Snow Fight
Stephanie was pacing outside the hostel, when we returned.
"We got them back," I replied, sounding somewhat glummer than the circumstances entailed.
"Cool," she replied. "The gym was closed for the night, so I came back here to wait for you. I thought I saw you coming down the road so I rushed outside to meet you. Boy, it sure is cold!" She wrapped her jacket tighter around her shoulders.
Rowan smiled at her charmingly. "We better get inside, winter's grip is upon us!"
We all shuffled inside. The hostel was one of the quaintest I had ever stayed at, resembling some kind of European villa. It was clean too, with a special playroom for Pokemon. It seemed Sereniti was a common destination for people on Pokemon Quests. I moved through to the playroom and let my Pokemon out. Some of them had been in their balls long enough. There was even a small indoor poor – kind of like a paddling pool, for water Pokemon. Razor dived in and set about playing pranks on his water companions – a Goldeen and a Squirtle. Within about a minute, waves were swishing across the tank and up the walls. Vaporeon took a more refined attitude towards things, she stalked across to the corner and started grooming herself, probably feeling the worst for being transferred twice through cyber space. Florion became the subject of attention for some of the other Pokemon, a Clefairy, two bulbasaurs, a pidgey, two Nidorans (both males, both frightened of Spike) and a Sandshrew. Until they saw Snuggles that is. The Buru took one look at all the Pokemon advancing towards him in curiosity and immediately hid behind a climbing gym, on the top of which Maki sat proudly, with a Spearow at either side of him and a Farfetch'd staring at him curiously. There were quite a few flying Pokemon in here, probably because of the gym. Spike curled up in the corner, whilst the Nidorans approached him cautiously and Rowan's Pokemon rested at various points about the room.
Suddenly something small and yellow barrelled towards us. "Pika pi!" It cried happily.
"Hi there, cous!" Came a familiar voice and I looked up to see Ash, who was now sixteen and almost six foot tall, with a rather attractive young lady beside him.
"Hey Ash, I didn't know you'd be here. This is my friend Rowan, how's things?" I gave Pikachu a hug.
Ash grinned. "So you finally got your Pokemon, which ones are yours?"
I pointed them out to him.
"Six?" He replied. "That's pretty good going, how good are they at fighting? Do you want to battle?"
I looked at Pikachu. "Personally, I doubt mine would last five minutes, but I'm game to try, if they are. Except Buru of course."
"Buru," Snuggles whined.
I sighed, as Ash pulled out his Pokedex and pointed it at Snuggles.
He laughed when it said Burus were aggressive, then pointed it at Maki.
"Makimur, the lemur Pokemon," it said in its electronic voice, "an inquisitive creature capable of learning many skills, if you have the patience."
I chuckled. "That's Maki to a T. By the way, who's your girlfriend?"
Ash scowled at me, as did the girl. "We're just friends," they said in unison.
I could see Rowan's eyes light up.
"So you guys are here for the Sky Badge?" Ash asked.
"Nah," I said, "Team Rocket stole my Pokemon, so I had to get them back. How about you guys?"
Ash held up a badge resembling wings set in front of a circular golden orb. "Been there, got that," he replied.
"I'm Misty," the girl said. "I like your water Pokemon, may I take a look?"
"Of course," I replied. "Ozmos, Razor, say hello to Misty."
"Vapor!"
"Seadra!"
"Psy," muttered a voice as an odd ducklike Pokemon materialised from a ball tied to Misty's belt and waldled across the floor.
"Psyduck," she sighed, rolling her eyes. "What are you doing?"
Misty was admiring Razor, who puffed out his fins and chest, trying to look bigger and stronger than he actually was.
"I think he likes you," I said. "He seems to like other water trainers."
"So, do you want to fight or not?" Ash asked, sounding somewhat annoyed.
"Why not, but it'll have to be outside and with some restrictions."
Ash looked at me, puzzled. "Yes?"
"Save Pikachu until last, give me at least a chance!"
"Pika?"
"Cool," Ash agreed. "I'm going to beat you."
Misty rolled her eyes. "Don't be so sure," she said.
I shrugged. "He will, but it'll be good training for them." I called in all my Pokemon and we marched outside, into the snow.
"Go Ozmos."
"Go Bulbasaur."
And so the fight began.
"Ozmos, mist," I shouted, and she spewed forth thick white clouds, that were not the mist typical of the attack. Even Ash looked puzzled.
"Bulbasaur, vine whip the mist aside!"
"Bulba!"
"Ozmos, water gun attack, now!"
"Vapor!" The water gun sent the bulbasaur reeling backwards, but it got up again. The cloud had disipiated.
"Razor leaf attack!"
"Dodge!"
And so it continued, until suddenly Ozmos stopped, and sniffed the air. Someone was cooking meat pie.
Bulbasaur looked puzzled as the Vaporeon padded away, following the scent.
"Come on Ozmos," I shouted, "fight!"
"VaPOR!" She replied haughtily, stalking away.
Ash laughed. "Well, let's see what else you've got!"
"Ozmos return," I called, scooping her up. She seemed offended. "Go Razor!"
"Sea draaa!"
"Razor, dive beneath the snow!"
"Bulbasaur, look out!"
Bulbasaur got prepared, but he wasn't ready for the dragon leaping out of the snow beneath it and sending it tumbling backwards.
"Bulbasaur return, go Squirtle."
Wow, I'd won one! "Razor, agility!"
"Seadraa," Razor zigzagged towards Squirtle.
"Squirtle, water gun!"
"Smoke screen now!"
The cloud of smoke enveloped the Squirtle, whose water barely missed the zigzagging Seadra.
"Now Razor, dragon rage!"
And Squirtle was hastily recalled.
"Go Pikachu." Pikachu was already halfway across the messed up snow ground before Ash instructed him. He knew what to do. "Thundershock now!"
"Pika CHU!"
Razor was shot several feet and I recalled him before more damage could be done. "Go Florion. Needle attack."
Florion ran forward, and stopped, tilting his head back to look at me. "Flori?" He said, "florion, flori, flor." He shook his head.
Ash laughed. "I don't think he's going to attack, Pikachu, come back here."
I picked up Florion. "When he was an Eevee he was forced to fight in battles like this, I don't think he likes the idea of fighting like that again. Neither, it appears, does Vaporeon."
Ash nodded. "You have good Pokemon, but they don't seem to be trained very well."
"Oh," Rowan interjected, "they're great against Team Rocket, or when we're threatened, but I don't think they understand the idea of fighting for fun."
"Maki!" Maki agreed.
"I don't really like the idea either," I said, "I mean, who dictates that they should fight – us, obviously they enjoy it, but I don't want my Pokemon hurt for "fun". It doesn't ride well with me."
Ash shrugged, "I don't really understand your point that well, but if you want to forfeit now, I accept your surrender."
I chuckled. "I bet if you were trying to hurt me or steal my Pokemon they'd attack you just like that."
"MaKI!" Maki put his hands on his hips and tried to look tough, failing miserably.
"Come on, its freezing out here," said Misty, "lets go inside and get something to eat."
Over tea we told Ash and Misty about Loki and Freyja, and Kameron, although I kept details about him slim. Maki stole fries of everyone's plate and Pikachu stole the ketchup bottle, trying to share it with Maki. The Makimur was not impressed.
"Your Team Rocket seem awfully tough, not like ours."
"Jessie and James," I replied, "we met them, briefly, but it's the Kadabra that's the real problem."
Ash agreed. He was just about to open his mouth to say something profound, when suddenly the windows shattered inwards.
"Prepare for trouble
Make it double
To protect the world from devastation
to unite all people…"
"Shut up you two, they stole my Kadabra!" Shouted Loki, pushing past Jessie and James.
James muttered something under his breath, "hah, spoiling our intro. Bleeding typical."
"Go Fearow!" Loki released his only Pokemon.
"Go Abra," Freyja pushed in.
"Oh, for goodness sake, we better help them, go Arbok."
"Go Victibell! Help, get me out of here."
"Meowth, you fool." Said the talking Meowth jumping out in front of all of them.
"Oh for goodness sake," I said, "I don't have your Kadabra. Do you really think you can break in here with all these Pokemon Trainers and win?"
"It's the principal of the matter," Loki said haughtily. "Only Team Rocket can steal Pokemon. Abra, get her!"
"Go, all of you," I said, as Ash, Misty and Rowan released all their Pokemon.
For about two minutes, chaos reigned. The table tipped over, food flew everywhere, and when the fighting finally stopped, all of Team Rockets' Pokemon, except Abra, and some of our Pokemon were panting in the corners, worn out.
Loki took one look around, stood tall and said, "you won't hear the end of this."
"MaKI!" Maki leapt up from a crouch on the floor, and flashed his starblaze straight into Loki's eyes. Loki reeled back, sliding out the window.
"Ok, what's going on here?" Officer Jenny marched into the dining hall and put her hands on her hips.
"They started it," Ash pointed out. "They tried to steal our Pokemon."
"We can't have that happening," she said, turning around. "You guys are coming with me."
James looked petrified. "We can't go back to jail again, the Boss might not bail us out this time, go Wheezing, smokescreen attack."
The cloying smoke filled the air.
"Goldflash, blow it away," Rowan called, but by the time all the smoke had been blown out the window, Team Rocket and all their Pokemon were gone.
Officer Jenny sighed. "It's always the way," she said. "Oh well, better see if I can catch up with them." She leapt out the window. I noticed Rowan watched her extremely closely.
Ash pulled me towards him and whispered in my ear, "your friend is a lot like Brock," he said.
I chuckled. I'd seen Brock on the tv show of Ash's adventures.
We collected up our Pokemon, pleased to find they were all there. Except Snuggles… Could Team Rocket have stolen him?
"Snuggles," I called, and finally heard an answering, "buru?"
The pink Bulldog Pokemon crawled out from beneath a cabinet, and looked shame-faced.
I sighed and Ash laughed. "Great Pokemon, cousin," he said, picking up Pikachu, who was a little battered from Thunder shocking all those Rockets.
"I think we're going to have to leave in the morning, sorry Stephanie, but I have a feeling Team Rocket will be back to try and get back their Kadabra."
"What did you do with it anyway?" Ash asked.
"Nothing much, just hid it where they won't find it until the spring thaw."
He grinned. "Oh well, have fun. See you around sometime."
We bid them "goodnight," for tomorrow would be a long walk through thick snow and we needed all the sleep we could get.