Author's note: Heya, peeps!

Bouncing back from my bad cold to pump out some more chapters!

Oh, also... I recently discovered that Fanfiction hasn't been telling me about some of the PM and review replies that people have given me! How long has this been going on?! How many of you sent me a message that I didn't reply to, because I didn't know the message existed?!

So, now, I'll just have to check my inbox religiously, just to make sure I don't miss anything. You all make sure to do that, too, with your own inboxes. Just in case.

There's nothing worse than spending months being annoyed that someone didn't reply to your review, only to realise that they did. You just weren't told about it. Arrrrgggh!

... Ahem. Anyway. Moving on from that, I hope you enjoy the chapter!


Chapter Three: Helping Friends

Pikachu nibbled on his candy-coated pellet, surprised by how tasty it was. The sweet flavour really complimented the earthy flavour of the pellets in a way that he hadn't expected. It also gave it a nice crunch.

"(Mmmm~!)" Buneary said next to him as she chewed her own pellet. "(It's shoooo good~!)" Swallowing, she smiled at everyone sitting around her. "(Everyone liking their candy flakes?)"

The ones who had them all nodded, murmuring in confirmation.

"(That's good!)" Buneary replied. She chewed another pellet, while making satisfied noises. Once she was done, she swallowed it. "(So! You guys looking forward to the match with Paul?)"

"(Heck yeah, I am,)" Buizel replied. He clenched a fist, smirking. "(Can't wait to kick that guy's butt!)"

"(Me too,)" Staraptor agreed. He fluffed his feathers. "(Though, after my last win against Honchrow, I'm feeling like I can take on the whole team!)"

Buizel glanced at him, smirking. "(Steady on there, big boots.)"

"(You mean that PokéRinger thing you won?)" Chimchar asked.

"(And evolved at!)" Staraptor replied proudly, puffing out his chest. "(Not to mention, learned Close Combat, mmm-hmm.)"

"(And people say I have an ego...)" Piplup muttered. "(... Which I don't, by the way.)"

"(Riiiight...)" Mamoswine muttered back.

Pachirisu, Sudowoodo and Happiny all giggled in response. Piplup huffed, clearly not impressed, as he ate more of his pellets.

"(Speaking of Honchkrow,)" Grotle said, "(he's the guy I really wanna beat this time.)"

Buizel glanced at him. "(Oh yeah,)" he said, "(you evolved against him too, right?)"

"(Yeah, but, unlike Staraptor, I lost.)" Grotle smiled. "(This time, I wanna even the score a bit.)" He paused in thought. "(You think I can, though? I mean, I have that type disadvantage and all...)"

"(Yeah!)" Chimchar replied, looking semi-confident. "(I-I'm sure you'll be fine! Right? We all will!)"

"(Ohhh, I hope so...)" Gliscor said, looking worried. "(I really wanna win this one for Ash...)" His eyes started watering. "(If... If we don't, then...!)"

Oh, gosh. Pikachu couldn't help but notice that his friends' confidence levels were all over the place right now. Some seemed to feel a lot more sure of themselves than others. He should probably think of something comforting to say, to ease their nerves a bit.

"(Well-)" he started.

"(It's okay!)" Buneary suddenly said. "(I'm sure you guys will do great! You've all been training super hard, right? So there's no way you'll lose!)"

Chimchar and Gliscor gave her surprised looks. "(... You think so?)" Chimchar asked.

"(Uh huh! I'm calling it now! A full six-zero in your favour!)"

Gliscor's eyes watered more. "(R-Really?)" he asked.

Grotle tilted his head. "(That's a bit much, isn't it?)" he asked.

"(No way!)" Buneary replied. "(You'll get 'em for sure! Right, Pikachu?)"

Pikachu jolted at the sound of his name. He turned to see Buneary beaming at him. "(... Huh?)" he asked.

"(The whole team's a shoo-in to beat Paul, right?)"

"(Oh! Uh, yeah!)"

She turned back to the others. "(Yeah, see? You'll all do great! Grotle will beat Honchkrow, just like he wants... Buizel's gonna...)" She paused. "(Wait, what do you want, again?)"

Buizel smirked. "(Heh,)" he replied. "(Just battling. Don't care who, don't care when or why. Just wanna battle.)"

"(Oh, okay! Staraptor, you'll... well, you'll keep being great!)"

Staraptor fluffed his feathers again. "(Naturally,)" he replied.

"(And Chimchar, you're gonna kick butt!)" Her eyes lit up. "(In fact, Paul said you're only good with Blaze, right? Well, you've just gotta prove him wrong!)"

Chimchar looked enlightened. "(... Yeah,)" he replied, in a trance. After a moment, a fire burned in his eyes and he grinned. "(Yeah! I'll... I'll get back at Paul and all of his jerkwad team for saying I'm weak! And... And treating me like dirt! Especially Electabuzz!)" He paused. "(... Torterra, not so much, but definitely Electabuzz!)"

Buizel looked proudly down at him. "(Now you're talking,)" he said.

"(Yeah, that's the spirit!)" Buneary replied. "(And Gliscor, you're gonna make Ash proud! You've already made him proud up 'til now, so you can only make him prouder!)"

Gliscor beamed through his tears. "(Really?)" he asked.

She nodded. "(Yeah!)"

He chuckled. Then the chuckle became a belly laugh as he wiped away his tears. "(Yeah, you're right! You're right! We're gonna go out there and make Ash proud!)" He winked and stuck out his tongue.

"(Yeah!)" Buneary stood up. "(You can do it! You can all do it! Come oooon, team!)" She danced around, pretending to wave pompoms to her left. "(Rah-rah!)" She pretended to wave them to her right. "(Rah-rah!)" She pretended to wave them up and down. "(Let's go!)" She jumped up and posed. "(Here we go, ohhhh!)"

She held the pose, even as she landed. Everyone stared.

Pikachu felt a slight shiver of second-hand embarrassment creep up his spine.

"(... What in blazes was that?)" Piplup asked.

Buneary blinked at him, looking perplexed. "(... Huh?)" she asked. "(I was cheering.)"

"(... No cheer I know,)" Mamoswine muttered.

Pachirisu giggled. "(Yeah, why didn't you use one of Dawn's cheers?)" he asked.

Buneary blinked again. "(Well...)" she replied, "(I forgot what they were. Something about 'getting it done'?)" She beamed. "(I just said whatever came to mind in the moment!)"

Sudowoodo chuckled. "(Well, I thought it was cute!)" he said.

"(Yeah, yeah, cute!)" Happiny agreed.

Buneary turned her beaming smile on them. "(Oh, really?)" she asked. "(Thanks!)"

"(Well, it certainly pumped me up!)" Buizel said. He clenched a fist. "(Now I wanna fight more than ever!)"

"(Yeah!)" Chimchar cheered, hopping up and down. "(Me too! I wanna beat Paul up right now!)"

Grotle laughed. "(You mean his team, right?)" he asked.

"(If you ask me,)" Staraptor said, "(the trainer could use some of that, too.)"

Everyone laughed.

Pikachu couldn't help the smile of wonder that spread across his face. "(Wow...)" he said. "(Seeing everyone so pumped up is getting me pumped up, too! I can hardly wait for the battle tomorrow!)"

"(Oh!)" Buneary suddenly said, turning towards him. "(And, of course, you'll do amazing, too, Pikachu~! You'll knock 'em out of the park, probably with your hotness alone~!)"

His face burned as everyone's attention fell on him. They laughed again, this time at his expense.

Groaning, he turned away, looking anywhere else. As he did, he locked eyes with Croagunk. He blinked. The frog was staring, unblinkingly, at him, making him feel incredibly awkward.

After a moment of this, he realised something. Croagunk hadn't said a single thing throughout that entire conversation. He'd probably been sitting there in silence, just watching. Maybe listening...

Pikachu looked away, feeling more awkward and embarrassed than ever.

... Not that doing any of that was unusual for the frog, though, thinking about it. No one could ever tell what was going on in his mind. Whether he was paying attention to things or not. Things that weren't Brock-related, anyway...

Regardless, despite the inevitable embarrassment that Pikachu had suffered - since it always seemed to follow him wherever he went - he was impressed with how Buneary had handled things just now. She'd really succeeded in not only cheering everyone in the team up, but getting them excited to battle Paul's team tomorrow.

He smiled to himself. She was a pretty cool gal, it seemed.


When everyone had finally finished lunch and the bowls had been cleared away, Ash called on his team to do some training for their big battle tomorrow.

They all ran towards the open space, more ready than ever, it seemed. Even Pikachu was fired up. This would be the first time Ash's Sinnoh team had been in a full six-on-six battle, so it was no wonder they were excited. They wanted to show what they could do as a team!

Just as the group reached the open space, however, they were all lifted off their feet. They yelped as they were sucked straight into a floating vacuum in the sky. Pikachu landed inside with a thump, with a few of his teammates landing on top of him. Ow, ow, ow... What the heck had even happened?

Shaking off the pain, he looked around. It seemed that Piplup, Buneary, Pachirisu, Croagunk, Sudowoodo and Happiny had landed nearby, so Ash's team weren't the only ones here.

He dragged himself out from the pile of groaning bodies, looking around some more. Curiously, there was no sign of Grotle, Mamoswine, the engineer's ampharos or the humans. He guessed they were probably too heavy to be picked up by the suction. It was then that he noticed a window on either side of the vacuum. As he stood up to investigate, he faintly heard cackling laughter above him.

He frowned. "(Team Rocket...)" he grumbled to himself.

Walking over to one of the windows, he smacked his fist against the glass. A few other pokémon gathered around him, trying the same thing, but it felt pretty solid.

"(This isn't working!)" Piplup cried in annoyance. He kicked the glass for good measure, then hopped around, holding his foot with a pained expression. "(Ow, ow, ow...!)"

"(Gosh, are you okay?)" Pachirisu asked.

Piplup hissed through his beak, then put his foot back down, proudly placing his flippers on his hips. "(... Only my pride is wounded.)"

Pachirisu giggled. "(You sure?)"

"(... Yes.)"

"(Tch,)" Buizel said. "(Alright, let's bust this thing open!)"

"(Yeah, we better had!)" Chimchar replied.

"(Ready and waiting!)" Staraptor said.

Before they could do anything, though, there was a sudden explosion, which blasted a hole straight through the vacuum. Everyone scrambled to take a look. They were really free, just like that?

Huh, wow. It normally took a lot longer than this to be free of one of Team Rocket's traps, but Pikachu wasn't complaining.

"Now's your chance!" Brock called out. "Jump down onto the grass!"

Pikachu looked down at the grass below, next to the rocky area they'd been eating in before. Turning to his friends with a determined frown, he saw them doing the same back.

"(Alright, smaller pokémon on the flying-types!)" he said.

Nodding, five of the pokémon scrambled towards the flying-types. Chimchar and Buneary climbed aboard Staraptor, while Pachirisu and Happiny climbed aboard Gliscor. Piplup looked between them in despair.

"(Wh... Where am I supposed to fit?!)" he cried.

Buneary turned around from where she was sitting. "(Oh!)" she cried. "(And Pikachu, too! There's no room on the flying-types!)"

Pikachu smiled at them both. "(It's okay,)" he replied. He looked directly at Piplup. "(Piplup, can you help me make sure everyone gets out safely?)"

Piplup's eyes widened. "(You want my help?)" he asked.

He nodded. "(Yeah!)"

After blinking at him, Piplup put his flippers back on his hips. "(Well, of course!)"

After the steamboat incident a while back - where the two of them had played babysitter to the rest of the team - Pikachu was confident that no one was better qualified. Sure, Piplup liked to tease him a lot, and he had a rather large ego, but still. He trusted him.

The two of them watched as Staraptor flew out of the hole, Buneary and Chimchar on his back. He was followed by Gliscor, who was carrying Pachirisu and Happiny. Then Buizel, Sudowoodo and Croagunk jumped out after them.

Once everyone else had safely left the vacuum, Pikachu and Piplup jumped out.

Behind them, however, was a loud noise. Pikachu turned in shock to see a net flying directly at them.

He, Piplup and Gliscor swivelled their bodies in mid-air to try and avoid it, but the sudden movement caused Happiny to fall off Gliscor's back.

"(Wheeee!)" she cried out happily as she fell.

Panicking, Pikachu swivelled back around to grab her. Piplup did the same thing, and the three of them got caught in the net.

"(Aww, man...)" Pikachu mumbled as the balloon began dragging them away.

He looked down below, to see the engineer's ampharos leap onto the top of the train, then leap up to grab the net. Team Rocket wiggled the net around to shake him off, but it didn't work.

"Do it, Ampharos!" the engineer called out. "Destroy their remote control!"

Pikachu wasn't even sure what happened next. He heard Ampharos fire off an attack, which was followed by a loud impact noise. Then there were distressed voices from below and screaming from above as he felt the balloon fly away at top speed.

He shrieked as it zigzagged across the sky, flying in a loop-de-loop, before plummeting downwards.


Pikachu shook off his dizziness. Wow, that had been a wild ride. Now Team Rocket's hot air balloon seemed to be caught in a tree, with the net dangling close to the ground. He glanced over at Piplup and Happiny, to see how they were faring. The former seemed to be a little dizzy, but no worse for wear. The former, though, looked like she was really enjoying herself.

With a smile of exasperation on his face, Pikachu sighed. Did nothing phase that girl?

"(Are you all okay?)" a voice asked.

Pikachu looked up at Ampharos, who was still clinging tightly to the outside of the net.

"(Yeah, I think so,)" he replied.

"(Let's go again!)" Happiny cried happily.

"(Let's not...)" Piplup groaned.

Ampharos smiled, looking relieved. "(Alright, cool,)" he replied. "(That's good. One sec and I'll get you out.)"

"(Okay,)" Pikachu replied. He glanced at Piplup. "(Piplup, can you help me make sure Happiny lands safely?)"

"(Of course!)" Piplup replied, grabbing hold of Happiny. Pikachu did the same on the other side.

"(Alright, here I go!)" Ampharos said, jumping down.

Powering up a Thunder Punch, he swung his arm at the net. It sliced straight through, dropping the three pokémon to the ground. Together, Pikachu and Piplup made sure that Happiny landed on her feet. She was still a baby, after all, and Brock would be very upset if he found out anything had happened to her.

... Like Misty's togepi before her, though, the girl seemed to have no fear of anything. Always a worrying thing for a baby.

He looked up at Ampharos. "(Thanks, Ampharos,)" he said.

"(Yeah, that was a pretty sweet Thunder Punch,)" Piplup added.

Ampharos nodded, looking pleased. "(Thanks!)" he replied. "(It took a lot of training to get it to cut things!)"

At that moment, a voice rang out from the branches of the tree behind them. They all turned around and looked up to see Team Rocket, still in the balloon basket and ranting at them for breaking free.

The pokémon glanced at each other. "(... I say we ditch 'em,)" Piplup said.

"(... Yeah, agreed,)" Pikachu replied.

"(Yay, ditch!)" Happiny said.

"(Heh,)" Ampharos said, "(yeah, let's go find our trainers.)"

"(Yeah,)" Pikachu replied.

They scurried away, down the path and into the forest. Behind them were the sounds of leaves rustling, loud screams and a crash. Pikachu sighed. It didn't take a genius to figure out that Team Rocket had fallen out of the tree. Sometimes, he'd feel a twinge of second-hand embarrassment when it came to that trio, but not much. They were more annoying than anything. Ignoring the noise, the group continued onwards.

As they walked, Pikachu looked at the road ahead. It was long and winding, meaning that it might take a while to get back to the train.

He sighed again. Hopefully, not too long, though...