Alright. Sorry for taking so long to update. After rereading a small portion of my story, I admit that there are some things that I would've changed about it. But, too late for that anyway, so I'll have to make do with what I can. Just wanted to point that out. Now, on with the story!
CHAPTER 9 A POKEMON RESCUE
Team Rocket tried to get away from their dazed expressions. Meowth was the first to speak. "Hey, what just happened back there?"
"I believe we've been poached of the Pokemon we were poaching," answered James as he pointed at the skarmory who was holding a small cage in its beak. Apparently, Team Rocket had placed all of the Pokemon they had stolen into the small metal cage. Skarmory let out a small shriek as it gently placed the cage on the ground while still clutching onto the 3 little bandits with its feet.
Professor Rowan immediately went into his lab to find some tools to free the Pokemon.
"Hey!" Jessie exclaimed. "Those Pokemon belong to us!" She then started to try to escape from the skarmory's grasp. "And let me go! You're grabbing onto me isn't doing wonders at all for my figure!"
James just sighed. "Um Jessie, I don't think now is the time to be worrying about something like that."
Claudina interrupted them. "You three aren't going anywhere until I get some answers!" cried Claudina. She walked over to her skarmory to take a closer look at the 3 thieves. "Now, why on earth were you trying to steal these innocent Pokemon in the first place?"
The 3 members of Team Rocket just remained silent as they looked the other way. It was small while before Jessie spoke. "Who are you to question what we do? This isn't any of your business!"
Claudina just sighed. Obviously, she wasn't going to get anything out of the three, so she just signaled her skarmory to toss them aside. Skarmory obeyed its master as it flew high up above the laboratory still holding onto Team Rocket.
"I don't like the looks of this!" Meowth began to panic. "I'm not too good with heights!"
"But you ride a balloon everyday with us!" shrieked Jessie.
"We might as well just live with what we're going to say next." sighed James.
Before they all could say anything more, Skarmory instantly flew around in small circles gaining speed in a matter of seconds. After a bit, Skarmory, with all of its might, threw Team Rocket as far away as possible sending the trio helplessly through the clear sky.
"Team Rocket's blasting off again!" cried the three as they continued to fly sky high until they were no longer visible.
Skarmory, then, flew slowly back down to be with its master. "Thank you very much, Skarmory. You have a good rest now." said Claudina as she let her Pokemon back in its pokeball. She looked over to Ash who was clearly in a state of awe.
"Wow, Claudina. That skarmory of yours looks like it's been through some great training!" exclaimed Ash."We should really battle sometime."
Dawn giggled, "I don't think now is the time Ash." She put a hand on his shoulder to calm his energetic state.
"It's alright Dawn." said Claudina as she walked over to the metal cage."We'll battle later, Ash. Right now, I think we should be concentrating on freeing the Pokemon."
Ash just sweat dropped a little embarrassed. By now, Professor Rowan had gotten his tools and had been in the process of cutting through the metal of the cage. The professor was just about finished until he had noticed something odd. He began to look at the Pokemon in the cage and that's when it hit him. One of the Pokemon was still missing!
"Oh dear." said the professor.
"What is it Professor?" asked Brock.
"Well, in all this excitement, I hadn't noticed that Piplup isn't in this cage." explained Professor Rowan. Everyone gasped and started to enter states of worry. "We better hurry up and find him quickly. He may still be in the forest where Team Rocket's balloon had crashed."
"I'll go get him." volunteered Ash. "With Pikachu and Aipom at my side we'll be back with Piplup in no time." He smiled as both Pikachu and Aipom hopped onto each of his shoulders.
"Pika!" cried Pikachu.
"Ai-aipom!" joined in Aipom.
Dawn looked at Ash with a worrisome face. "Wh-what if something happens to you Ash?" thought Dawn. She couldn't bear the thought of some wild Pokemon hurting him. Even if he did have Pikachu and Aipom with him, she still wasn't so sure Ash would turn out okay.
"Right." nodded Professor Rowan."I'm counting on you then Ash. Please bring Piplup back here safely. Meanwhile, I'll be tending to Chimchar and Turtwig of their injuries."
"Right." remarked Ash and with that, he, Pikachu, and Aipom took off to the forest to find Piplup.
Brock, then, spoke up, "I'll be willing to help you with the injuries Professor. I am a breeder after all."
The professor nodded. "Alright." Then he looked at Dawn and Claudina. "If you two don't have anything to do, then I would be grateful to you both if you would also help tend to Chimchar and Turtwig's wounds."
Claudina smiled and nodded. "Alright, Professor. I'll see how I can help." The Professor nodded again as he and Brock took Chimchar and Turtwig back into the laboratory. As Claudina followed, she looked back at Dawn. "You coming to help?" she asked.
Dawn didn't seem to pay any attention as she just stood there gazing towards the direction of which Ash had headed. It looked like she was in deep thought.
Claudina, then, walked over to where Dawn was and asked again in a nice tone. "Hey, are you coming to help?"
Dawn snapped out of her trance as she quickly looked at Claudina. "Wha-…….oh, I'm sorry. I was thinking about something."
"I can tell." replied Claudina.
"Actually," continued Dawn." I think I'll go where Ash went."
Claudine put on a surprised face. "You mean to the forest?"
"Yeah." nodded Dawn.
"Why?" asked Claudina.
"Well, it's sorta hard to explain, but I just think I should. I just have this strong urge to go and help my friend."
Claudina just smiled. "Alright, go on ahead. I'll tell the professor, and I'm sure he'll understand."
"Thank you." replied Dawn as she hurriedly went off towards the forest to where Ash had gone.
--
All seemed very quiet as Ash and his two Pokemon walked carefully through the forest. They were on a look out for the Sinnoh starter Piplup, but unfortunately, they had one little problem…
"We're lost." sighed Ash.
"Piiika…"
"This forest is much bigger than I thought it would be. I have no idea where Team Rocket's balloon could've landed." said Ash. He, with Aipom and Pikachu on his shoulders, continued to walk in a random direction. They kept walking for a couple minutes until they caught sight of something. Unfortunately, it wasn't Piplup nor was it the balloon.
"Hey, what's that?" questioned Ash as he ran over to what seemed to be a small greenish Pokemon. After Ash had a closer look, he realized what it was. "Hey! It's a Spinarak! I haven't seen these guys in a long time."
"Pika! Pikachu!" cried Pikachu.
"Aipom!" joined Aipom.
"Huh?" said Ash as he looked at his two Pokemon. "Oh…you two think I should ask it for directions?" Both Pikachu and Aipom nodded. "Alright." Ash slowly walked over to the lone Spinarak. The Spinarak noticed this and looked over at Ash. It tilted it's head a bit confused as to what Ash was doing.
Ash kneeled down and asked, "Um…hi Spinarak. I was just wondering if you've seen a balloon somewhere here that may have crashed? It's shaped like a big Meowth and has a green basket under it." The Spinarak looked at him for a small second before nodding.
"You have?!" cried Ash. "Can you tell me which way it is?"
"Spinarak!" said the spider Pokemon as it nodded again and pointed the direction of which the Meowth balloon had crashed.
Ash stood back up and said, "Thanks! Come on Pikachu, Aipom. We have a Piplup to save!" But just as Ash was about to take a few steps, a barrage of poisonous needles came hurdling towards him.
"Ai!" cried Ash's Aipom as it pointed towards the direction of where the needles were."
"What Aipom?" asked a confused Ash before he took a look at the direction of which Aipom was pointing. "Waaaa!" he cried as he was barely able to dodge the ferocious attack. "Those are poison stings!"
"Pika!" cried the yellow mouse Pokemon as he tugged Ash. Pikachu was trying to get Ash to look at something.
"What is it Pika-" Ash couldn't finish his sentence, for he was now seeing what Pikachu was tugging him about. Right in front of him were dozens of Ariados all glaring at him in a menacingly way. Ash fell back and froze on the spot. He watched as one of the Ariados had grabbed the Spinarak and started to walk away.
"Oh I get it now. That Spinarak must have been the Ariados's baby, and they must've thought I was doing something to hurt it." thought Ash. "Well, whether they realize the truth or not, I'm not going to stand here and just get poison stinged."
Ash stood up and pointed towards the Ariados. "Pikachu! Quick! Use thunderbolt!"
Pikachu smiled as he leaped up in the air and shot a bolt of electricity straight at the Ariados. "Pi-ka-chuuuuuuu!" he cried as he continues to shoot the electric attacks on the enemy.
"Now, Aipom!" continued Ash. "Use swift!"
Aipom obeyed and leapt up in the air as she shot a wave of shimmery stars towards the Ariados. These attacks had caused many of the Ariados to either faint or retreat, but the number of Ariados still didn't seem any smaller. In fact, it looked like there were even more now.
"Pikachu! Aipom!" cried Ash. "Keep attacking then with all you got!" Pikachu and Aipom attacked fiercely and for quite a while, but the Ariados are persistent and refuse to give up.
"Man! No matter how much we attack them, more and more just keep coming! I gotta find a way to get us out of here without getting hurt!" thought Ash.
Ash had to hurry, for the Ariados started to attack now. Ash just stood there as poison needles began to fly towards him. Fortunatley for Ash, Pikachu and Aipom were able to counter the poison stings by sending their own attacks against them. This caused the poison needles to just disappear.
"Pikachu and Aipom won't be able to keep this up for long. I gotta think!" thought Ash.
Ash's Pokemon and the Ariados continued to fight for several minutes. Neither side seemed to be getting the upper hand. But then, something very weird happened. The Ariados all had suddenly stopped shooting. Instead, all the Ariados slowly backed away until they were in the shadows of the trees and bushes being no longer visible. Ash, Pikachu, and Aipom all just looked at the whole scene with extremely puzzled looks.
"That's weird." remarked Ash. "I wonder why all of them suddenly decided to just leave."
"Pika…"
"Ai…"
Ash, then, realized that now was their chance. "Hey Pikachu. Aipom. Let's not stay to find out why. Let's just get out of here before they come back and start-" he was interrupted by something poking his back. Ash panicked and gave a small shout as he quickly turned around to see who was poking him. To his surprise, it was none other than Dawn.
"Before who comes back, Ash?" questioned the curious girl.
"Dawn?!" exclaimed Ash ignoring her question. "Wh-what are you doing here?!"
Dawn just blushed a slight red before answering, "I….I..c..came to make sure you don't get hurt."
Ash just looked at her with a confused expression, "Dawn…I'm not going to get hurt." An awkward silence came between them. Pikachu and Aipom both just shrugged a bit. A small later, Ash spoke again, "Dawn, let's just get out of here and find the Piplup before they come back." He pulled her arm to get her to follow.
"Before who?" once again asked Dawn.
But Ash had no time to answer her question, for as soon as Dawn asked, string shot attacks from every direction bursted through the trees and bushes and came hurdling towards them.
Yeah, a cliffhanger sort of thing I guess. I'm sorry if my writing isn't that great. I tried to make the chapter longer. I hope you still understand what's going on and who's saying what. Thanks for reading thought. Reviews are appreciated Next chapter will be here soon :D