Episode 7: Justice Prevails
We once again find our heroes travelling through large open fields on their way to Marguerite City. And right now, it seems that Ash is planning on doing some training before his first Gym battle.
"Alright, guys!" Ash declares to Pikachu and Hoopkoo. "Now, we don't know what kind of Pokémon the Gym Leader will use, but we should try to work out how to properly utilize you, Hoopkoo, in battle!"
"Hoooo!" Hoopkoo tweets in response.
"H-hey, Ash. Do you think I could do some training too? I'm thinking of battling that Gym as well…" Mircea shyly speaks up.
"That's a great idea!" Ash exclaims. "We could have a double battle against each other!"
"A-alright, yeah!" Mircea replies as he runs over to face Ash and throws out two Poke Balls, out of which Marmelon and Teddiursa pop out.
"Marrrr melll!" Marmelon bounces up and down on the spot happily.
"Tediiii!" Teddiursa calls, waving its arms around.
"Do you guys mind if I be the referee?" Reyn asks, jumping to her feet and standing near the middle of the battlefield.
"Sure, go ahead." Ash nods before turning his attention back to Pikachu and Hoopkoo, who have now taken their positions in front of him, alongside each other.
"Pika!"
"Hooo hooo!"
"Ok! Pikachu, use Quick Attack on Marmelon! Hoopkoo, use Peck on Teddiursa!"
"Pikaaaaa chuuuuuuu!" Pikachu dashes forwards, a glowing white light trails behind him as he races towards Marmelon.
"Jump up and dodge it, Marmelon!" Mircea calls out.
"Marrrrrrr!" Marmelon squeals as it jumps high into the air, Pikachu's Quick Attack completely missing him.
Hoopkoo meanwhile, flies straight towards Teddiursa, its beak glowing brightly as it soars in and hits Teddiursa directly in the chest, and Teddiursa rolls backwards along the grass.
"Teddiursa, use Sweet Scent!"
"Tediiii!" Teddiursa begins to emit a powerful sweet smell, which causes Pikachu and Hoopkoo to slightly stumble around a bit.
"Ok! Now, Marmelon! Use Leafage!" Mircea calls over to Marmelon, who is now running over to Pikachu and it leaps up ever so slightly as it summons a barrage of sharp leaves as it launches them at Pikachu.
"Blast them away with Thunderbolt!" Ash shouts out as Pikachu launches a powerful Thunderbolt which hits each and every one of the leaves, causing them to flutter to the ground completely destroyed.
"R-right um…" Mircea looks at both Marmelon and Teddiursa in front of him and begins to ponder to himself.
He glances up at Hoopkoo flying above the ground and then down at his own Pokemon again.
"Ok, Teddiursa I need you to kick Marmelon in the air!" He explains to Teddiursa, who runs up behind Marmelon and kicks it up towards Hoopkoo.
"Ok, Marmelon, nearly there… now use Vine Whip and pull Hoopkoo down to the ground!"
"Marr marr!" Marmelon cries as it gets close enough to Hoopkoo to grab it with Vine Whip and it turned around in the air before slamming Hoopkoo straight back down onto the ground.
Hoopkoo manages to fly back up into the air though, and Marmelon falls back down to the ground and continues to bounce around, clapping its hands together.
"Ok Teddiursa, now use Scratch on Pikachu!"
Teddiursa leaps towards Pikachu, with its little paws stretched out as it prepares to scratch.
"Pikachu, use Iron Tail on Teddiursa!" Ash commands, as Pikachu's tail becomes a shiny silver colour and Pikachu leaps up and smacks its tail down Teddiursa, tripping it up.
"Ah! Um ok, I can handle this, I uh…" Mircea fumbles around, trying to figure out what to do next.
"You doing ok there, Mircea?" Ash asks, concerned.
"What?! Ah, ye-yeah!" Mircea replies. "Um, uh, Marmelon, use Tackle!"
Marmelon begins to charge towards Pikachu in preparation for using Tackle, until it looks up to see Hoopkoo flying overhead.
"Hoopkoo, use Gust to knock away Marmelon into Teddiursa!" Ash calls out as Hoopkoo rapidly flaps its wings together as a huge blast of wind sends Marmelon flying back, and it knocks into Teddiursa.
"Ahh! Oh no, um…" Mircea stumbles around, racking his brain trying to think of something else to do.
"T-Teddiursa! Just try running away from Pikachu!" Mircea blurts out, not sure at all what to do next.
"Tediiiii!" Teddiursa flails its arms around and starts running around in circles around Pikachu.
"Um, Pikachu, just use Thunderbolt!" Ash calls, rather confused though, as Pikachu blasts off another Thunderbolt and it makes direct contact with Teddiursa, who gets sent flying back into Marmelon and both of them get knocked out.
"Marmelon and Teddiursa are both knocked out, which makes Ash the winner!" Reyn cheers.
Mircea returns both of his Pokémon to their Poké Balls and looks down at his feet sadly.
"I know that I'm really not a good trainer…" he sighs.
"Hey now, you're not a bad trainer at all. You did well." Ash compliments as he walks over to Mircea. "That move you did of getting Marmelon up in the air like a football only to then use Vine Whip and slam Hoopkoo down onto the ground like a basketball."
Mircea shuffles his feet and gives a very small smile but still looks rather dejected. "I don't think Pokémon battling is really my thing to be honest…"
"Well, maybe you need a bit more practice… or perhaps there is something else you could do besides being a Pokémon Trainer?" Ash asks, though not sure what else to say.
Mircea sighs and just sits down on the grass as he glances at the Poke Balls in his hands and looks up at Ash sadly.
Meanwhile, further away in the field, two figures are slowly walking along by themselves. They are then revealed to be Bonnie and Clyde, the two now ex Team Chaos members who Ash and Mircea fought against a few days ago.
"Where are we going, Bon?" Clyde groans, holding a hand to his stomach. "Can't we stop for lunch?"
"We haven't got nearly enough cash for food, dunderhead!" Bonnie snaps at her associate as they continue to walk along together.
"Well, what should we do now that we aren't part of Team Chaos?" Clyde asks. "Maybe we could make our own team?"
"A team does have more than two people!" Bonnie angrily replies, and Clyde chuckles sheepishly.
"Ye-yeah, I knew that." He then turns from left to right, an annoyed look on his face.
"Where are those brats that ruined our plans? Or those other guys who said we were copying them?" he fumes.
"Don't know, don't care." Bonnie shrugs. "Right now, I'm just focusing on trying to get back into Team Chaos. We should try causing trouble so they will notice us and let us back on the team."
"Good idea! Let's do something to get their attention, something that would get us back in their good books!" Clyde nods in agreement and the two of them look all around for something to do.
"Hey! There's some kind of power plant over there!" Clyde points towards a big, metallic building with many wires nearby. "Maybe we can try causing the power to go off and then Team Chaos might notice that?"
"Yeah! Let's go muck it all up!" Bonnie and Clyde chuckle wickedly together and race away towards the power plant.
Back across the field, Ash, Mircea and Reyn are all sitting down together, as Ash and Reyn try to comfort Mircea.
"You know, I'm not really one for battles either." Reyn pats his back, before she adjusts her glasses.
"You guys are so much better at battling than me, how can I be a Pokémon Trainer if I can't battle properly?" Mircea sighs with his head in his hands.
"You just need to pick yourself up when you're down, you need to have confidence that you might be good at something else other than battling." Ash explains determinedly.
Mircea looks up at the sky and tries his best to give off a smile, but suddenly, a massive explosion appears from over the horizon. All three of them jump up to their feet immediately.
"What's going on over there?" Ash asks out loud.
"I bet something bad is going on, we should see what is happening!" Reyn exclaims and picks up her backpack before dashing off towards the source of the explosion.
"Hey, wait for us!" Ash calls to her as he and Pikachu run after Reyn.
Mircea looks from left to right and takes a deep breath before running off after the two of them.
Behind them, back where all three of them had been sitting, a small Pokémon plods over and watches them all leave. It's then revealed to be Drizzlub, the same one that escaped from Professor Locust's lab. It turns its head to one side in confusion.
"Drizzz?"
At the power plant, Bonnie and Clyde were busy fiddling around with wires and panels inside the building.
"Right, that should shut down all the power." Bonnie turns to Clyde. "Something like this will definitely get the attention of the boss!"
"What if someone catches us?" Clyde glances around as he grabs a few wires in his hands.
"We have Pokémon to fight against them. Besides, we get out easily." Bonnie retorts.
"Hey! Who's in here?!" a voice rings out and both Bonnie and Clyde freeze up immediately.
"Drat! Better hide!" Bonnie hisses to Clyde and the two of them tiptoe as quickly as they can down the corridor into the shadows.
The source of the voice approaches the opened-up panels and loose wires and gasps.
"Someone's trying to sabotage the power plant, and I think I know who might be doing it…" he mutters to himself.
Ash, Mircea and Reyn have arrived at the entrance to the power plant and they look around at the burnt remains of the exterior.
"What happened here?" Reyn asks.
"Someone is trying to shut off the power here I think." Mircea gulps.
"We should try and put a stop to them!" Ash declares and he rushes into the power plant.
"Wait, Ash!" Mircea cries and he and Reyn follow behind.
As the three of them race through the power plant, Ash suddenly bumps into the person from earlier.
"Owch! S-sorry about that." Ash chuckles sheepishly as he glances up at the figure. As Ash looks up, he sees that the man is wearing a shiny silver suit, with a thunderbolt pattern in the middle of his grey overcoat, and he has yellow shoulder pads. He has a clean silvery grey haircut and grey jeans.
"What are you kids doing here? It's not safe around here, especially with what just happened." the man crossly scolds them.
"We're sorry, but we thought that we should at least try and help anyone in trouble." Ash replies.
The man sighs and gives a smile.
"Well, you're certainly daring, I'll give you that. Oh, by the way, name's Nicholae. I usually help out round this power plant."
"Hi, my name is Ash Ketchum. And this here is Pikachu." Ash replies.
"Pikachu!" Pikachu waves to Nicholae.
"My name is Reyn!" Reyn grins as usual.
"I-I'm Mircea…" Mircea slowly waves from behind Reyn.
"You kids certainly are very brave to be doing this." Nicholae chuckles. "Though, I have a feeling Team Chaos might be the cause of this."
"Oh, not them again!" Ash groans.
Nicholae turns to face him. "You've heard of them already?"
"Yeah, me and Mircea battled against them before when they attacked some people's ranch, but we got rid of them."
"Wow. I'm really impressed. I never expected a couple of kids to take on Team Chaos and beat them. I guess you guys must be travelling Pokémon Trainers?"
"Yeah, something like that." Ash replies.
"Well, if you could help me out, that would be a fantastic help to not only me but the other people in the nearby city. You see, this power plant provides electricity for all the people there. But if the power goes off, it causes major problems. I can't let that happen. Luckily, the explosion didn't affect much of the inside plant, though finding the Team Chaos members that did this would get us one step closer to fixing the power plant." Nicholae explains as he begins to walk down the corridors of the plant, Ash and co following behind him.
And following behind them is Drizzlub, who is still completely confused as to what is going on.
"Drizzz!" It calls quietly as it plods along the floor.
In the main room of the power plant, Bonnie and Clyde are busy fiddling around with a giant generator in the middle of the room.
"Right then, let's see if Team Chaos will get us back now. This will be so evil, they will hire us back for sure!" Bonnie grinned as the two of them began to start tinkering away at the machine.
"Not so fast, Team Chaos!" Nicholae shouts out as he bursts through the main doors to the room.
"Jeez! You punks nearly gave me a heart attack!" Clyde snaps, clutching a hand to his chest.
"And besides, we're not part of Team Chaos anymore. We are just Bonnie and Clyde, and don't try to stop us!" Bonnie points to them smugly.
"We can just fight you once again, right Pikachu?" Ash declares as Pikachu leaps down from his shoulder.
"Pika pika!" Pikachu calls.
"Ash, I don't think battling them in here is such a good idea, you could end up accidentally hitting the generator!" Nicholae advises.
"Well, see ya then, twerp!" Clyde calls out as he and Bonnie take some wires and cables out of the generator and dart out of the room.
"Come back here!" Ash shouts to me and he, along with everyone else races after them, until eventually they all stop outside on the other side of the power plant.
"Drat! We're cornered! What do we do now, Bon?" Clyde begins to panic as he looks for a way out.
Both he and Bonnie then turn to face Ash and everyone else.
"Looks like we will have to fight them to get rid of them! Go Chainsect!" Bonnie shouts as she chucks out a Poké Ball, releasing Chainsect onto the ground.
"Cha chainnnn!"
"Go Gnawolf!" Clyde follows suit, sending out his Gnawolf.
"Gn gnawwwww!"
"Ready to go, Pikachu?" Ash asks as Pikachu leaps down from his shoulder.
"Pika pikachu!"
"Fear not, citizen!" a booming voice calls out from behind them. Everyone looks up to see Captain Hyper, along with several other masked superhero looking people, standing atop the power plant roof.
"C-Captain Hyper, you sneak! Don't you dare try and stop us!" Bonnie shouts up angrily to him, but Captain Hyper and his fellow superheroes fly down from the roof.
Only to fall to the ground rather pathetically and begin to stumble back to their feet.
"Er, it's alright citizens, Captain Hyper and Team Justice have this under control…" Captain Hyper chuckles awkwardly, as he and the grunts try to get back to their feet.
Everyone else there simply stares at them in confusion.
"I remember Captain Hyper being a lot more heroic and determined when he saved Pikachu…" Ash mutters.
"Ahem. Stand down, Team Chaos! Team Justice is here to put a stop to your diabolic plans!" Captain Hyper points dramatically at Bonnie and Clyde, who both pout grumpily.
"We're no longer part of Team Chaos, we got fired!" Clyde snaps angrily. "We're going to get back into our team and there is nothing you can do about it!"
"We'll stop your evil scheme regardless, we will stop any evildoers who are causing trouble!" one of the Team Justice grunts grins determinedly, though trying to find his footing.
"Alright Team Justice, let's go!" Captain Hyper calls and he throws out a Poké Ball, releasing his Hawlucha.
"Hawwww luucha!" it cries.
"Woah, check out that Pokémon." Mircea whispers from behind Ash and Reyn and he holds his Pokedex in front of it.
"Hawlucha, the Wrestling Pokémon, and a Fighting and Flying combo type. Hawlucha always tries to strike many poses after finishing a single move. Due to its small body, it can nimbly leap around larger opponents like Machamp and Hariyama and overwhelm them with close-range and high-powered Fighting type attacks."
The Team Justice grunts throw out their Poké Balls to and release a brand new Pokémon for Ash to see. They are rather small and squat in shape, with small arms but big round paws. They have markings all over their body that make them look like a superhero, most notable is a marking resembling a mask on their face. They also have a tail resembling part of a cape, and a long tuft of hair going behind its head. Overall, they are fluffy looking and slightly resemble a humanoid goat.
Ash holds his Pokédex up to the new Pokémon and examines it.
"Kidaring, the Super Kid Pokémon, and a Fighting and Normal type. Kidaring look up to many older and bigger Pokémon for support and training. They strive to be able to save and protect as many Pokémon as they can. Kidaring sometimes work by themselves or within a pack."
"Chainsect, use Razor Wind on the Kidaring!" Bonnie commands as Chainsect flies into the air using hidden wings underneath its main body and it starts to use its chainsaw-like mandibles to whip up a massive gust of sharp wind which blasts away the group of Kidaring onto the ground.
"Ah! C-come on, Kidaring!" a female masked grunt cries.
"Never fear, my fellow Justice members! I shall defeat them!" Captain Hyper laughs confidently. "Hawlucha, use Aerial Ace!"
"Hawwww!" Hawlucha leaps into the air, stretches out its wings, and flies directly towards Chainsect, a bright white light flying behind it as it flies along.
"Gnawolf, get it there with Super Fang and send that Hawlucha flying back!" Clyde commands as Gnawolf jumps up just as Hawlucha is flying towards Chainsect and grabs its leg in its mouth, before flinging Hawlucha into Captain Hyper, knocking him over.
"Oh no, they're just too strong!" Captain Hyper cries in panic.
Ash and his friends glance over at Team Justice in complete confusion, but then turn their focus back to Bonnie and Clyde.
"We should help out!" Ash declares, as Pikachu leaps in front of him and takes a stance at Gnawolf and Chainsect.
"Agreed! Go, Magnemite!" Nicholae throws out a Poké Ball, releasing Magnemite from it.
"Magnaaaaa!" Magnemite cries, the magnets on either side of its round body turning around and around.
Mircea holds his Pokédex up once again so he can examine Magnemite.
"Magnemite, the Magnet Pokémon, and an Electric and Steel combo type. Magnemite float in the air whilst emitting powerful electromagnetic waves. They often attach themselves onto electric power cables to feed on the electricity and are sometimes the cause of power outages."
"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt on Gnawolf!" Ash calls out.
"Magnemite, you use Thunderbolt too on Chainsect!" Nicholae adds.
Both Pikachu and Magnemite fire their electric attacks at Bonnie and Clyde's Pokémon, causing them to fly all the way back into Bonnie and Clyde, knocking them both over.
"Alright! Way to go, Pikachu!" Ash cheers.
"Now, Magnemite! Use Gyro Ball!" Nicholae shouts out as Magnemite hurls itself towards Bonnie, Clyde and their Pokémon.
Magnemite spins right into them, and sends Bonnie and Clyde flying away into the air, the cables that they were holding fall back down to the ground and Ash just manages to catch them.
"Oh come on, can't we at least do one thing to get Team Chaos to notice us?!" Clyde groans loudly as he and Bonnie sail through the sky.
"That brat with the Pikachu will pay for ruining our plans!" Bonnie screams angrily.
"But now it looks like we're blasting away!" They both cry out as they disappear, and a twinkle of light appears in the sky.
Passing by at that very moment is Team Rocket in their balloon. Jessie and James look out from the basket as Bonnie and Clyde fall from the sky down to the ground away from them.
"Those… fakers!" Jessie snaps, stamping her feet in rage. "They are now copying our blasting away thing!"
"How dare they!" James adds, fuming.
"Well can we just move on and get some more Pokemon?" Meowth cuts in.
"No way! Those two need to pay!" James crossly points into the distance.
"We've barely done anything in this episode!" Jessie adds.
The three of them then begin to fight over which the balloon should be moving, and it flies all around from left to right. Wobbuffet and Mime Jr. watch them in confusion.
"Wobbuffet?"
"Mime?"
Back down on the ground, Nicholae has managed to get all the wires back into the power plant and is now working on the big generator in the middle of the room.
"Well, this is going to take some time to get repaired." he sighs. "But thanks a lot for helping out, Ash."
"It was no problem." Ash replies with a smirk.
Captain Hyper and his Team Justice grunts enter the room rather sheepishly and Captain Hyper approaches Ash.
"Um, sorry about that whole incident. We're not exactly the heroic, powerful and daring team people think we are. We're pretty hopeless." he chuckles awkwardly. "Just please don't tell anyone that we're really like this. It'd be so embarrassing."
"Hey, well at least you tried." Ash compliments. "You have some pretty awesome Pokémon. Maybe you should try training them up a bit more."
"Ye-yeah, I suppose that could work." Captain Hyper nods as he turns back to his team.
"Alright, Team Justice! Time to move out!" His grunts all nod at him and they all leave the room as quickly as they can.
"Don't forget to call us if you are in danger!" Captain Hyper calls to everyone else until they are out of sight.
"So, I take it you guys are looking to challenge the Gyms here in Anora?" Nicholae asks, only briefly turning away from his work.
"Yeah! That's me. I'm planning on going to Marguerite City to challenge the Gym Leader there!" Ash grins confidently.
"Well, I would love to battle you Ash, but I am a little caught up with work at the moment as you can see. And I also have quite a lot of things to catch up on regarding my other occupations in the Anora region."
"Wait! You're the Gym Leader?!" Ash gasps and nearly falls over in shock.
"Haha! Yeah." Nicholae nods with a smile. "Tell you what, Ash. I will be very busy at the moment fixing all of this. So, why don't you and your friends go out and battle some of the other Gym Leaders before coming to challenge me? I'd love to be able to battle you someday."
"Aw man, but I wanted to battle you straight away." Ash sighs with disappointment.
"Don't you worry, Ash. We will battle someday. But believe me, I'm a pretty strong Trainer and I don't lose often."
Eventually, Ash, Mircea and Reyn all gathered together outside the power plant and waved goodbye to Nicholae.
"We'll see you soon someday!" Ash calls to him. "I hope you'll be ready for our Gym Battle then!"
"I will be!" Nicholae replies, waving goodbye to Ash and his friends as they leave.
"So, Ash." Reyn asks him as they walk along the path back through the field, "What shall we do now that you can't battle Nicholae just yet?"
"We'll go to another Gym and battle them." Ash grins happily. "I'm so psyched about finding what we will find there."
Mircea glances over at Ash and sighs.
"I wonder if I'll find something more for me than Pokemon battling…" he mutters to himself.
"Don't worry, we will." Ash smiles at him. Mircea gasps briefly but gives a small smirk.
"Th-thanks…" he replies.
As the three of them walk down the path, Drizzlub is then revealed to be following behind them. It turns its head to one side with curiosity.
"Drizz drizz?" it asks, before continuing to follow them.
Having had another encounter with members of Team Chaos, as well as seeing Captain Hyper again. Ash and Pikachu are now on their way to find the next Gym to face in preparation for fighting Nicholae, the Gym Leader of Marguerite City. And as our heroes are being followed by a curious little Drizzlub, you've gotta stay tuned to find out more, as the journey continues…
To Be Continued...