Chapter 13: Garbage In, Garbage Out

The wind hissed through Ash's ears as he and Pikachu plummeted through the sky. With very thick clouds blotting the sun from sight, the heat swiftly drained from Ash's body, numbing him all over. His hand trembled as he tried to move it to reach for his belt, where his Pokeballs were, but he could do nothing.

Pikachu, desperate to save his trainer, unleashed a strong Thunderbolt on him. The wind quickly drained the jolt of heat from the trainer's body once again, however, so Pikachu's attack did nothing to revive him. However, the Pokeball Ash wanted absorbed part of the current, jolting it to life and releasing the Pokemon inside: Charizard! When the orange dragon saw what was happening, he quickly went into a nosedive and snatched the now-unconscious Ash in his arms. Seeing this, Pikachu scampered out of Ash's arms and onto Charizard's back, where he huddled to stay safe from the violent gale. Charizard, having plenty of experience in flight, managed to steer them out of the tornado and to the ground, where he tossed Ash into a patch of grass. The trainer rolled over and then came to a stop, motionless. His hat slipped off of his head.

Pikachu rushed up to him, pushing him lightly. "Pika pika," he said, trying to wake him up. "Pikachu."

Ash didn't respond. Charizard walked up and touched Ash's arm. It was cold and numb. Seeing this, Charizard did his favorite thing to do to Ash: he incinerated him with a jet of flames. Then he touched his arm again: it was warm once again. He nodded in satisfaction, and turned away to stand guard.

"Piiiikaaaaaa!"

Charizard's head instantly snapped around on hearing Pikachu's cry. The Pokemon was trapped in a cage!

"Nice of you to take out the twerp for me, big guy," Jessie grinned, holding the cage up high. "Now be a good little dragon and get back inside your Pokeball while I –"

She never finished, as Charizard incinerated her with a jet of flames. In the process, he destroyed Pikachu's cage and set him free. He scampered out and unleashed a Thunderbolt on Jessie, sending her blasting off.

"Ungh…"

The two Pokemon looked up and saw Ash crawl to his feet. "Huh?" he said. "What happened?"

"Pikapi!" Pikachu cried, rushing up to him and tackling him.

"Ah! Pikachu!" he exclaimed. "Whew! I'm glad you're safe, buddy."

"Raaaah," Charizard chimed in, running up and nuzzling him.

"Charizard!" Ash said, hugging him. Then he pulled back. "You guys are the best."

"Pikachu."

"Rawr."

Ash chuckled, but his smile quickly evaporated. "We need to find Sonic and the others," he said. "There's no telling what that tornado did to them."

Charizard nodded and crouched down, motioning to his back.

"Right, then," Ash nodded as he started to climb up. "We should have no trouble finding them from the – GAH! Charizard!"

"Hm?" Charizard raised an eyebrow.

"Your wing! It's been torn!"

Charizard looked at his wing, surprised. Sure enough, there was a small rip on the side.

"Oh no," Ash groaned. "I guess we'll have to find our way on foot. Ugh...and we don't even know where we are…"

The Tornado NX spiraled out of control in the violent winds. Thankfully, the winds died down shortly after Ash jumped out of the plane. Regardless, the systems were unstable.

"We need to land this plane right away!" Tails exclaimed. "Looks like Team Rocket was kind enough to push us closer to Castelia City. Hang on, everyone! This is going to be a little rough."

"Hurry!" Sonic said, tapping his foot very impatiently. "We need to find Ash and Pikachu as soon as possible!"

"I know, I know," Tails said. "Don't worry. We'll go after them as soon as the rest of us are safe!"

With that, Tails piloted the plane towards the cloud-piercing city. They were losing altitude quickly, and the Tornado NX was shuddering violently in the wind. Thankfully, with Tails' expert piloting skills, they managed to land safely on top of a sturdy skyscraper. Once they were safely grounded, everyone piled out, with Sonic and Hoopa at the forefront and Serena at the back.

"Whew!" Sonic said, wiping his brow (or whatever he had). "Nice going there, buddy. Seems upgrading my old plane hasn't hampered your skills at all."

"Nope!" Tails grinned, folding his arms in pride. "Not a bit." Then he unfolded them and looked at Sonic urgently. "Now you should go! You can probably reach Ash and Pikachu faster than the rest of us."

"'Probably,'" Sonic said, mockingly quoting his friend. "That's a bit of an understatement, doncha think?" They chuckled. Then, after playfully punching Tails' arm and giving his signature thumbs-up, Sonic took off, running down the building, with Hoopa tagging along in his shadow. "All right!" he cheered as he ran. "It's like Speed Highway all over again! Woo!"

"Well that didn't take long," Ash mumbled as he and Pikachu stumbled out of the forest. "Honestly, I thought it would be a while before we could see the sun again."

"Pikachu," Pikachu agreed.

"But now what?" he muttered, putting his hands on his hips. "Looks like we're on a paved road of sorts. Guess we'll have to wing it." With that, he began walking in one direction. The road was fairly straight with little action going on. After some time walking, Ash paused to catch his breath.

"I don't know, Pikachu," he said. "We don't seem to be getting anywhere. If only we could –"

"Hey, kid."

Ash started on hearing the sudden voice. "Huh?"

"What's the matter? Lost?"

He turned and saw a big, burly man standing near him, a rather unpleasant sneer on his face. "Uh, yeah," he said. "I'm trying to find a town. Can you help me?"

"Heheheh," the man chuckled. "Sorry kid, but I'm not the helping type." With that, he lunged at Ash, but the quick-thinking trainer anticipated this and dodged to the side. "What the–?!"

"It takes someone pretty stupid to fall for that," Ash snapped. "Trying to mug me, are you?"

"Why, you little smartass," the man growled, lunging at him again.

"That's smart-Ash to you," Ash grinned in reply.

"Come 'ere, you little punk!" the man shouted, now thoroughly angry. He lunged at him again, only to meet the same result. This continued for some time until the man managed to catch his prey. In the process, Pikachu fell off of Ash's shoulder.

"Pika!" he cried.

"Pikachu!" Ash called from within the thug's grip. "Go on! Get outta here! This guy's not afraid to hurt someone!"

Pikachu didn't wait. He dashed away, but the thug saw this and tried to pursue him, releasing Ash briefly. This gave the trainer enough time to run after him. He jumped onto his back and yanked at his ears.

"YAAHHHH!" the thug screamed in pain.

"You stay away from my Pikachu!" he shouted. In response, the man threw him onto his back. He skid across the street and his jacket tore.

"Now you're gonna get it, kid," the thug snarled. "You're gonna wish your mama had a bigger –"

"SHUT UP!" Ash shouted suddenly, tackling him head-on. The thug laughed at his ineffectiveness and threw him to the side. He hit a thorny bush, tearing his clothes up even further. "Aggh!" he cried, clutching his arm, where blood was starting to trickle out.

"Surrender?"

"Not a chance!"

"Fine then," the thug grinned. "I prefer the hard way anyways." With that, he raised his fists to knock out the Pokemon trainer. But before he could drop the blow, a red blur slammed into him from the side.

"What?!" Ash and the thug exclaimed at the same time.

"Get away from him, you big bully!"

The thug spun around, slightly dizzy. "Uhh...huh?" he said. The red blur slammed into him again, this time knocking him onto his back. Then it stopped in place on top of him, revealing its identity.

Ash's eyes widened as a smile appeared on his face. "It's Knuckles!"

Knuckles the Echidna socked the thug in the jaw, finishing him off and leaving him unconscious. Satisfied, he strolled over to Ash. "Long time no see, Ketchum. Seems you've been holding up fairly well."

"As well as I can be," Ash grinned. "So what brings you out here?"

"I was in Opelucid City," Knuckles explained. "I got invited there by some archaeologists. They were curious about Angel Island. Not that I was having any of it."

"Opelucid City?" Ash said. "Can you take me there from here? Pikachu and I were looking for a town." He stretched a bit, and something ripped. "Oh, jeez!" he jumped at this. "My clothes! Aw, man, and Mom just sewed them, too."

"Got lost?"

"Heh...it's a long story." With that, the two of them set off for the city, while Ash explained everything that had happened since he and Sonic ran into each other in Lumiose City. The sun was halfway across the sky, indicating it was about noon.

"That was a close call," Tails said as soon as he was back on the ground again.

"I'll say," Serena mumbled while they walked through the city. "How long will it take for Clemont and Bonnie to repair that piece of junk?"

"Excuse me?!" Tails snapped back. "I worked for months on making that plane as good as it was before the tornado hit. Don't insult my work!"

"Pft, give me a break," Serena grumbled. "Magearna could do a better job fixing that garbage than you could."

Tails stopped and stood directly in her pathway, an angry glare in his eye. "That 'garbage' was a gift to me from Sonic. He always told me he believed I could be as big of a hero as he was, if not bigger. So that 'garbage' is very important to me: it's a symbol of our friendship, which only gets stronger every passing day."

"Well I still hear more about him than you, you whiny little Vulpix!" Serena shouted at him.

By now, their arguing was starting to turn some heads. When Serena shouted that, the usual bustle surrounding them quieted down drastically. They noticed this, and Tails, not wanting to make a scene, grunted in disgust and continued on. Serena, on the other hand, suddenly realized what she said and rushed quickly to catch up with Tails.

"Tails," she said, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it, I swear! Oh, goodness, I can't believe I said that."

"Ash always said you were a fairly nice girl," Tails replied as they walked on. "I guess you were his favorite if you're so nice to him and so mean to everyone else."

At this, Serena stopped. His words hit the nail on the head, and all she could do was let her face fall. "Yeah," was all she said. With that, the two of them continued searching for help in the city.

"Ah, here we are," Knuckles said as they came to town.

"Seems a bit quieter since I was last here," Ash said, raising an eyebrow slightly.

"Hm?" Knuckles looked around. "Hm, you're right: it is quiet. Maybe even a little too quiet. It wasn't like this a few hours ago."

"Then where is everybody?" Ash wondered.

"Pikapi!"

They turned and saw Pikachu happily running up to his trainer. "Hey, Pikachu!" Ash grinned as the Pokemon jumped into his arms. He then noticed some scratches on Pikachu's body. "Uh-oh," he said. "It looks like you got a little beat up on your way here. Should we head to the Pokemon Center?"

"Chu," Pikachu nodded. With that, they quickly walked to the center and checked in.

"This is about the place where Ash jumped out," Sonic said as he slowed his pace in a dense forest. "We should be close."

"Keep your eyes on the ground," Hoopa suggested. "Maybe their imprints are still there."

"Right," Sonic nodded, wiping his brow. "Whew! This afternoon heat sure is beating down."

"You said it," Hoopa agreed. "Maybe there's a pond nearby."

"Maybe," Sonic shrugged. "But we've got more important things to focus on. Hey, look!"

"Huh?" Hoopa looked up. There was a large patch of grass on the ground that appeared indented, as though a large mass was laying there.

"I think we've found our Baseball Head," Sonic grinned.

"Then what are we waiting for?" Hoopa cheered. "Let's –"

GYAOO!

They froze. "What was that?!" Sonic exclaimed.

Hoopa's eyes widened in fear. "Uh-oh...GET DOWN!"

"Whoaaaa!" Sonic cried as Hoopa pulled him to the ground. No sooner had he done this than a huge heat wave washed over them. It lasted for but a moment, then vanished. They stood up again.

"That was bad news," Hoopa said.

"But what was it?"

"A powerful Pokemon born of flames," he said. "I don't know what it's doing out here, but we need to find it and stop it before it causes any harm. Come on!"

Sonic looked up at the sky, slightly covered in heat. The sun was still fairly high, as it was nearing the middle of the afternoon.

"All right, then," he said. "Let's crank up the heat!"