Episode 10: Thunderstorm
The clouds only grew darker as red sped down the path amd through the Cerulean City gates, the thunder growing louder the further he ran into the City.
Red burst into the Pokemon Center, out of breath and just in time, as the storm had finally let through a cloudburst of furious rainfall.
"Brock? You here?" Red called into he nearly empty building.
Brock stuck his head up from under the front desk.
"Red! You made it!" Brock exclaimed, jumping over the desk.
"Well yeah, no stupid storm's gonna get to, me... Where's Pikachu?"
Just then, Misty and the Nurses came out of the back room.
"Brock, did you find Pikachu? We can't find it any-... Woops." Misty stopped mid-sentence when she noticed that Red had returned... And was about to ask an inevitable question...
(Your theme here)
"Pikachu's gone?"
The air was tense in the Pokémon Center, Red stared each of his friends incredulously, as if questioning them just through eye contact. It fairly obvious he was angry, though justifiably so, Pikachu was his first Pokémon, and the people he had trusted to keep it safe had somehow allowed it to disappear.
"Red, I can explain..." Brock attempted to calm his companion down, but Misty cut in front of him, "I'm sorry! I was holding it for Brock after Team Rocket showed up and in all the chaos afterwards I lost track of it and-"
Red stopped the girl's rushed explanation, "Team Rocket? Say no more." He reassured them, in his head, if they were involved, things could be much, much worse.
Red turned to leave into the torrential downpour outside.
"Where do you think you're going?" inquired Brock as he and Misty stopped Red in his tracks, "I'm gonna find Pikachu." He said, pushing past them and opening the door.
"You don't know where it is! And in this weather-." Misty attempted to reason with the young trainer, but he had ignored it and was already in the storm.
The rain soaked Red's body as he sprinted through the city, he knew where he was going, he had noticed a thicker area of the storm, where it seemed the most lightning was being sent out.
Thankfully the Brim of his cap prevented the soaking rain from hitting his eyes.
He made it to the outside area of the storm's center. The lightning struck often as he ran, too often to be an average storm, and with more lighting striking one place than anywhere else, it was almost like a flashing beacon. Red figured if there was any place to start looking, it was there.
Once he was close enough, he saw that where he was going was actually the Power Plant of Cerulean City, not only that, but the front door was being guarded by... Who else? Team Rocket Grunts.
Red rolled his eyes and hid behind a bush, doing his best to remain unseen.
"What's up with this weather? I get the lightning, but why the Rain?" One of the thugs said to the other, they were keeping dry under the canopy over the doors.
"Eh, nature's weird."
"Right, right, so what about this Pokémon the boss wants to get?"
"Heard its like, an electrical bird, can fry a whole city with just a flap of its wings."
"You're making that up."
"No lie dude, it's supposed to be super-powerfu-ACK!"
Both Team Rocket members were suddenly strung up by their ankles by green vines.
"Nice work Bulbasaur, keep that vine whip up."
Red smiled at his new grass-type Pokémon as it held the Rockets in the aforementioned manner, the vines stretching from its Back-Bulb.
"Alright, you creeps, what are you up to?" Questioned Red to the Rockets.
"Let us down so we can kick your a-agh!"
Bulbasaur gave a pull of its vines, jerking the men up and letting them down.
"Answer the question or you're gonna lose your feet!" Red threatened, glaring at the smarter of the two grunts.
"Fine, I'll talk, I'll talk!"
Red had Bulbasaur let the men down, and they sang like Birds.
"Jessie and James are inside ramping up the Power, attracting electric-type Pokémon."
"Why?"
"I guess the boss told 'em to try and attract a Zapdos!"
"Thanks." Red said before Bulbasaur launched two vines at them, wrapping them up and immobilizing them.
"Nice one Bulbasaur, c'mon!"
"Bulba!"
Red and Bulbasaur dashed into the Power Plant, the warmth and dryness of the indoors feeling fantastic to both Pokémon and Trainer alike.
The duo made it past several Rocket grunts, security seemed pretty lax, Red couldn't help but think that these Rockets were awfully cocky to think that no one was coming to stop them.
Finally Red made it to the top floor where the Power Plant's main battery area, and his brow furrowed at the sight of what was in there.
The room was well-lit, and the spinning battery generator was setting of sparks into the insulated glass covering it. Connected to it by an electrical cord was a large cage-like clear box, inside it was more that two-dozen electric-type Pokémon... Including Red's Pikachu.
Near it were the two Team Rocket Agents he had met at Diglett Cave, Jessie and James, watching as the Battery absorbed the natural electricity produced by the Pokémon, obviously hurting and tiring out all of them as they each fainted one by one.
"How long until we can summon that Zapdos Jess?" James asked his female counterpart, who was amping up the energy in the battery, sucking more and more electricity from the electric types.
"Can't be much longer, Zapdos are drawn to the natural Electricity from Pokémon, soon that lightning-bolt frenzy outside will be a beacon to call it, at which point.
"We capture it and use it."
Red had heard enough, he had no Idea what a 'Zapdos' was, but it was too powerful to be in the hands of these creeps.
"Bulbasaur, Razor Leaf!"
Hundreds of sharp leaves shot from Bulbasaur's bulb, creating small scratch-like holes in the glass between the Pokémon and freedom.
"You again!" Jessie yelled, remembering Red from their earlier meeting.
"Yeah, me, now release those Pokémon!"
"Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur agreed, holding its vine whip in a battle-ready position.
"Pika Pi!" Pikachu said excitedly, even as its electricity continued to be siphoned away.
"Alright, you little twit, you're going to regret getting in our way... Ekans, go!" Jessie tossed her Pokémon out, a snake-like creature coiled on the floor, purple scales along its thin, limbless body.
"Bulbasaur, ready?"
"Bulba!"
"James, bump the power to max capacity!" She ordered him as she engaged Red in battle.
"Bulbasaur, vine whip!"
Bulbasaur obeyed, green vines shooting at Ekans.
"Ekans, wrap!"
The Poison-Type Pokémon dodged the vine whip, and wrapped its body around Bulbasaur, squeezing it.
"Bulba!" It said in pain as it squirmed to free itself.
"Bulbasaur, can ya get free?!" Red asked his bound Pokémon.
The small creature struggled and writhed, but to no avail.
"Squeeze it Ekans!"
While all of this had gone on, James had sent the battery into overload, sucking massive amounts of electricity from the still-awake Pikachu and the three Magneton and Electrode left.
Red got an idea, and facepalmed for not thinking of it before.
"Bulbasaur, use Razor Leaf!"
Bulbasaur quit struggling and obeyed, sending Razor leaves from inside Ekans' wrap, cutting the snake's skin at close range.
The Poison-type hissed and struggled to maintain its grip of Bulbasaur, which was finally getting itself loose.
"Now wrap it yourself with Vine Whip!" Red ordered, Bulbasaur responded with a loud grunt and wrapped several vines around Ekans.
"Throw it!"
Bulbasaur tossed Ekans into the cracked glass of the electric Pokémon cage, shattering it and fainting Ekans at the same time.
"PIKA PI!" Pikachu jumped out of the shattered glass shards and into Red's arms as the other electric-type Pokémon escaped.
"Pikachu!" Red smiled and hugged the small electric type.
"How do ya feel?"
"Pi Pikachu!"
"Bulbasaur!"
"Well isn't this heartwarming?" Jessie mocked as she returned her fainted Pokémon.
"You didn't think you could beat me, did you?" Red asked confidently, Bulbasaur and Pikachu squaring off with the Team Rocket agents.
"Of course not, I thought I could stall you." Jessie smirked and Red's countenance fell.
"It's here, Jess." James said, pointing out the window.
(LEGENDARY POKEMON ENTRANCE!)
Outside the Power Plant, the lightning from the clouds above struck the top of the Power Plant's Lightning Rod in a steady Pillar of Electricity.
"CKKKOORRRAAAAAOOOSSSSS!" A loud screech like the sound of an eagle combined with a clap of thunder filled the air and ears of anyone within a mile.
Red, Jessie and James ran outside, the rain had stopped and had been replaced by nothing but constant lightning strikes.
Then it all stopped as the source of the lightning showed itself.
It was a large Bird, a fierce facial expression on it, narrowed eyes and a long, wicked beak.
Its yellow feathers crackled with electricity as it landed atop the power plant and screeched again, once again loud enough to put the thunderclaps to shame.
"Yes, it's here... The boss was right, James, deploy it!"
Jessie ordered James, who pulled a black remote controller from his pocket and pressed a button on it. The top of the power plant exploded, Zapdos still atop it. The large Lightning bird was startled by the explosion, it fell into the building, its heavy body caught in the debris.
"What are you doing?!" Red barked as James and Jessie continued to play with the controller, Red was about to snatch it from the two evil teenagers, but his attention was drawn to the destroyed Power Plant roof, which now had about a million bolts of lightning shooting in all directions.
Then the lightning stopped abruptly, and Zapdos flew out of the building, in some kind of obvious pain, it flew down and landed at the side of the team Rocket members.
Red saw something that sent a chill through his spine, Pikachu and Bulbasaur growling.
The Zapdos had been outfitted in some kind of metal skeleton. The arms of it ran up its wings, latching into the major parts of its yellow body, and what it was doing was obvious.
The Rockets were controlling Zapdos with a remote.
"Why not just use a Poke Ball? Why make it suffer like this?!" Red yelled in rage.
Jessie grimaced, "Suffering is just the means to an end, and our end is to control the entirety of the Kanto region with this and all other Pokémon. How you or they feel about it is irrelevant."
James followed up, "Besides, catching it with a Pokeball would weaken it, to standard 'Pokémon league' level. This way, we can access its full power. "
Zapdos growled, seemingly unable to open its beak, it was shivering, electricity crackling off it as it stared at Red.
"Now you little nuisance, lets have Zapdos here make you a little less... defiant." Jessie sneered, gesturing for James to activate something on his control.
Zapdos' exoskeleton sent a blue electrical charge into, it the Pokémon screeched and sent a massive thunderbolt straight for Red he braced himself for the shock... but in a sudden moment, a massive gray boulder landed in front of Red, negating the electric bolt completely. Red looked up to see the familiar Onix in front of him.
"Time for round 2."
Red turned around and smiled when he saw Brock and Misty.
"You guys followed me?"
"Like we're gonna let you go out into an electrical storm alone." Stated Brock, running up to Red with Misty following closely behind him.
Onix leered on the enraged Zapdos, scowling down at the angry bird.
"You think you can stop a legendary Pokémon? You're in over your heads, kids." Jessie taunted as James sent another shock to Zapdos' system, the bird let out another loud screech and took to the sky.
Brock would have none of that, "Onix, Rock Slide attack!"
The kids below watched as Onix' body glowed, the ground around it flew up, as if being controlled by Onix. The dirt and Grass became Rock, hard, solid and floating. Onix' attack was sent straight toward Zapdos, trampling the massive Pokémon with its multiple hits, knocking it out of the air.
"Starmie! Psychic now!" Misty called out to her Pokémon, which had already flown out near the ailing Zapdos. The psychic attack from Starmie's red center covered Zapdos' body entirely in a violet light.
TO everyone's shock but Misty's, the Psychic attack broke the exoskeletal control device.
"No... That's... Not POSSIBLE!" James denied loudly, and threw the controller as it exploded in his hand.
Zapdos, tired from its recent attack, landed hard on the ground, free of its bond.
"Zapdos!" Red ran ahead of his friends with Pikachu, and knelt over Zapdos' body, examining it as it caught its breath.
"Get away from our Zapdos, boy!" Jessie called out, raising a Pokeball. "Time for Plan B."
Red gritted his teeth and stood between Zapdos and Jessie.
"No! I won't let you!"
"And you can stop us? Let's look at the facts, you're a kid, young and impulsive, weak. And suddenly, just because you have that little yellow Rat you think you're all strong? Pitiful." Jessie rolled her eyes and pressed the white button in the center of the Pokeball, as was the standard with any Pokeball, it grew to baseball-size, though this ball wasn't red and white like the standard Pokeball, it had a black-and yellow design on the top half, while the underside remained solid white.
As The Rockets prepared to re-capture Zapdos, a defiant thunderclap-like screech was heard. Zapdos had recovered and was glaring down at the Rocket Agents.
"SCCCCHOOOOOOSS!" Jessie and James were caught off their guard, as a massive thunderbolt knocked them off the ground they stood on. Jessie threw the Ultra Ball, unfortunately for her, Zapdos had anticipated it, and destroyed it with a second bolt of lightning.
The ground was intense as Zapdos reared its head over its attackers.
In a flash of light, a small, yellow, bipedal fox-like Pokémon appeared between Jessie and James.
The Team Rockets appeared to regain their confidence, and before a second flash of light, James grinned and spoke.
"Another time, maybe." No sooner had he spoke, then he and Jessie had teleported away with the Pokémon, which the Pokedex had identified as an Abra.
Zapdos' fury grew as it was unable to take its vengeance, it took off into the sky, looking back for a moment to thank the children
The sky grew gradually clear as the Storm Pokémon disappeared over the mountains, Until there wasn't a cloud in the air.
"Wow..." Red said, dumbstruck at the power he had witnessed, and to see something very few people had ever actually seen, a legendary Pokémon.
"Where do you think it's going?" Misty asked as she returned Starmie to its ball.
"Hard to say, but I think we can bet it's going to find Team Rocket." Brock replied as he did the same with Onix.
"Why would it do that?" Red asked, turning to Brock as Bulbasaur and Pikachu assumed positions at his shoulder and left foot respectively.
"Pewter City's a mining town, I've lived there for a long time, and according to a legend, Zapdos was the Pokémon whose lightning created the crevice big enough to built the city in. They say it did it because an evil man wanted to take advantage of the power of electric-type Pokémon specifically, this enraged Zapdos to the point where it would attack the man and his followers.?"
Red and Misty's eyes widened, in all recorded history, Pokémon attacks on humans were rare, and to hear about a Pokémon violently attacking a human like that, even one with malevolent intent, was a shock.
"It is just a legend, but it would explain the amount of thunderstones we find in Pewter City's mines."
Red looked down, thinking about it for a moment, what if this wasn't the only time Team Rocket will try something like this, and ... Red shook his head and suggested they return to Cerulean City and explain what had happened to the people.
Several Hours later, after Red, Brock and Misty had explained the city that the Organization Team Rocket was behind the unexplainable events, Cerulean City had become internally protected from Team Rocket. The police guaranteed that no more members would get past them again, and once again, all was calm in cerulean... Except one thing.
"Alright Misty, I'm ready for it." Red said to Misty as he stood in front of the gym.
"For what?"
Red adjusted the brim of his hat and smiled, "My Rematch."
TO BE CONTINUED...
MAILBAG TIME!
Steelrush writes: The beginning of this chapter was interesting, particularly trainers being able to send their Pokemon to Professor Oak's lab remotely through the video phone. A good compensation for the lack of PC storage in the anime's world.
As for the legality of a trainer's Pokemon limit, that's a little lame but understandable. As a matter of fact, that's been the rule since 1996. And I see Brock's got the same love-sickness he has in the anime as he does in this story.
So Richie is going by the alias 'Yellow' is he? Are you basing some of this off the manga too?
As for the WTP, I think it's Charmeleon.
I haven't seen the episode where Ash got Bulbasaur for years, but chances are that this chapter is better than the episode itself. I do however, recall that Ash got Bulbasaur to come with him by having a battle with it.
However, I like how Red caught his better than how Ash obtained his own Bulbasaur.
Now, what exactly did Team Rocket do? I'm sure that they are behind this thunderstorm, but how did they cause it?
Also, where'd Pikachu go?
Another thing I liked was Misty's change in behavior. Although I recall seeing a nice side to her in the anime.
So, who's the person who made Misty cry, and did this person happen to be a boyfriend who broke up with her?
A good trait about this episode happened to be the length, which can be satisfactory to some who just can't wait for the next chapter.
One other thing I find funny is that, despite the completely obvious differences between this and the anime, the story still has a touch of nostalgia, even though all of the episodes have been completely different from the TV series.
Something tells me I'm going to definitely enjoy the future episodes. Update when possible-
My Reply:
Wanted to explain that, just felt like Ash just not having his Pokemon was a little lame, and hey, why not send 'em to Oak for research? Same deal with the legal limit, I mean, folks have to set rules on that kind of stuff, or battles would go on FOREVER! IMagine, running into youngster Joey and facing FORTY Rattata? I'd quit before I got started!
And as usual, you got this WTP Correct!
All will be revealed with misty next episode, promise!
P.s, YES. I am basing this off all three major Pokemon mediums. Anime, Manga, Games.
Jac Bandit Writes: Wow...for a while, the WTP really had me stumped. Jac's gonna go on a limb and guess Charmeleon. *Shrug*
LOL, Misty's a softy! :P I also like how all the nurses AREN'T called Joy. But...will we ever see Joy again?! Will Brock X Joy happen?!
Cool, you put Yellow in this! I like how you wrote how Ash got Bulbasaur, especially the Lonely Nature. That fits Ash's Bulbasaur. Is he gonna use Dig and Whirlwind in this story like in the show! XD
My Reply: Lucky guess my friend!
And yeah... Like I may have stated before, I thought that was lazy and uncreative... ALL the nurses will have their own names, but we'll be seeing more of Joy here in the future!
And NO. XD I like to keep things canon for all mediums, so Red's Pokemon wont be using moves they CAN'T LEARN!
See you all next week!
Gotta Catch 'Em All!
-The Crobatman