Chapter#2 Hardball
Translation
The pokemon immediatly recognized it's attacker. The rocky fist had come from a green sandshrew that had a pink flower mounted on it's head; X-5. Behind X-5 was X-2, X-3, X-4 and X-6; an oddish with red leaves, a growlithe with blue fur, a purple clefairy that had two sets of wings and a white dratini that had blue eyes.
"Where have you been?" growled the sandshrew.
"We've been looking all over for you and we find you carrying wood. What have you been doing X-1?!" demanded the dratini. Lucky stood up and growled.
"WHERE HAVE I BEEN?!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!!!!! I was attacked by the scientists at our meeting point. YOU were never there. You abandoned me. I was lucky to escape with my life." Lucky began to tear up at the memories. The feelings of betrayal, the pain, the suffering had returned to his mind.
"We were unable to come." said the reddish oddish. "But we did try to rescue you from the pokemon center."
"I didn't need your rescuing." retorted Lucky. "You left me to rot on the road."
"The bag broke and we almost didn't save the eggs."interupted the Growlithe. Lucky was shocked; the eggs were the reason that they didn't come.
"We were on our way to meet you when the bag broke. The eggs dropped and rolled down a hill into the river. I had to jump in to save them." said the dratini. Lucky gasped; Dratini didn't like the water and wouldn't go near any water, ever.
"You had to go off by yourself to save that lost kid, didn't you. If you had just listened to sandshrew here, you wouldn't have had a problem. You should have left the kid where you found it." said the purple clefairy.
"And let my conscious eat me alive? I don't think so. I led the kid out of the forest so that she could survive to see another day. That was more than anyone ever did for us." snapped Lucky.
"Even so, why do it? As you said, it was more than anyone ever did for us. Why help a human! They're nothing but scum X-1. You should know that better than anyone." said the Oddish. Lucky was extremely angry now.
"DON'T CALL ME THAT NAME EVER AGAIN! I have a new name. I'm Lucky and not all humans are scum." With that said, the enitire group of abnormal pokemon gasped. This wasn't the attitude that they all knew X-1 to have.
"Lucky? What are you talking about X-1?" damanded the Sandshrew.
"I know what the problem is." snapped the Dratini. "It's that human, isn't it?"
"WHAT??!!! You mean X-1 has made friends with a human!" screached Sandshrew.
"Impossible! You couldn't have made a human friend. That's totally impossible. Tell me they're wrong. Tell them that they're wrong!" said the Clefairy in disbelief. The word human was spat out like a curse from all the pokemon. Lucky was silent.
"Traitor!" yelled the Growlithe. "You betrayed us. A human! How could you after everything you've gone through."
"This human is different." said Lucky soberly.
"Lair! A human's still a human's still a human." growled the Dratini.
"He was there for me when you weren't! He saved me from a certain death and then rescued me from the scientists. He makes me feel important. He fed me, groomed me, gave me a new name and a new life. I know he would do the same for you if you just met him." Before Lucky could get out another word, Sandshrew struck him across the face.
"They did something to you in that pokemon center. You' re not yourself. X-2, X-4 contain X-1 until we can figure out a way to help him. ordered X-5.
"Sorry about this." with that, a pair of red vines and a metronome attack binded the angry pokemon. Lucky began to struggle against his old comrades.
"No! let me go! I want to be with Ash." yelled Lucky. Just then a yellow Pikachu came from the branches above and gave all the pokemon there a nice thunder attack; minus Lucky of course.
'So, X-1 wants to play hardball did it? Well that's fine with me!' thought the sandshrew as it got up from the unexpected thunderbolt.
"Let's go!" yelled the Pikachu to the now freed eevee. Lucky didn't have to be told twice.
"Where are we going?" asked Lucky running behind Pikachu.
"Back to camp to find Ash and the other pokemon. They'll protect you." yelled Pikachu back to the eevee. Lucky blinked for a minute.
'Why would they protect me? I've never done anything for them.' Lucky wondered. Before Lucky could explore the thought furthur, they were back at camp.
End Translation.
"Pika!" Pikachu had suddenly come crashing out of the bushes with Lucky in tow. Ash turned to see Pikachu jumping into his arms and then onto his hat. Lucky followed by jumping into Ash's arms and then began to shiver violently.
"Hey! What's going on Pikachu? Why is Lucky so spooked?" Ash asked his pokemon that was perched on his hat.
"Pika!" Pikachu said and pointed to the underbruch that they had just come out of. There Ash saw one of the most amazing sights he had ever seen in all his years of training. There was a group of about five pokemon there that looked like eevee; they were all somehow different from their normal spieces. The sanshrew had a flower on it's head, the dratini was white, the clefairy was purple, the growlithe had blue fur and the oddish had red petals.
"Friends of yours?" Ash looked down at the shivering pokemon. Lucky was not about to move from his trainers arms anytime soon.
"Pikachu!" came a battle cry from his electric pokemon. Pikachu jumped inbetween Ash and the five newly come pokemon. On a signal from Pikachu Ash released all his pokemon from their pokeballs. The sandshrew walked forward and pointed to Lucky.
"Sand shrew-sand." was all it said. It tensed at Pikachu's retort.
"Pikachu! Pika-chu pi!" Pikachu shook his head and turned to Ash. With that, the sandshrew ran forward to attack Pikachu.
"Chika!" Chikorita had used razor leaf on the storming pokemon and 'accidently' got Pikachu as well. It din't have the effect it should of had on the sandshrew.
"PIKA!" Pikachu said angryly. Chikorita shrugged whatever Pikachu had said off and the groups got poised for battle.
"Shrew!" demanded the green pokemon. The other four pokemon were backing up sandshrew.
"Pika!" said Pikachu again and shook his head. The other three pokemon were backing up Pikachu.
"Pikachu what's going on?" asked it's confused trainer. Before anything else could be said, the fight broke out. It was Sandshrew and Clefairy against Pikachu, Growlithe against Cyndaquil, Dratini against Chikorita and Oddish against Squirtle. "Squirtle don't use a what?" the what came from Ash's mouth when he saw the grass pokemon use a fire attack. Ash then turned to see how the other pokemon attacked. The growlithe was using ice attacks, the dratini was using ground attacks, and the sandshrew and clefairy were using attacks that were out of their element as well. Ash then noticed something else as well, even though they had different element attacks, their physical attacks were still the same.
"Pika!" Pikachu squealled as the rock and normal pokemon began to gang up on it. Ash couldn't stand by and watch his beloved Pikachu get it's brain bashed out.
"Pikachu, don't waste energy in blocking their attacks. Use the dance routine we used against team rocket." said Ash who was still clutching Lucky. Ash looked down at his pokemon and back at the five other pokemon that had attacked them and realized something; this was the group that nurse Joy was talking about.
"Pi!" Pikachu began to hop avoiding the sandshrew's scratch attack and clefairy's doubleslap attack. The two vexed pokemon decided on a new strategy; circle and attack. Clefairy was in front of Pikachu while sandshrew was behind Pikachu.
"Pikachu, jump up and avoid their attacks." ordered Ash. Pikachu did as it was told and sucessfully avoided the double tackle attack that KOed Clefairy. Ash then looked to see how the other were doing. When he saw that it wasn't well he ignored Pikachu's fight for a moment.
"Oddish!" oddish had Squirtle up in the air in a red vinewhip attack.
"Everyone listen up, use your specials on these guys. They're weak against their otherwise strong element types defenses." ordered Ash. Before the other pokemon had time to react to Ash's words, all the pokemon used their specials.
"Squirtle!" Squirtle had used a watergun on the Oddish and was surprisingly let go. "Squirtle?" The pokemon then realized that Ash was right and began an all out assault with bubble and watergun attacks.
"Chika!"Chikorita had used a razor leaf attack on the dratini; since dratini was a dragon pokemon, any other pokemon attack was super effective on it since dragons were super effective on other dragons. Dratini was down for the count.
"Cynda!"Cyndaquil used it's ember attack on the growlithe in front of it.
"Growl!" said the growlithe in pain and retorted with an ice beam. Cyndaquil dodged the attack and replied it with a flamethrower attack. Growlithe went down in a hurry.
''Pika-chu!"said Pikachu as it let out a enormous electrical current that shocked the two pokemon below him. (author note: since the last word Ash ordered on the use your specials attack, all these things had happened at once.)
"Shrew!"said the sandshrew in defiance as it tried to get back up from Pikachu's thunder attack. It could only watch as the almost fainted pokemon were captured one by one by the human boy. It was angry beyond words; how could he lose to any pokemon.
"Your turn." Ash said as it walked towards the sandshrew and clefairy. Sandshrew began to panic. There was no place to hide and he couldn't move.
'No! I don't want to go back there! I will not go back to that terrible place again!' Thought sandshrew as Ash caught clefairy in a pokeball. With the last of its strength, X-5 tried to slash the pokeball away. It didn't work and sandshrew was caught. 'No! Not there again. Not team rocket.' was the sandshrews last thoughts as it entered the pokeball.
"Way to go guys! You did it!" Ash said happily as he tried to hug all his pokemon at once. The result from this group hug was a flat on his back Ash and a group of very happy pokemon. This included Lucky; his friends would now see why X-1 was no longer X-1. Lucky was now simply Lucky; a pokemon trainer's eevee.
"Pika!" Pikachu said happily as Ash held him up high.
"I'm proud of you all! Pikachu handled two pokemon at once with my instructions and you three did great without my instructions. Then it hit Lucky; he didn't do anything in the fight. He just watched as they all fought for him. Lucky felt ashamed right then and tried to leave the group hug to only be stopped by Ash.
"Eevee?" asked Lucky as Ash held him closer.
"Don't worry about it. Your not trained yet so I don't expect you to fight. Besides that was a really tough battle. Right guys?" All the pokemon agreed and then yawned. It was late. Ash put his new pokemon in his pack and dug out his sleeping bag and fell asleep.
"Eevee!" yelled Lucky all of a sudden. Lucky had just remembered what the group had told him. The egg! How could he have forgotten about the egg! The entire reason for this mess. With that, Lucky bit Pikachu.
Translation
"OW! What was that for?!"demanded the now severly peeved Pikachu.
"I don't have time to tell you! Get all of Ash's pokemon and follow me!" ordered the eevee.
"But why?" asked a confused Pikachu.
"Don't ask. Quickly! We need to go while I still have oddish's sent with me." With that, Pikachu called all of Ash's pokemon over and they began to follow Lucky.
"What are we doing out here without Ash?" demanded Squirtle. The more questions that the group made, the faster Lucky seemed to go.
'WHERE IS IT!' Lucky's mind raced over and over again until he spotted something familar.
"Over there!" Lucky suddenly yelled. At the sound of Lucky's voice, all the pokemon present jumped. Lucky ran to a pile of bushes and stuck his head in.
"What are you doing?!" demanded Pikachu.
"Look, it's time to explain yourself or it's time to go back to camp. Which one is it?" growled Chikorita.
"It's both. Come here and see what I've found." ordered Lucky. All the pokemon gave eachother a look and shrugged.
"Why not?" asked Cyndaquil. The pokemon stuffed their heads throught the brush and were amazed at what they saw. It was a bunch of pokemon eggs. There were four of them; they all had different colours but they had the same feathered pattern on them.
"Alright, give. How'd you know that these were here?" demanded Squirtle. Before Lucky spoke, Pikachu interviened.
"He'll tell us later. Right now we need to know how to get these eggs back to Ash and that fire before they die."
"I call the gold one." said Cyndaquil. It was the smallest of the group.
"No fair!" joked Chikorita. "Fine then. I'll carry the silver one." That was the next smallest in size.
"Then you and Squirtle should carry the red one and I'll carry the yellow one." said Lucky to Pikachu. The red one was the biggest in size and the yellow one was lighter than the red one. Lucky knew because he had carried the eggs before.
"No arguments here." said Pikachu. With that settled, the pokemon began to carry the eggs back to camp which was thankfully not far off.
"Grunt, Hey! These things are heavy!" growled Cyndaquil.
"We're almost there so quit your griping." said Chikorita. Chikorita was having as much as a difficult time with the egg as Cyndaquil.
"Pikachu! Squirtle! Lucky! Cyndaquil! Chikorita!" came a voice from up ahead of them.
"Saved the best for last." commented Chikorita. Pikachu rolled his eyes and continued to trude toward his trainer.
End Translation.
"Hey guys where are you?" Ash yelled. He had woken up to find that all his pokemon were missing. Pikachu had never run off like this before. Suddenly he heard a bit of a far off 'Pika.' Ash moved to where he thought the sound had come from.
"Cynda!" said a familar pokemon as it stepped out from the bushes. Ash was so relieved and angry at the same time. Ash was about to scold his pokemon but then noticed that they were all carrying something.
"What's ya got there?" Ash asked. He took the egg from Pikachu and Squirtle's hands. "You found poke-eggs!" Ash said happily. That meant new pokemon. "Any idea what they might be?" Ash asked his pokemon. They all turned the heads toward Lucky who shook his head.
"Pika!' Pikachu said as it yawned once again. It was really dark now.
"Ok, I'll carry two back to camp and you guys can pitch in and help carry back the other two." Ash then proceded to pick up the one Chikorita was holding and waited for the pokemon to get organised. Chikorita helped Cyndaquil while Pikachu and Squirtle balanced the yellow egg over Lucky's back.
"Eevee!" said Lucky, wanting Pikachu and Squirtle to be careful. Once they had returned to camp, Ash dug out all the pokemons blankets and assembled them around the eggs. That got all the pokemons attention.
"They'll need to be kept warm for the time being. I get one side, everyone else gets the others. If we want to hatch these eggs and soon." Ash undid his sleeping bag and crawled next to the poke-eggs. Soon him and his pokemon were fast asleep. Ash had no idea how close the eggs really were to hatching but his guess that it would be really soon. The shells were as hard and they felt worm on their own.
'I wonder what's going to hatch out of them?' was Ash's last thought as he fell asleep. As if on que, the eggs bagan to rock back and forth and they all began to glow. Ash's pokemon slept with their heads turned away from the eggs; exposing their backs to the eggs to keep them warmer. Ash was the only one facing the eggs as they cracked.
"Cuno." squeaked a small voice as it burst out of it's shell. It was a beautiful Purple? It was like a regular Articuno but, it was purple instead of blue. It climbed out of the shell, shacky as a newborn should be. It took a look around and saw a face over near the other eggs. It febel attemps finally paid off as the pokemon had climbed into Ash's sleeping bag and listened to his heart beat. Unknown to Ash he had just adopted the most recent addition to the X family.
"Dos." came another small voice from a shell. The pokemon burst through it's prison with one mighty thrust and began to coo. Just like the other pokemon; it too was not normal looking. It was black instead of the regular color of yellow and it had an unusually sweet voice. The Pokemon looked around to find it's nestling companion with the small one. It made it's way over to Ash just like the other one did and slept on Ash's sleepingbag since Articuno was on Ash's chest. It shivered from the cold of the night.
"Tres." echoed another voice. This time it was an odd looking Moltres that had escaped from it's shell. This Moltres had a green flame comming from its wings and it was a white colour. The bird saw the two hatchlings over near a red sleeping bag and decided to investigate. It found it's nestlings and it's now adopted father. When Moltres trotted on fledgling feet over to the group, it began to warm up. The Zapados stopped shivering and looked up to see the funny looking bird wandering over to them. It cooed a welcome and moved over for the hatchling. Now Ash had one bird on his chest and one on either side of his legs. If he had been awake, it would have been impossible to move; since he was asleep, it didn't bother him. The golden egg of the group didn't move or crack or have any sort of movement in it. The pokemon wasn't ready to come out yet.
Morning
"Pikachu?!!!!!" Pikachu suddenly yelled as it realized that three of the four eggs had hatched during the night. Pikachu's yell woke everyone up except for Ash who just mumbled about five more minutes mom. Pikachu then relayed the information to the rest of the pokemon who woke up with a start.
"Eevee?" Lucky began to scan the area and found a wonderful surprise.
Translation
"They're with Ash! Look! They went straight to Ash!" said Lucky with glee. Pikachu gave a sigh of relief and made his way over to where the rest of the pokemon had gathered around Ash.
"WHOAH! Look what came out of them!" said Chikorita. Asleep were three birds unlike they had ever seen before.
"They look like the three legendary birds!" exclaimed Squirtle. With that comment, the newer pokemon looked at squirtle in shock.
"You've seen the legendary pokemon before this?" demanded Cyndaquil. Pikachu sighed and Squirtle blushed a bit.
"Long story. You guys would probably hear about it sooner than later from Ash." said Pikachu.
"Question is what do we do now?" asked Cyndaquil. All the pokemon stopped to think for a moment.
"I think we should wake Ash up." said Squirtle. With the suggestion still up in the air, a voice interupted their thoughts.
"You'll do no such thing." All the pokemon jumped when they heard the unfamilar voice. It had come from the bird on Ash's chest. They were awake. Pikachu was the first to recover.
"Hi! I'm Pikachu. You're the ones that came out of the eggs?" Pikachu asked. Pikachu wasn't so certain that not waking Ash up was such a bad idea right now. The bird lifted it's head off of Ash's chest for a moment.
"We couldn't have come from any other place now could we?" was the Articuno's reply. All the pokemon there stifled a whoop of excitement in fear of waking up Ash.
"Welcome to the world. I'm just Pikachu and these are." Before Pikachu could speak the Articuno interupted.
"Lucky, Cyndaquil, Chikorita and Squirtle. We know. I'm not a regular pokemon you know. I linked with this young trainers mind and I'm still sorting out all the details. I just needed his general knowledge. We just hatched you know. Hey, you could answer me this. What's a triple cheese with fries?" asked the Articuno. Pikachu and all the other pokemon laughed except for Lucky.
"If you hang out with Ash long enough, you'll find out." said Pikachu. The laughter had woken Ash up.
End Translation
"Pikachu? What? The eggs! You guys hatched out of the eggs?" The Articuno nodded and nuzzled his chest. "How cool!" said Ash.
"Pika?" Pikachu began to sniff the last egg. It didn't hatch with the others and Pikachu found that weird. Ash got busy trying to prepare to leave with three baby birds clinging to him and pokemon whinning for their food.
"Here you go. This will have to do for now. I'll really have to experiment when we get to the next town. Imagine! I have around nine new pokemon to feed." Ash sat down and ate his breakfast. The baby birds were eating some of Pidgeyotto's old bird food formula with a twist.
"Eevee?" Ash turned to see Lucky with a mouthful of pokeballs. The pokeballs were the one's that contained the group of five from last night. Lucky wanted them out!
"Sorry Lucky, if those guys come out now, they'll be in terrible condition. They all need to be taken to the pokemon center so they can be healed by Nurse Joy." said Ash. When Lucky turned it's head away and began to sulk into putting back Ash's pokemon into his pack, Ash knew that something was wrong.
"Eevee?!" Lucky had been suddenly swooped up from behind. It was Ash! Lucky didn't understand why Ash had just suddenly picked him up like that.
"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you or the others in the next town. We'll figure out what's the problem together." said Ash softly as he held the eevee close. Lucky's eye's began to tear up and then Ash set back down the suddenly emotional pokemon.
"Cuno?" said a voice from the right. When Lucky turned, he saw the whole group of pokemon in tears too. Lucky was embaressed and turned away. Ash suddenly ordered all of the pokemon to return and stuffed their pokeballs on his belt.
"Time to go. Will you three go inside a pokeball?" Ash directed the question to the baby birds. All three nodded. With that Ash took out his last remaining pokeballs and threw them. All of the birds were caught and placed inside the pack. Before Ash left he went over and picked up the golden pokemon egg.
"Pikachu!" said the small mouse pokemon on his head. Ash then copied Brock's idea with the last pokemon egg he hatched and placed the egg in his biggest jacket pocket. It fit perfectly.
"On to the next town and the next badge" said Ash. Lucky looked at Pikachu and asked what was a badge. The reply was something to be smiled at.
"A badge is something a trainer wins at a pokemon gym to show how good he is. Ash doesn't have many in this league yet." Ash turned to look at his now chatting pokemon and wished he knew what they were talking about. Lucky made a comment and both pokemon laughed histerically for a few minutes.
"Good to see you in a good mood Lucky." said Ash as they began to walk along the path. Then a mundane and boring sound filled the forest.
"Prepare for trouble,"
"And make it double," (everyone should know this by now and if you don't....then you have been hiding for waaaay too many years.)
"So where have you guys been? Running around in you natural habitat like a sewer or did you just come up for air?" smirked Ash. He knew he was in a bit of trouble. He had taken on team rocket a few times by himself but he always had someone to back him up.
"WHY YOU! Go Arbock!" yelled Jessie.
"Go Wheezing!"echoed James.
"Hey, the kid's got a new pokemon." obsevered Meowth.
"Then we'll swip that too!" said Jessie in her arrogant voice.
"We got you now twerp. Now hand over that Pikachu!" demanded James.
"NEVER! Go Pikachu! Thunderbolt!" before Pikachu could obey his trainer, Lucky had jumped inbetween Ash and team rocket. Ash had never seen Lucky like this. The pokemon's eyes had a look of determination that could have rivaled Ash's own. The pokemon was very angry for some reason.
"Tackle attack." said Jessie and James together. One pokemon wouldn't stand in their way of catching Pikachu!
"Eevee!" snarled Lucky. The two pokemon from team rocket hesitated for a moment, unsure of the abnormal pokemon in their way. Ash decided to let Lucky battle.
"Lucky! Um.. Do your tackle attack?" said Ash. Before anyone could blink, the eevee ran toward the pair of petrified pokemon so fast it looked like an agility attack instead of a tackle attack. Both pokemon got hit hard and they both fainted.
"What kind of pokemon is that?!" demanded Jessie.
"I've never seen a pokemon like that before." said Meowth.
"Let's split before it decides to get nasty." whimpered James. He was not liking the prospect of this strange pokemon.
"It's just a weak pokemon of the twerps! Get out there and fight." growled Jessie.
"Now! Give team rocket a tackle attack!'' ordered Ash. Lucky was only too happy to reply.
"We're blasting off again." yelled team rocket. Lucky, proud as could be, marched back to Ash's side with pride. It had done exactly as Ash had ordered it to do and won it's first match.
"Way to go! I didn't know you were that powerful." exclaimed Ash. Then it dawned on Ash, Lucky had only used one attack to defeat team rocket and Ash didn't know any of Lucky's other attacks.
"Pika!" cheered Pikachu. The pokemon was impressed with Lucky's speed and the way it handled itself in it's first battle. Little did they know this was not the first battle Lucky had participated in.
"Eevee." Lucky blushed and jumped onto Ash's shoulder. It climbed into Ash's backpack to have a good long rest. About one mile from the next town, Ash stopped and let out all of his pokemon for a break. Ash then told the pokemon that he wanted to be careful about the way they would enter the next pokemon center.
"Nurse Joy was scard of Lucky and there's no doubt in my mind that this one will be any different. I want you to go in my bag while we're in there Lucky. I'll need you out Chikorita if Nurse Joy becomes hysterical. You'll have to restrain the Nurse Joy untill she calms down if that happens." said Ash. All the pokemon nodded. The plan was to enter, take nurse Joy aside and show her Lucky. The only problem was what happens if Nurse Joy gets scard and decided to go awire on them. " You got that Lucky?"
"Eevee!"nodded the pokemon as he was stuffed into a full packsack. Then Pikachu, Ash and Chikorita marched down the hill into town; heading for the pokemon center. Once there they saw an incredible sight. It was swarming with reporters!
"Have the rampaging pokemon been here yet?!" asked one of the many reporter's crowding the nurse Joy.
"How many of them are there?"
"Do you know about the rumour of them being captured? Is it true?"
"Was it true that eggs were taken as well during the raid?" Nurse Joy was trying to get to the door when Officer Jenny came around the corner and told them to break it up.
"Boy, Pikachu. What was all that about?" Ash asked.
"Pikachu?" Pikachu's reply was.
"I can tell you what that was about." said a voice from behind Ash. Ash turned to see a girl his age with an abra on her shoulders. "Your not from around here are you?" inquired the girl.
"No I'm not. I'm Ash from pallet town. I'm travelling around and collecting the badges in this league. And you are?"
"Carol. What you saw there was a mob of reporters trying to make their career on one story. Do you know about the pokemon fugitives?" asked Carol.
"No, I don't." But I've got a pretty good idea where they might be added Ash in his own thoughts.
"There's a story floating around that a big pokemon breeding buisness was trying to create some powerful pokemon to take over the world that escaped. The Nurse Joy's and Officer Jenny's have been ordered from above to keep a look out for any abnormal pokemon around these parts lately." said Carol.
"Really?" asked Ash who was unable to take in what he was hearing. How dare someone create a pokemon just so it could be a slave!
"Yeah. There's even a rumour that the ring leader was caught by a pokemon trainer and was brought into a pokemon center. It's just a story though. No one in these parts would be able to capture such powerful pokemon. You a trainer?"asked Carol.
"Yep!" was Ash's reply.
"Want to battle?" asked Carol. Ash then did something that he had never done in his entire life.
"Sorry, I've got to go get some pokemon healed at the pokemon center. Maybe later?" Before the stunned girl could answer him Ash was going into the doors of the pokemon center.
"Nurse Joy?Officer Jenny? Can I speak with you for a minute?" Ash had just interupted a conversation between Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny. The two very occupied females ignored him and continued on with their converstion.
"So you know what to do if they show up?" asked the Officer Jenny. Nurse Joy nodded and her reply confused Ash.
"Yes, come get you and prepare them for transport." Transport? What were these two talking about? They couldn't be talking about his pokemon could they?
"Excuse me." said Ash a little bit louder. They ignored him once again. He tried a little louder to no avail. Ash new from Misty experiences that if girls wanted to talk, there was nothing you could do about it. Ash gave up and sat down on a bench; they could be awhile.
"Oh! Did you want something young man?" said Nurse Joy suddenly. She had just realized that there was a stranger in the pokemon center. Ash thought along the bounds of finally when she directed the question at him.
"Yes, I really have to tell you and Officer Jenny something very important." With both women looking at Ash took a deep breath and began his story. " It concerns the pokemon that have been terrorizing the people around here lately..."
"You didn't see one of them did you?" interupted Nurse Joy.
" I um-" stuttered Ash. Both women had taken a step closer at the mention of the pokemon. Officer Jenny took a step closer and got right into Ash's face.
"Where did you see them boy? I see that your not from around here so you probably don't know how dangerous they are. Did you or did you not see them?"Officer Jenny said in a low voice. Ash found the courage to answer her when she said dangerous. No one called his Lucky dangerous!
"They're not dangerous! I can even prove it." Ash growled as he took off his backpack. Before the women could react, Lucky jumped out and sat in the middle of the floor.
"I-it's one of the pokemon!" said Nurse Joy. Ash could tell that there was a hint of panic and fear in her voice. Ash smiled and picked up Lucky.
"This is Lucky. I came across him on the road badly beat up and took him to the nearest pokemon center." Officer Jenny jumped back and took out a pair of handcuffs.
"So, your the ring leader!" she said in disgust. Ringleader?
"What are you talking about? I found Lucky here on the road and when the Nurse Joy went balistic calling Lucky a monster here, I got angry too. Maybe I shouldn't have walked out like that but, she was acting like you two. You look like you've never seen a pokemon before." growled Ash. That stopped the two for a moment.
"You just picked up this pokemon on the road? You have no idea what that thing is do you?" asked Nurse Joy incrediously.
"I know that this thing is a pokemon and that it's my friend." snapped Ash. Officer Jenny still had her handcuffs out.
"What do you know about that pokemon?" asked Nurse Joy softly. Ash was burning angry by now and wanted some answers. He took a deep breath that seemed to calm down Lucky too and began his story again.
"As I already told you before, I found Lucky on the road and took him to the nearest poke center to get healed. The Nurse there went from jumpy to terrified. When I tried to ask her what was going on, she said some pretty nasty things about Lucky. I got angry and stomped off with Lucky in tow. Then I think we came across the rest of the group." said Ash. That got both of the women's attention.
"You fought the whole gang?!!!!!" yelled Officer Jenny. Ash beamed with a hint of pride.
"Nope! I caught the whole gang as you say." Ash then got a look of shock from both of the women. They both backed up a few steps.
"H-H-H-How? Those pokemon have been terrorizing us for weeks. How could a little boy catch such a group!" exclaimed Nurse Joy. Officer Jenny put away her handcuffs and walked over to Ash.
"Are you telling the truth?" she demanded. As Officer Jenny looked into the young pokemon trainer's eyes before her; she saw the truth before he said a word.
"Yes and they're all in need of medical attention." Nurse Joy then saw Ash's eyes as well and walked over.
"How many are there?" she asked. Ash took out his pokeballs and replied.
"Five. There's a dratini, sandshrew, clefairy, oddish and growlithe. I don't know how they'll react though; I haven't taken them out of the pokeballs yet because of their injuries." Nurse Joy nodded and took the pokeballs into the E.R. Ash sat down and began to wait for some news about their progress when Officer Jenny asked him the question.
"How did you manage to catch such dangerous pokemon?" Ash looked up to see Officer Jenny leaning against the wall across from him. "I can't figure that out yet." Ash smiled and released his pokemon.
"With these." Officer Jenny was shocked to find a Pikachu, Squirtle, Chikorita, Cyndaquil and the Eevee in front of her. "Pikachu was my starter pokemon, Squirtle is the next one that I've had for the longest time, then comes Chikorita and Cyndaquil."
"Very impressive!" was her only comment before the E.R. light went out. Ash jumped to his feet and caught a startled Lucky before he tumbled off his lap. Nurse Joy came out of the doors and smiled.
"They're going to be OK. You can go see them now." Ash brushed past her and entered the room. Inside was his pokemon. Ash sighed a relief when he saw that they weren't being held down like Lucky had been. One by one the pokemon began to wake up to find Ash looking over them smiling and asking how they felt.
"Growlith?" whispered the blue furry Growlithe as it regained consciousness. The first thing it saw was a friendly smile and a Pikachu.
"How are you?"asked the human boy. Growlithe was confused for a moment. It didn't know where it was and then it remembered the fight. This boy had captured him.
Translation
The pokemon immediatly recognized it's attacker. The rocky fist had come from a green sandshrew that had a pink flower mounted on it's head; X-5. Behind X-5 was X-2, X-3, X-4 and X-6; an oddish with red leaves, a growlithe with blue fur, a purple clefairy that had two sets of wings and a white dratini that had blue eyes.
"Where have you been?" growled the sandshrew.
"We've been looking all over for you and we find you carrying wood. What have you been doing X-1?!" demanded the dratini. Lucky stood up and growled.
"WHERE HAVE I BEEN?!!! WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN?!!!!! I was attacked by the scientists at our meeting point. YOU were never there. You abandoned me. I was lucky to escape with my life." Lucky began to tear up at the memories. The feelings of betrayal, the pain, the suffering had returned to his mind.
"We were unable to come." said the reddish oddish. "But we did try to rescue you from the pokemon center."
"I didn't need your rescuing." retorted Lucky. "You left me to rot on the road."
"The bag broke and we almost didn't save the eggs."interupted the Growlithe. Lucky was shocked; the eggs were the reason that they didn't come.
"We were on our way to meet you when the bag broke. The eggs dropped and rolled down a hill into the river. I had to jump in to save them." said the dratini. Lucky gasped; Dratini didn't like the water and wouldn't go near any water, ever.
"You had to go off by yourself to save that lost kid, didn't you. If you had just listened to sandshrew here, you wouldn't have had a problem. You should have left the kid where you found it." said the purple clefairy.
"And let my conscious eat me alive? I don't think so. I led the kid out of the forest so that she could survive to see another day. That was more than anyone ever did for us." snapped Lucky.
"Even so, why do it? As you said, it was more than anyone ever did for us. Why help a human! They're nothing but scum X-1. You should know that better than anyone." said the Oddish. Lucky was extremely angry now.
"DON'T CALL ME THAT NAME EVER AGAIN! I have a new name. I'm Lucky and not all humans are scum." With that said, the enitire group of abnormal pokemon gasped. This wasn't the attitude that they all knew X-1 to have.
"Lucky? What are you talking about X-1?" damanded the Sandshrew.
"I know what the problem is." snapped the Dratini. "It's that human, isn't it?"
"WHAT??!!! You mean X-1 has made friends with a human!" screached Sandshrew.
"Impossible! You couldn't have made a human friend. That's totally impossible. Tell me they're wrong. Tell them that they're wrong!" said the Clefairy in disbelief. The word human was spat out like a curse from all the pokemon. Lucky was silent.
"Traitor!" yelled the Growlithe. "You betrayed us. A human! How could you after everything you've gone through."
"This human is different." said Lucky soberly.
"Lair! A human's still a human's still a human." growled the Dratini.
"He was there for me when you weren't! He saved me from a certain death and then rescued me from the scientists. He makes me feel important. He fed me, groomed me, gave me a new name and a new life. I know he would do the same for you if you just met him." Before Lucky could get out another word, Sandshrew struck him across the face.
"They did something to you in that pokemon center. You' re not yourself. X-2, X-4 contain X-1 until we can figure out a way to help him. ordered X-5.
"Sorry about this." with that, a pair of red vines and a metronome attack binded the angry pokemon. Lucky began to struggle against his old comrades.
"No! let me go! I want to be with Ash." yelled Lucky. Just then a yellow Pikachu came from the branches above and gave all the pokemon there a nice thunder attack; minus Lucky of course.
'So, X-1 wants to play hardball did it? Well that's fine with me!' thought the sandshrew as it got up from the unexpected thunderbolt.
"Let's go!" yelled the Pikachu to the now freed eevee. Lucky didn't have to be told twice.
"Where are we going?" asked Lucky running behind Pikachu.
"Back to camp to find Ash and the other pokemon. They'll protect you." yelled Pikachu back to the eevee. Lucky blinked for a minute.
'Why would they protect me? I've never done anything for them.' Lucky wondered. Before Lucky could explore the thought furthur, they were back at camp.
End Translation.
"Pika!" Pikachu had suddenly come crashing out of the bushes with Lucky in tow. Ash turned to see Pikachu jumping into his arms and then onto his hat. Lucky followed by jumping into Ash's arms and then began to shiver violently.
"Hey! What's going on Pikachu? Why is Lucky so spooked?" Ash asked his pokemon that was perched on his hat.
"Pika!" Pikachu said and pointed to the underbruch that they had just come out of. There Ash saw one of the most amazing sights he had ever seen in all his years of training. There was a group of about five pokemon there that looked like eevee; they were all somehow different from their normal spieces. The sanshrew had a flower on it's head, the dratini was white, the clefairy was purple, the growlithe had blue fur and the oddish had red petals.
"Friends of yours?" Ash looked down at the shivering pokemon. Lucky was not about to move from his trainers arms anytime soon.
"Pikachu!" came a battle cry from his electric pokemon. Pikachu jumped inbetween Ash and the five newly come pokemon. On a signal from Pikachu Ash released all his pokemon from their pokeballs. The sandshrew walked forward and pointed to Lucky.
"Sand shrew-sand." was all it said. It tensed at Pikachu's retort.
"Pikachu! Pika-chu pi!" Pikachu shook his head and turned to Ash. With that, the sandshrew ran forward to attack Pikachu.
"Chika!" Chikorita had used razor leaf on the storming pokemon and 'accidently' got Pikachu as well. It din't have the effect it should of had on the sandshrew.
"PIKA!" Pikachu said angryly. Chikorita shrugged whatever Pikachu had said off and the groups got poised for battle.
"Shrew!" demanded the green pokemon. The other four pokemon were backing up sandshrew.
"Pika!" said Pikachu again and shook his head. The other three pokemon were backing up Pikachu.
"Pikachu what's going on?" asked it's confused trainer. Before anything else could be said, the fight broke out. It was Sandshrew and Clefairy against Pikachu, Growlithe against Cyndaquil, Dratini against Chikorita and Oddish against Squirtle. "Squirtle don't use a what?" the what came from Ash's mouth when he saw the grass pokemon use a fire attack. Ash then turned to see how the other pokemon attacked. The growlithe was using ice attacks, the dratini was using ground attacks, and the sandshrew and clefairy were using attacks that were out of their element as well. Ash then noticed something else as well, even though they had different element attacks, their physical attacks were still the same.
"Pika!" Pikachu squealled as the rock and normal pokemon began to gang up on it. Ash couldn't stand by and watch his beloved Pikachu get it's brain bashed out.
"Pikachu, don't waste energy in blocking their attacks. Use the dance routine we used against team rocket." said Ash who was still clutching Lucky. Ash looked down at his pokemon and back at the five other pokemon that had attacked them and realized something; this was the group that nurse Joy was talking about.
"Pi!" Pikachu began to hop avoiding the sandshrew's scratch attack and clefairy's doubleslap attack. The two vexed pokemon decided on a new strategy; circle and attack. Clefairy was in front of Pikachu while sandshrew was behind Pikachu.
"Pikachu, jump up and avoid their attacks." ordered Ash. Pikachu did as it was told and sucessfully avoided the double tackle attack that KOed Clefairy. Ash then looked to see how the other were doing. When he saw that it wasn't well he ignored Pikachu's fight for a moment.
"Oddish!" oddish had Squirtle up in the air in a red vinewhip attack.
"Everyone listen up, use your specials on these guys. They're weak against their otherwise strong element types defenses." ordered Ash. Before the other pokemon had time to react to Ash's words, all the pokemon used their specials.
"Squirtle!" Squirtle had used a watergun on the Oddish and was surprisingly let go. "Squirtle?" The pokemon then realized that Ash was right and began an all out assault with bubble and watergun attacks.
"Chika!"Chikorita had used a razor leaf attack on the dratini; since dratini was a dragon pokemon, any other pokemon attack was super effective on it since dragons were super effective on other dragons. Dratini was down for the count.
"Cynda!"Cyndaquil used it's ember attack on the growlithe in front of it.
"Growl!" said the growlithe in pain and retorted with an ice beam. Cyndaquil dodged the attack and replied it with a flamethrower attack. Growlithe went down in a hurry.
''Pika-chu!"said Pikachu as it let out a enormous electrical current that shocked the two pokemon below him. (author note: since the last word Ash ordered on the use your specials attack, all these things had happened at once.)
"Shrew!"said the sandshrew in defiance as it tried to get back up from Pikachu's thunder attack. It could only watch as the almost fainted pokemon were captured one by one by the human boy. It was angry beyond words; how could he lose to any pokemon.
"Your turn." Ash said as it walked towards the sandshrew and clefairy. Sandshrew began to panic. There was no place to hide and he couldn't move.
'No! I don't want to go back there! I will not go back to that terrible place again!' Thought sandshrew as Ash caught clefairy in a pokeball. With the last of its strength, X-5 tried to slash the pokeball away. It didn't work and sandshrew was caught. 'No! Not there again. Not team rocket.' was the sandshrews last thoughts as it entered the pokeball.
"Way to go guys! You did it!" Ash said happily as he tried to hug all his pokemon at once. The result from this group hug was a flat on his back Ash and a group of very happy pokemon. This included Lucky; his friends would now see why X-1 was no longer X-1. Lucky was now simply Lucky; a pokemon trainer's eevee.
"Pika!" Pikachu said happily as Ash held him up high.
"I'm proud of you all! Pikachu handled two pokemon at once with my instructions and you three did great without my instructions. Then it hit Lucky; he didn't do anything in the fight. He just watched as they all fought for him. Lucky felt ashamed right then and tried to leave the group hug to only be stopped by Ash.
"Eevee?" asked Lucky as Ash held him closer.
"Don't worry about it. Your not trained yet so I don't expect you to fight. Besides that was a really tough battle. Right guys?" All the pokemon agreed and then yawned. It was late. Ash put his new pokemon in his pack and dug out his sleeping bag and fell asleep.
"Eevee!" yelled Lucky all of a sudden. Lucky had just remembered what the group had told him. The egg! How could he have forgotten about the egg! The entire reason for this mess. With that, Lucky bit Pikachu.
Translation
"OW! What was that for?!"demanded the now severly peeved Pikachu.
"I don't have time to tell you! Get all of Ash's pokemon and follow me!" ordered the eevee.
"But why?" asked a confused Pikachu.
"Don't ask. Quickly! We need to go while I still have oddish's sent with me." With that, Pikachu called all of Ash's pokemon over and they began to follow Lucky.
"What are we doing out here without Ash?" demanded Squirtle. The more questions that the group made, the faster Lucky seemed to go.
'WHERE IS IT!' Lucky's mind raced over and over again until he spotted something familar.
"Over there!" Lucky suddenly yelled. At the sound of Lucky's voice, all the pokemon present jumped. Lucky ran to a pile of bushes and stuck his head in.
"What are you doing?!" demanded Pikachu.
"Look, it's time to explain yourself or it's time to go back to camp. Which one is it?" growled Chikorita.
"It's both. Come here and see what I've found." ordered Lucky. All the pokemon gave eachother a look and shrugged.
"Why not?" asked Cyndaquil. The pokemon stuffed their heads throught the brush and were amazed at what they saw. It was a bunch of pokemon eggs. There were four of them; they all had different colours but they had the same feathered pattern on them.
"Alright, give. How'd you know that these were here?" demanded Squirtle. Before Lucky spoke, Pikachu interviened.
"He'll tell us later. Right now we need to know how to get these eggs back to Ash and that fire before they die."
"I call the gold one." said Cyndaquil. It was the smallest of the group.
"No fair!" joked Chikorita. "Fine then. I'll carry the silver one." That was the next smallest in size.
"Then you and Squirtle should carry the red one and I'll carry the yellow one." said Lucky to Pikachu. The red one was the biggest in size and the yellow one was lighter than the red one. Lucky knew because he had carried the eggs before.
"No arguments here." said Pikachu. With that settled, the pokemon began to carry the eggs back to camp which was thankfully not far off.
"Grunt, Hey! These things are heavy!" growled Cyndaquil.
"We're almost there so quit your griping." said Chikorita. Chikorita was having as much as a difficult time with the egg as Cyndaquil.
"Pikachu! Squirtle! Lucky! Cyndaquil! Chikorita!" came a voice from up ahead of them.
"Saved the best for last." commented Chikorita. Pikachu rolled his eyes and continued to trude toward his trainer.
End Translation.
"Hey guys where are you?" Ash yelled. He had woken up to find that all his pokemon were missing. Pikachu had never run off like this before. Suddenly he heard a bit of a far off 'Pika.' Ash moved to where he thought the sound had come from.
"Cynda!" said a familar pokemon as it stepped out from the bushes. Ash was so relieved and angry at the same time. Ash was about to scold his pokemon but then noticed that they were all carrying something.
"What's ya got there?" Ash asked. He took the egg from Pikachu and Squirtle's hands. "You found poke-eggs!" Ash said happily. That meant new pokemon. "Any idea what they might be?" Ash asked his pokemon. They all turned the heads toward Lucky who shook his head.
"Pika!' Pikachu said as it yawned once again. It was really dark now.
"Ok, I'll carry two back to camp and you guys can pitch in and help carry back the other two." Ash then proceded to pick up the one Chikorita was holding and waited for the pokemon to get organised. Chikorita helped Cyndaquil while Pikachu and Squirtle balanced the yellow egg over Lucky's back.
"Eevee!" said Lucky, wanting Pikachu and Squirtle to be careful. Once they had returned to camp, Ash dug out all the pokemons blankets and assembled them around the eggs. That got all the pokemons attention.
"They'll need to be kept warm for the time being. I get one side, everyone else gets the others. If we want to hatch these eggs and soon." Ash undid his sleeping bag and crawled next to the poke-eggs. Soon him and his pokemon were fast asleep. Ash had no idea how close the eggs really were to hatching but his guess that it would be really soon. The shells were as hard and they felt worm on their own.
'I wonder what's going to hatch out of them?' was Ash's last thought as he fell asleep. As if on que, the eggs bagan to rock back and forth and they all began to glow. Ash's pokemon slept with their heads turned away from the eggs; exposing their backs to the eggs to keep them warmer. Ash was the only one facing the eggs as they cracked.
"Cuno." squeaked a small voice as it burst out of it's shell. It was a beautiful Purple? It was like a regular Articuno but, it was purple instead of blue. It climbed out of the shell, shacky as a newborn should be. It took a look around and saw a face over near the other eggs. It febel attemps finally paid off as the pokemon had climbed into Ash's sleeping bag and listened to his heart beat. Unknown to Ash he had just adopted the most recent addition to the X family.
"Dos." came another small voice from a shell. The pokemon burst through it's prison with one mighty thrust and began to coo. Just like the other pokemon; it too was not normal looking. It was black instead of the regular color of yellow and it had an unusually sweet voice. The Pokemon looked around to find it's nestling companion with the small one. It made it's way over to Ash just like the other one did and slept on Ash's sleepingbag since Articuno was on Ash's chest. It shivered from the cold of the night.
"Tres." echoed another voice. This time it was an odd looking Moltres that had escaped from it's shell. This Moltres had a green flame comming from its wings and it was a white colour. The bird saw the two hatchlings over near a red sleeping bag and decided to investigate. It found it's nestlings and it's now adopted father. When Moltres trotted on fledgling feet over to the group, it began to warm up. The Zapados stopped shivering and looked up to see the funny looking bird wandering over to them. It cooed a welcome and moved over for the hatchling. Now Ash had one bird on his chest and one on either side of his legs. If he had been awake, it would have been impossible to move; since he was asleep, it didn't bother him. The golden egg of the group didn't move or crack or have any sort of movement in it. The pokemon wasn't ready to come out yet.
Morning
"Pikachu?!!!!!" Pikachu suddenly yelled as it realized that three of the four eggs had hatched during the night. Pikachu's yell woke everyone up except for Ash who just mumbled about five more minutes mom. Pikachu then relayed the information to the rest of the pokemon who woke up with a start.
"Eevee?" Lucky began to scan the area and found a wonderful surprise.
Translation
"They're with Ash! Look! They went straight to Ash!" said Lucky with glee. Pikachu gave a sigh of relief and made his way over to where the rest of the pokemon had gathered around Ash.
"WHOAH! Look what came out of them!" said Chikorita. Asleep were three birds unlike they had ever seen before.
"They look like the three legendary birds!" exclaimed Squirtle. With that comment, the newer pokemon looked at squirtle in shock.
"You've seen the legendary pokemon before this?" demanded Cyndaquil. Pikachu sighed and Squirtle blushed a bit.
"Long story. You guys would probably hear about it sooner than later from Ash." said Pikachu.
"Question is what do we do now?" asked Cyndaquil. All the pokemon stopped to think for a moment.
"I think we should wake Ash up." said Squirtle. With the suggestion still up in the air, a voice interupted their thoughts.
"You'll do no such thing." All the pokemon jumped when they heard the unfamilar voice. It had come from the bird on Ash's chest. They were awake. Pikachu was the first to recover.
"Hi! I'm Pikachu. You're the ones that came out of the eggs?" Pikachu asked. Pikachu wasn't so certain that not waking Ash up was such a bad idea right now. The bird lifted it's head off of Ash's chest for a moment.
"We couldn't have come from any other place now could we?" was the Articuno's reply. All the pokemon there stifled a whoop of excitement in fear of waking up Ash.
"Welcome to the world. I'm just Pikachu and these are." Before Pikachu could speak the Articuno interupted.
"Lucky, Cyndaquil, Chikorita and Squirtle. We know. I'm not a regular pokemon you know. I linked with this young trainers mind and I'm still sorting out all the details. I just needed his general knowledge. We just hatched you know. Hey, you could answer me this. What's a triple cheese with fries?" asked the Articuno. Pikachu and all the other pokemon laughed except for Lucky.
"If you hang out with Ash long enough, you'll find out." said Pikachu. The laughter had woken Ash up.
End Translation
"Pikachu? What? The eggs! You guys hatched out of the eggs?" The Articuno nodded and nuzzled his chest. "How cool!" said Ash.
"Pika?" Pikachu began to sniff the last egg. It didn't hatch with the others and Pikachu found that weird. Ash got busy trying to prepare to leave with three baby birds clinging to him and pokemon whinning for their food.
"Here you go. This will have to do for now. I'll really have to experiment when we get to the next town. Imagine! I have around nine new pokemon to feed." Ash sat down and ate his breakfast. The baby birds were eating some of Pidgeyotto's old bird food formula with a twist.
"Eevee?" Ash turned to see Lucky with a mouthful of pokeballs. The pokeballs were the one's that contained the group of five from last night. Lucky wanted them out!
"Sorry Lucky, if those guys come out now, they'll be in terrible condition. They all need to be taken to the pokemon center so they can be healed by Nurse Joy." said Ash. When Lucky turned it's head away and began to sulk into putting back Ash's pokemon into his pack, Ash knew that something was wrong.
"Eevee?!" Lucky had been suddenly swooped up from behind. It was Ash! Lucky didn't understand why Ash had just suddenly picked him up like that.
"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you or the others in the next town. We'll figure out what's the problem together." said Ash softly as he held the eevee close. Lucky's eye's began to tear up and then Ash set back down the suddenly emotional pokemon.
"Cuno?" said a voice from the right. When Lucky turned, he saw the whole group of pokemon in tears too. Lucky was embaressed and turned away. Ash suddenly ordered all of the pokemon to return and stuffed their pokeballs on his belt.
"Time to go. Will you three go inside a pokeball?" Ash directed the question to the baby birds. All three nodded. With that Ash took out his last remaining pokeballs and threw them. All of the birds were caught and placed inside the pack. Before Ash left he went over and picked up the golden pokemon egg.
"Pikachu!" said the small mouse pokemon on his head. Ash then copied Brock's idea with the last pokemon egg he hatched and placed the egg in his biggest jacket pocket. It fit perfectly.
"On to the next town and the next badge" said Ash. Lucky looked at Pikachu and asked what was a badge. The reply was something to be smiled at.
"A badge is something a trainer wins at a pokemon gym to show how good he is. Ash doesn't have many in this league yet." Ash turned to look at his now chatting pokemon and wished he knew what they were talking about. Lucky made a comment and both pokemon laughed histerically for a few minutes.
"Good to see you in a good mood Lucky." said Ash as they began to walk along the path. Then a mundane and boring sound filled the forest.
"Prepare for trouble,"
"And make it double," (everyone should know this by now and if you don't....then you have been hiding for waaaay too many years.)
"So where have you guys been? Running around in you natural habitat like a sewer or did you just come up for air?" smirked Ash. He knew he was in a bit of trouble. He had taken on team rocket a few times by himself but he always had someone to back him up.
"WHY YOU! Go Arbock!" yelled Jessie.
"Go Wheezing!"echoed James.
"Hey, the kid's got a new pokemon." obsevered Meowth.
"Then we'll swip that too!" said Jessie in her arrogant voice.
"We got you now twerp. Now hand over that Pikachu!" demanded James.
"NEVER! Go Pikachu! Thunderbolt!" before Pikachu could obey his trainer, Lucky had jumped inbetween Ash and team rocket. Ash had never seen Lucky like this. The pokemon's eyes had a look of determination that could have rivaled Ash's own. The pokemon was very angry for some reason.
"Tackle attack." said Jessie and James together. One pokemon wouldn't stand in their way of catching Pikachu!
"Eevee!" snarled Lucky. The two pokemon from team rocket hesitated for a moment, unsure of the abnormal pokemon in their way. Ash decided to let Lucky battle.
"Lucky! Um.. Do your tackle attack?" said Ash. Before anyone could blink, the eevee ran toward the pair of petrified pokemon so fast it looked like an agility attack instead of a tackle attack. Both pokemon got hit hard and they both fainted.
"What kind of pokemon is that?!" demanded Jessie.
"I've never seen a pokemon like that before." said Meowth.
"Let's split before it decides to get nasty." whimpered James. He was not liking the prospect of this strange pokemon.
"It's just a weak pokemon of the twerps! Get out there and fight." growled Jessie.
"Now! Give team rocket a tackle attack!'' ordered Ash. Lucky was only too happy to reply.
"We're blasting off again." yelled team rocket. Lucky, proud as could be, marched back to Ash's side with pride. It had done exactly as Ash had ordered it to do and won it's first match.
"Way to go! I didn't know you were that powerful." exclaimed Ash. Then it dawned on Ash, Lucky had only used one attack to defeat team rocket and Ash didn't know any of Lucky's other attacks.
"Pika!" cheered Pikachu. The pokemon was impressed with Lucky's speed and the way it handled itself in it's first battle. Little did they know this was not the first battle Lucky had participated in.
"Eevee." Lucky blushed and jumped onto Ash's shoulder. It climbed into Ash's backpack to have a good long rest. About one mile from the next town, Ash stopped and let out all of his pokemon for a break. Ash then told the pokemon that he wanted to be careful about the way they would enter the next pokemon center.
"Nurse Joy was scard of Lucky and there's no doubt in my mind that this one will be any different. I want you to go in my bag while we're in there Lucky. I'll need you out Chikorita if Nurse Joy becomes hysterical. You'll have to restrain the Nurse Joy untill she calms down if that happens." said Ash. All the pokemon nodded. The plan was to enter, take nurse Joy aside and show her Lucky. The only problem was what happens if Nurse Joy gets scard and decided to go awire on them. " You got that Lucky?"
"Eevee!"nodded the pokemon as he was stuffed into a full packsack. Then Pikachu, Ash and Chikorita marched down the hill into town; heading for the pokemon center. Once there they saw an incredible sight. It was swarming with reporters!
"Have the rampaging pokemon been here yet?!" asked one of the many reporter's crowding the nurse Joy.
"How many of them are there?"
"Do you know about the rumour of them being captured? Is it true?"
"Was it true that eggs were taken as well during the raid?" Nurse Joy was trying to get to the door when Officer Jenny came around the corner and told them to break it up.
"Boy, Pikachu. What was all that about?" Ash asked.
"Pikachu?" Pikachu's reply was.
"I can tell you what that was about." said a voice from behind Ash. Ash turned to see a girl his age with an abra on her shoulders. "Your not from around here are you?" inquired the girl.
"No I'm not. I'm Ash from pallet town. I'm travelling around and collecting the badges in this league. And you are?"
"Carol. What you saw there was a mob of reporters trying to make their career on one story. Do you know about the pokemon fugitives?" asked Carol.
"No, I don't." But I've got a pretty good idea where they might be added Ash in his own thoughts.
"There's a story floating around that a big pokemon breeding buisness was trying to create some powerful pokemon to take over the world that escaped. The Nurse Joy's and Officer Jenny's have been ordered from above to keep a look out for any abnormal pokemon around these parts lately." said Carol.
"Really?" asked Ash who was unable to take in what he was hearing. How dare someone create a pokemon just so it could be a slave!
"Yeah. There's even a rumour that the ring leader was caught by a pokemon trainer and was brought into a pokemon center. It's just a story though. No one in these parts would be able to capture such powerful pokemon. You a trainer?"asked Carol.
"Yep!" was Ash's reply.
"Want to battle?" asked Carol. Ash then did something that he had never done in his entire life.
"Sorry, I've got to go get some pokemon healed at the pokemon center. Maybe later?" Before the stunned girl could answer him Ash was going into the doors of the pokemon center.
"Nurse Joy?Officer Jenny? Can I speak with you for a minute?" Ash had just interupted a conversation between Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny. The two very occupied females ignored him and continued on with their converstion.
"So you know what to do if they show up?" asked the Officer Jenny. Nurse Joy nodded and her reply confused Ash.
"Yes, come get you and prepare them for transport." Transport? What were these two talking about? They couldn't be talking about his pokemon could they?
"Excuse me." said Ash a little bit louder. They ignored him once again. He tried a little louder to no avail. Ash new from Misty experiences that if girls wanted to talk, there was nothing you could do about it. Ash gave up and sat down on a bench; they could be awhile.
"Oh! Did you want something young man?" said Nurse Joy suddenly. She had just realized that there was a stranger in the pokemon center. Ash thought along the bounds of finally when she directed the question at him.
"Yes, I really have to tell you and Officer Jenny something very important." With both women looking at Ash took a deep breath and began his story. " It concerns the pokemon that have been terrorizing the people around here lately..."
"You didn't see one of them did you?" interupted Nurse Joy.
" I um-" stuttered Ash. Both women had taken a step closer at the mention of the pokemon. Officer Jenny took a step closer and got right into Ash's face.
"Where did you see them boy? I see that your not from around here so you probably don't know how dangerous they are. Did you or did you not see them?"Officer Jenny said in a low voice. Ash found the courage to answer her when she said dangerous. No one called his Lucky dangerous!
"They're not dangerous! I can even prove it." Ash growled as he took off his backpack. Before the women could react, Lucky jumped out and sat in the middle of the floor.
"I-it's one of the pokemon!" said Nurse Joy. Ash could tell that there was a hint of panic and fear in her voice. Ash smiled and picked up Lucky.
"This is Lucky. I came across him on the road badly beat up and took him to the nearest pokemon center." Officer Jenny jumped back and took out a pair of handcuffs.
"So, your the ring leader!" she said in disgust. Ringleader?
"What are you talking about? I found Lucky here on the road and when the Nurse Joy went balistic calling Lucky a monster here, I got angry too. Maybe I shouldn't have walked out like that but, she was acting like you two. You look like you've never seen a pokemon before." growled Ash. That stopped the two for a moment.
"You just picked up this pokemon on the road? You have no idea what that thing is do you?" asked Nurse Joy incrediously.
"I know that this thing is a pokemon and that it's my friend." snapped Ash. Officer Jenny still had her handcuffs out.
"What do you know about that pokemon?" asked Nurse Joy softly. Ash was burning angry by now and wanted some answers. He took a deep breath that seemed to calm down Lucky too and began his story again.
"As I already told you before, I found Lucky on the road and took him to the nearest poke center to get healed. The Nurse there went from jumpy to terrified. When I tried to ask her what was going on, she said some pretty nasty things about Lucky. I got angry and stomped off with Lucky in tow. Then I think we came across the rest of the group." said Ash. That got both of the women's attention.
"You fought the whole gang?!!!!!" yelled Officer Jenny. Ash beamed with a hint of pride.
"Nope! I caught the whole gang as you say." Ash then got a look of shock from both of the women. They both backed up a few steps.
"H-H-H-How? Those pokemon have been terrorizing us for weeks. How could a little boy catch such a group!" exclaimed Nurse Joy. Officer Jenny put away her handcuffs and walked over to Ash.
"Are you telling the truth?" she demanded. As Officer Jenny looked into the young pokemon trainer's eyes before her; she saw the truth before he said a word.
"Yes and they're all in need of medical attention." Nurse Joy then saw Ash's eyes as well and walked over.
"How many are there?" she asked. Ash took out his pokeballs and replied.
"Five. There's a dratini, sandshrew, clefairy, oddish and growlithe. I don't know how they'll react though; I haven't taken them out of the pokeballs yet because of their injuries." Nurse Joy nodded and took the pokeballs into the E.R. Ash sat down and began to wait for some news about their progress when Officer Jenny asked him the question.
"How did you manage to catch such dangerous pokemon?" Ash looked up to see Officer Jenny leaning against the wall across from him. "I can't figure that out yet." Ash smiled and released his pokemon.
"With these." Officer Jenny was shocked to find a Pikachu, Squirtle, Chikorita, Cyndaquil and the Eevee in front of her. "Pikachu was my starter pokemon, Squirtle is the next one that I've had for the longest time, then comes Chikorita and Cyndaquil."
"Very impressive!" was her only comment before the E.R. light went out. Ash jumped to his feet and caught a startled Lucky before he tumbled off his lap. Nurse Joy came out of the doors and smiled.
"They're going to be OK. You can go see them now." Ash brushed past her and entered the room. Inside was his pokemon. Ash sighed a relief when he saw that they weren't being held down like Lucky had been. One by one the pokemon began to wake up to find Ash looking over them smiling and asking how they felt.
"Growlith?" whispered the blue furry Growlithe as it regained consciousness. The first thing it saw was a friendly smile and a Pikachu.
"How are you?"asked the human boy. Growlithe was confused for a moment. It didn't know where it was and then it remembered the fight. This boy had captured him.