(Note: This chapter is based around the time of episode 65 from the actual anime, just before Ash's 3rd Gym challenge.)
I don't have the honour of owning Pokémon.
"Dusclops! Use shadow ball!"
"Now's our chance! Finish it with flamethrower!"
(We join our heroes as Hugo is engaged in battle with a young man who challenged him to a 3 on 3 battle, after easily defeating Drifblim when it wouldn't seem to use any moves, the trainer is feeling the wrath of Hugo's mysterious Shinx.)
As Hugo commanded, a powerful stream of flames escaped Shinx's mouth, completely annihilating the incoming shadow ball and taking out Dusclops at the same time.
"Dusclops is unable to battle. The winner is Shinx!" Brock announced.
"Yeah! Go Shinx! Pika pi!" Ash, Pikachu and Dawn cheered in the background.
"WAAAA?! That's crazy! That Pokémon knows some weird moves man!" The youngster, who looked around the same age as Ash, was dressed in a light blue hoodie, yellow trainers and of course black shorts. As he'd explained, they're comfy and easy to wear.
Hugo smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. "Yeah, I did warn you about that. Sorry."
The teenage boy, in his youth, seemed to quickly get over his surprise.
"No sweat, we can still win. Go Bronzor!" He launched a pokéball, revealing a Pokémon unfamiliar to Ash, Dawn or Hugo.
"Huh? What's that Pokémon?" Dawn wondered, standing a few feet behind Brock, next to Ash.
"I've heard of it. Bronzor is a steel and psychic type. I believe it has the ability heatproof, weakening the effect of fire type attacks." Brock explained.
Hugo overheard his explanation. "Well in that case, come back and have a rest Shinx." He returned Shinx to its pokéball. "It's time to see what you can do. Hippopotas let's do this!" He launched the pokéball containing his newest team member.
"Hippo hippo!" It announced upon appearing. It looked excited for its first battle. "Now let's start this with yawn!" He ordered. Hippopotas launched a bubble towards Bronzor.
The youngster smiled. "Bronzor! Safeguard!" A bright light enveloped Bronzor briefly. The bubble popped in its face, but it seemed unaffected.
"Smart move. Safeguard protects the user's team from status conditions. Yawn won't bother Bronzor now!" Brock explained to Ash and Dawn.
"Well we'll just have to use brute force then. Use bite!" "Hippo hippo!" Hippopotas launched itself at Bronzor, grabbing it with its large mouth.
"Iron defense!" The youngster called out. Bronzor's metal body seemed to become shinier. The Pokémon seemed unfased by the move being used on it. "Now shake it off!" Bronzor easily shook off Hippopotas, launching it at the ground.
"Get up and use take down!" Hugo ordered. Hippopotas leaped to its feet, launching itself once again at Bronzor.
"Use confusion!" The youngster commanded. Before the hippo Pokémon could make contact, it was stopped midair and launched back towards the ground. When it got back to its feet, it was wandering around aimlessly muttering "Po hip hippo.."
"Oh no!" Ash exclaimed. "It's been confused! This isn't good."
"Now Bronzor! Use gyro ball!" Bronzor began spinning faster and faster, until it began to spin towards Hippopotas. In its confused state, it was unable to move out of the way. The attack hit head on. Hippopotas was launched backwards. After a few seconds laid on the ground, it struggled to its feet, clearly in pain but at least its confusion seemed to be gone.
"Alright!" The youngster raised a fist triumphantly while Bronzor turned to its trainer smiling, hoping to be praised.
"They've let their guard down. Now's our chance! Use sand tomb!" Hippopotas began to create a large pile of sand. It was building up, about to reach where Bronzor was floating.
"Alright! A super effective move! This could be the decisive attack!" Brock announced excitedly.
At the last second, Bronzor began to float a little higher, avoiding the attack.
"WHAT?! How did it avoid while it wasn't even looking?!" Hugo was confused.
Ash was busy reading something on his pokedéx. "Says here Bronzor has two possible abilities; flameproof and levitate."
Upon hearing this, an intense blush appeared on Brock's face. "Oops! My bad!" He grinned sheepishly. In the background, Dawn and Piplup both face-palmed at the same time.
"Haha! Nice try!" The youngster had a big smirk on his face. "But now it's time to finish this. Bronzor, use-"
Before he was able to finish the command, a large claw swooped down from the air. In one swift movement it grabbed Bronzor, then Hippopotas, Piplup and finally Pikachu.
"Heeheeheeheehee!" Familiar laughter could be heard from above. Ash was the first to realise what was happening.
"Ugh! Don't you guys ever take the day off?!" He called up to the large humanoid robot that was looming over them. It was your standard giant robot; twenty feet tall with extendable claws for arms, coloured black with a large red 'R' on its chest. Instead of a head was a sort of small glass dome. Inside stood three figures; a pink haired woman, blue haired man and cat-like Pokémon.
"Listen! Is that a whining twerp's voice I hear?"
"We've never had a day off in our entire career!"
"On the wind!"
"Past the stars!"
"In your ear!"
"Evil never rests, I thought you knew."
"Though I wouldn't mind some time off, would you?"
"We've not missed a chapter since chapter one."
"But who needs a rest when your job is so fun?"
"Jessie!"
"James!"
"Meowth, now dat's a name!"
"Working double overtime without extra pay!"
"We're Team Rocket, and we're here every day!"
"Wooooooooooobbuffet!" "Mime mine!"
The trio finished their motto, and began speaking normally. "You know what? The twerp's right. We should totally ask the boss for some time off every now and then." Jessie mused.
"Actually, I do feel a little overworked at times. Perhaps we should inquire to HQ next time we're there?" James agreed.
"That's it! The next region we follow the twerp through, we'll get some regular time off, then we can finally stop appearing in every episode!" Jessie announced with delight.
"Hey, give Pikachu and the others back right now!" Ash demanded.
"Oh yeah? And what are you gonna do about it, twerp?" Jessie teased.
Ash launched a pokéball containing his new Pokémon. "Chimchar! I choose you! Use flame wheel!"
Chimchar looked happy to be battling for its new trainer, It began to create a wheel of fire and launched itself towards the robot.
"Not so fast, twoip! Take a load of this!" Meowth taunted, pushing a big red button from within the robot. As he did, a large cannon appeared at the top of the robot's back, similar to a Blastiose. It then became more noticeable that the robot had a huge tank of water attached to its back. It began shooting water at Chimchar. The fire type was drenched and its flame put out before it was able to attack the robot.
"Hehehe! What do you guys think of my robo-hydro-cannon?" Meowth grinned at his teammates.
"It's a great way to dampen the twerp's spirits!" Decided James.
"Ah, I sea what you did dere." Replied Meowth.
"Water you waiting for Meowth? Let's get out of here before the twerps send a stream of attacks at us." Jessie interrupted.
"Oh cry me a river!" Meowth snapped. "I'm absolutely shore dere's no wave dose twoips can beat dis robot." Jessie, Meowth and Wobbuffet began to rejoice.
"Um, guys, I hate to rain on your parade while you're having a whale of a time..." Began James "But look at the twerp!" He pointed towards Ash, who was climbing up one of the robot's legs to try and save his Pokémon.
The Rocket trio began to panic. "Quick Meowth!" Jessie demanded. "Make this thing dance or something!" Meowth began frantically pressing buttons with no idea what half of them did. The robot began to flail its arms and legs around frantically. Its claw opened up, releasing the captured Pokémon. In the process, Ash was launched off. He and all the captured Pokémon (besides Bronzor who merely floated down) were flung through the air, landing safely on Hugo's back.
"Hippo hippo! Pika pi! Pilup pip!" They rejoiced at their safe landing.
"Oh no! Are you okay Hugo?" Brock inquired to his friend who was laid on the floor as Ash and the Pokémon were on top of him.
"N-no..." he managed to mutter.
Dawn looked concerned… for a whole second, until she was happy to see Piplup waddling over to her. She then turned her attention over to the robot looming over them. "You guys are gonna pay for this!" She fumed.
"Piplup! Use whirlpool!" She ordered.
"Bronzor! Use psywave!" The youngster chimed in.
"Chimchar flame wheel! And Pikachu thunderbolt!" Ash leaped to his feet and finished the commands, while Brock helped the still disoriented Hugo to his feet too.
"Hehe, this thing'll survive an attack like that no problem." Meowth smirked confidently.
As all of the attacks made contact, the robot had clearly sustained heavy damage. Its water cannon dropped off, spilling water everywhere.
"Um, Meowth… you sure about that?" Jessie asked with fear in her voice.
"NO! DIS THINGS'S GONNA BLOW!" Meowth threw his arms in the air in panic as he realised he shouldn't have been so confident.
Seconds later, the robot exploded, launching the trio and Wobbuffet high into the air.
"Well the plan may have failed, but how would you rate my robot? Scores out of 10?" Meowth asked calmly despite how they were flying through the air.
"Hmm, I'd give it about a 7.8." Jessie replied. "Yeah, too much water." James agreed. The trio then continued to soar into the distance. "We're blasting off again!" They wailed together.
Meanwhile, on the ground, the huge amount of water that the robot had stored had hit the ground. Since Ash and the gang were standing on a hill, the water began to flow across the field. The flow of water was quickly approaching them.
"Well it was nice meeting you guys!" The youngster called across. "Kadabra, come out and use teleport!" He summoned his Pokémon and quickly disappeared, presumably to somewhere not too far away, as teleport could only move humans a hundred yards or so.
"Eek!" Dawn squealed. She ducked down and grabbed onto Piplup.
"Chimchar return!" Ash returned his vulnerable fire type in the last moment. "Buizel! I choose you!" He sent out his newly traded Pokémon and grabbed onto its back, facing the oncoming wave in anticipation.
"Hippopotas, quick, come back!" Hugo just barely returned his ground type within seconds of the water hitting. He grabbed Kabutops's pokéball, but a thought suddenly sprung to his mind. 'Brock!' He thought. Brock didn't have a water type, he was going to be overwhelmed by all the water. He looked around frantically. In all the commotion, Brock had ended up standing around fifteen metres away. He had a frightened expression on his face as he stared at the large quantity of flowing water headed for him.
On instinct, Hugo launched his Pokéball accurately, getting it to land right at Brock's feet. He began to sprint the short distance over to Brock, who realised what was happening. He turned to look at Hugo, shaking his head as if to say 'You should have worried about yourself, not me.' At that moment, the water hit them. Dawn held on to Piplup, Ash onto Buizel and Brock to Kabutops. Hugo dove towards his Kabutops desperate to grab hold before the water collided with them, but he was unsuccessful. His body was submerged underwater, making him unable to breathe. Kabutops, Buizel and Piplup all managed to swim to the top of the wave, with Brock, Ash and Dawn, holding on. Pikachu held on tight to Ash's shoulder. As they were on a field, the wave only travelled a short distance before it lost its momentum and was absorbed by the grass below.
Several moments later, Ash, Dawn, Brock, Pikachu, Buizel, Piplup and Kabutops were all dripping wet, but due to the three water type's excellent swimming ability, they'd been able to avoid being launched into any trees or other dangerous objects. "Thanks for that Kabutops, but have you seen Hugo?" Brock asked in a concerned tone. Kabutops merely held out its claws as if to say 'No, how could I have?'
"Oh no! Guys look over here!" Dawn called to Ash and Brock. As they walked over it became clear that, at the bottom of the hill, there was a large cliff. "Oh no, do you guys think he could have-" Ash began. "We better find a way down there, fast!" Brock yelled, beginning to look around for some sort of way down.
Age is complicated in the Pokémon world. The 'Youngster' in this chapter is around 18 years old, as I said before, the idea of a kid travelling the world alone just sounds stupid to me. Anyone described as an 'adult' can be assumed to be in the age range of 25-60, otherwise they will be described as a 'young' or 'old' person. If a character is described as a 'kid' that means they're younger than 17 and therefore not yet old enough to be a trainer in my story.
In case you missed it, once again here's the official age (or age range) for every notable character in this story:
Ash – 18
Dawn – 17
Brock – 23
Hugo – 19
Jessie/James – Late Twenties
Officer Jenny/ Nurse Joy – Around 30
And if you've bothered to read this far I'll give you a little insight; after next chapter, one of Ash's past companions will be making a return. If you remember the DP anime well enough, you'll know who it is.
Current teams:
Ash – Chimchar, Gligar, Turtwig, Staravia, Buizel, Pikachu (A full team, yay!)
Dawn – Buneary, Pachirisu, Aipom, Piplup
Brock – Happiny, Sudowoodo, Croagunk
Hugo – Kabutops, Hippopotas, Drifblim, Shinx