(You thought we forgot about the references?! Well there's one big one in this chapter…can you find it?)
(Music: Pokemon holiday Pokemon center theme)
"God this food is so good!" May said while she and Ashly were stuffing their faces at a Pokemon center cafeteria.
"Do those two ever stop eating?" Gary asked Brock.
"Yeah…but only when something more interesting than food peaks their interest" Brock told him.
"Like?" He asked.
"Oh….right."
"Serena do you ever wonder where Ashly stores all the weight she packs on?" Dawn asked. She was sitting with the honey blonde at a table, both were eating a couple of sausage patties.
"Not really, when I was traveling with her in Kalos, she didn't really seem to stuff herself nearly as much as she does now. But as for where it all goes, it definitely isn't to her hips or anything" Serena replied.
(End music)
After Dragging May and Ashly away from the food and back to their shared room Gary noticed something.
"Hey Ashly what are you and the others planing on wearing to the beach? You can't go in your clothes and you don't have anything else to wear" he said.
Dawn shrugged. "That could be a problem. I guess we have to go out swimsuit shopping" she said in mock disappointment
Ashly leaned over to Gary and held up a knife. "If you cut my head off, I'll cut yours off afterwards" she said.
"Nah, I rather like my life" he answered. She turned the blade towards herself. "And you are a legendary Pokemon. You're practically immortal. All you'd succeed in doing is causing yourself needless pain" he reminded her.
A short time later, Ashly was standing inside a swimsuit store.
"How does this one look?" Dawn asked. She was holding up a red swim skirt and bikini top.
"I think it'd look great on you, Dawn. Do you think I should go with this solid Emerald green one piece or this similar two piece?" May asked.
"Go with the the one piece" dawn replied.
Serena walked over with a shopping bag. "Now what to get for Ashley?" She asked.
"If it's all the same, I'll just swim in my jeans" Ashly responded.
"No, you need a swimsuit. How about this? It's so you!" May suggested as she held up a deep blue one piece bikini with a light blue diamond over the middle of the breasts.
She grumbled under her breath.
"Fine…."
At the beach, they found a set of chairs with umbrellas. Ashly ran into the waves along with May, Dawn, and Serena who was in a pink two piece. Several guys looked at Ashly and walked over to her.
"Hey babe, check this out" one said as he flexed his muscles. Ashly turned away only to come face to face with another guy.
"No thanks, I'm not interested" she said.
"Oh come on, we can have dinner over at my place, I cook a mean steak" the first one said.
"You know I don't think getting her that swimsuit was a good idea after all" dawn mused, seeing Ashly running away from several buff looking guys.
"In hindsight, probably not" Serena replied. She giggled as Ashly punched a dude across the face for trying to kiss her.
Meanwhile, a periscope was looking on at the group from in the water. "It seems they are a bit distracted at the moment" Jessie said.
"This plays out well for us" added James.
"So let's get grabbing while the girls are gone and the getting is good" Meowth finished.
(Music: Pikachu arrives)
Gary looked up and saw a yellow thunderbolt shaped tail walking past him. "Hey, where were you pikachu?" He asked.
"Pika, Pikachu, pika pika pi, Pikachu pi pika" the electric mouse said tiredly.
"He said saw you guys board a boat that never came back. Then He heard about a girl who managed to eat through the entire stock of food at a Pokemon center in Porta Vista so he got a Pidgeot to fly him here. And that you are a huge jerk for taking Ashly away and ditching him again" may translated while walking over.
"Aww…isn't dat cute! Pikachu loves Ashly. Do you love her?" Gary teased.
"Pika PIKACHU!" It yelled as it dropped a bolt of thunder down onto Gary.
"I kinda think he deserved that, what about you?" Ashly asked as she came up and looked at Pikachu's sparking cheeks.
Dawn and Serena both nodded as did May.
"What do you expect, we're partners" Pikachu laughed.
Gary just sat under the now burnt away umbrella covered in soot.
"Ashly, I want to see how far you've come. I challenge you" declared Pikachu.
he shook her head. "I don't wanna fight you Pikachu."
"I thought you were strong Ashly, but I guess I was wrong" he taunted.
"Pikachu used taunt" giggled may.
"It's super effective" added Dawn while several tick marks appeared over Ashly's head.
"Ok, Pikachu, you really want to fight, let's fight" said Ashly.
She walked to a changing booth and came back in her Pokemon form.
(Music: who is stronger epic battle)
Pikachu's cheeks began to spark.
"Thunderbolt!" He said as he discharged a cracking bolt of lightening at Ashly.
She jumped to the side and fired off a dragon breath, then ran towards where Pikachu had jumped to and used metal claw.
It sent Pikachu tumbling across the sand, but he flipped back to his feet.
"Try my volt tackle!" He yelled as he began to run towards Ashly.
She formed several rocks above her head and launched them at Pikachu one by one.
He expertly dodged them and launched himself into her.
She flew backwards but oriented herself in the air and landed on all fours.
Ashly fired off several more dragon breaths. Two of them missed but one managed to hit Pikachu.
"So ready to give up yet Pikachu?" She asked.
"Not yet!" He yelled. He jumped into the air and formed a ball of electricity on his tail, flipped forward, and sent it down at her.
She narrowly dodged the projectile, then ran to where pikachu had landed and tried to use metal claw. The move barely hit before pikachu began to spark.
"DISCHARGE" he said. An electrical blast expanded out of his body blowing Ashly back a distance
(Music: raid!)
That's when they all heard screaming and looked down the beach to see a large Octilery was floating across the beach and destroying the small beach shops.
"How did that thing get so big?!" Asked Brock while he, Gary, Ashly, and the others were running towards it to try and stop it
"Wait, Octilery don't make a whirring noise…or hover! I'll bet you anything that's team rocket in there" may shouted over the people screaming.
Ashly and Pikachu ran forwards. She shot a dragon breath at the Octilery and Pikachu used his thunderbolt.
"Hahahahaha! Say hello to the Octillery bot it's completely resistant to pokemon attacks and it has ink too" Jessie's voice said through an intercom.
The Octillery bot turned and shot a ball of ink at the heroes which covered Dawn, May, and Serena from head to toe in black sticky ink.
"Grrrrrrr…team rocket….THESE WERE BRAND NEW SWIMSUITS!" May yelled in fury. She changed to her Pokemon form and then began to fire multiple ancient powers at them.
"May, stop! You're just wasting energy!" Dawn told her.
"Oh, and we have one last surprise for you with this one. The Vac Attacker 3000!" Meowth said. The Octilery's mouth…snout…extended into a tube and began to suck Ashly and Pikachu as well as may inside.
Dawn, Serena, return!" Gary called, but it was a bit too late as they too apart from Gary and Brock, got sucked into the vacuum hose. (They were in their Pokemon forms at that time)
(End music)
They ended up in a pitch black chamber
"I can't see a thing" said Dawn.
"Hold on" replied Ashly. Her diamond began to glow revealing they were in a metal chamber with multiple other various Pokemon.
May looked around and then sat on her haunches. "Great…how do we get out of here?"
"Couldn't we blast our way out?!" Suggested Serena.
"Team rocket said this machine was resistant to Pokemon attacks" Pikachu reminded her.
"Well they have said that before and Been wrong. I say we all attack the wall at once" declared Ashly.
May began to use her ancient power, dawn and Ashly their dragon breaths, Pikachu his thunderbolt, and Serena her wing attack while the other Pokemon joined in with a large variety of moves.
"They can try all they want but they won't escape, the whole thing is invulnerable, right Meowth?" James laughed.
He didn't answer.
"Meowth?!" Jessie asked.
"I may have forgotten to test against group attacks…." He said.
"You WHAT?!" Screamed Jessie and James.
(Music: Kanto Gym Intense Action)
An explosion happened from somewhere below that and the entire machine began to tip.
"Alright! They managed to do something in there! One Of its thrusters failed" cheered Brock.
"Keep going everyone! I heard something break" said Ashly. She and the others once more began to use their attacks.
"Meowth, you at least installed some kind of security measures didn't you?!" Asked James.
"I did but that's the first thing they broke!" Replied the scratch cat Pokemon in fear.
Another larger explosion could be heard from below and the entire machine crashed into the sand before yet another one blew out a side.
"OH NO, THAT WAS THE DAMAGE COMPENSATOR" Screamed Meowth.
The caught Pokemon all jumped out from the hole in the machine and landed facing it.
"We won't let them do this to us! Everyone! Let's LET THEM HAVE IT!" Called Ashly.
At this the Pokemon all sent their strongest moves into the smoking wall of the Octilery bot. People looked on as a ton of glowing projectiles, energy beams, and visible mini tornados and whirlwinds sped from the group of Pokemon into the machine.
"Meowth, DO SOMETHING!" Jessie screamed in terror.
"I'm trying but it's Game over!" He yelled over the explosions happening outside.
A white glow covered it before it exploded on impact and launched team rocket Into the sky.
"Meowth, you had better have payed for the warranty!" Snapped Jessie.
He did, but it doesn't cover incompetent setup!" Replied James.
"Maybe we'll land at the end of the rainbow though" Meowth said hopefully.
"You need luck to find a rainbow and we don't have any!" Jessie yelled.
"And as luck would have it…" Added James.
"LOOKS LIKE TEAM ROCKET IS BLASTING OFF AGAIIIIINN" they all screamed as they ascended towards the sunset.
(End music)
The trainers all ran to reunite with their beloved Pokemon. While Gary's walked over to him in human form.
"That was an interesting beach day, I will admit" said Brock as they were walking back to the Pokemon center.
"I'm kinda upset Pikachu and I didn't get to finish our battle though" Ashly sighed.
"It's fine Ashly, I think we'll call it a draw" replied Pikachu.
"Sure thing buddy!" She agreed.
"Well at least the tentacool and tentacrule aren't being run out of their homes this time around" she said. Gary was now carrying her down a boat dock in Pokemon form.
"Yeah and thankfully they were able to rebuild everything since we last came here. But it's time for us to head off. The boat to leave is right over there" Brock agreed.
They boarded the ship and it set sail.
(A fun beach day turned into another battle against team rocket, and as the sun sets over the ocean, I can't help but wonder what tomorrow has in store. Come back next time…as the journey continues!)
[the reference was Team Rocket's robot. It looked and acted much like Dr. Eggman's Octopus Bot from the Sonic Boom TV show….we couldn't resist. And the similarities were strong in this one, young trainer.)