconds later so did the Wolfpack. But once the group turned around the corner, they found nothing in sight.

There was no trace of Ash.

There was no trace of Pikachu.

There was no trace of anyone.

The entire area was completely empty of life, undead or otherwise.

"Where the hell did the kid go?" Beltway asked no one in particular while being a little surprised about the unexpected outcome.

"Don't know." Vector answered while glancing around the area. "But that brat couldn't have gone far."

"Search around the area and find him!" Lupo was in a foul mood. "That's an order!" she barked.

With no time to waste, the USS began their search.

Unknown to the group, Ash and Pikachu were hiding behind a set of cars not too far from the intersection. The pair was trying to keep a low profile. They needed time to recuperate, especially the young trainer who wasn't looking so good. Beads of sweat were running down his face and his vision was becoming a bit blurry. Blood continued to drip from his wound through his fingers and soaked into his shirt.

This was not good, not good at all.

And things were about to get much worse.

As he was looking around, Beltway spotted something that caught his attention. It was a trail, but not just any trail. It was a trail of fresh blood and it was leading towards Ash and Pikachu's hiding spot.

"Hey, guys! Come over here. I think I found something." Beltway called out to his teammates who were advancing towards his direction.

Ash's heart skipped a beat.

The group studied the bloodstains closely. Soon their heads moved over to the three cars which were stacked on top of each other. Every member had a strong feeling that the boy and the yellow mouse were hiding behind those cars. It was only a matter of time before their little hiding spot was exposed.

"Alright, kid," Lupo and her team slowly approached. "We know you're there. Come on out!" she ordered.

No response.

"We're not playing around!" The Wolfpack just stopped a few feet from the cars. "Come on out!"

Still no answer.

Lupo gave a nod to Vector who immediately took the hint. The recon expert slowly advanced forward with weapon in hand. Step by step, the man approached the cars with caution until he quickly cut around and aimed his weapon to find nothing in sight. There was no one behind the cars.

"Shit! The kid gave us the slip!" Vector cursed out loud.

"How is that possible?" Four Eyes asked in a disbelieving tone.

"Who cares, we need to find him and fast!" Lupo intervened with a growl.

With that being said, Delta team headed off without knowing that the boy and the mouse never left the area in the first place. In fact, not too far from their previous location, Ash and Pikachu were hiding behind another set of stacked cars. Once the pair heard that the group were leaving and took off, Ash heaved a sigh of relief. He had managed to stop the trail of blood using both hands just long enough after passing that stack of cars to fool that strange group.

They were safe, but for how long?

A/N: Originally, I was going to have something planned at the end, but I decided not to bring it up. Sorry if this chapter was kinda dull with no zombies in it. But at least Ash survived his encounter with the USS. The next chapter will be much more interesting. You will find out soon enough. Please R & R! Thank you! Until next time, peace out!

P.S. - Give the proofreading and editing credit to my beta-reader, Vandenbz.

Johan07