Rainbow Gym
Celadon City
July 5, 2060
Brock and Misty stared, their
expression one of utter surprise. That shy girl, Ashley, was Ash?
Ash took off the girl disguise.
"At least now I can get rid of this ridiculous wig!" he
announced.
Erika was so surprised that she
couldn't make herself sufficiently angry at the deception.
"You?" she blurted. "I prohibited you from coming
in here! What are you doing here anyway?"
"I challenge you for the
Rainbow Badge!" Ash declared firmly, his voice slightly
distorted by the two metal strips attached to his upper jaw and
cheekbone under the flesh of his cheek.
Erika only partly heard, as she
was looking at the boy's eyes. There was nothing unusual about
his chocolate brown irises, but the whites of his eyes were blue.
There was something hypnotic about that stare, something that she
would have dreams about for weeks to come. She shook her head and
scowled at the little creep who talked down her perfumes
"All right," she snapped.
== == == == ==
Erika Valerian stared levelly at
Ash Ketchum across the length of her Gym's fighting arena.
I'm going to show this kid what is a waste, and it as sure as
hell is NOT my perfumes, she promised herself.
"Okay, Mr. Ketchum," she called out. "This will be
a standard Novice bout. Best out of three and no swapping Pokémon
mid-bout. Do you understand?"
Ash just nodded once.
Erika's eyes narrowed. "Okay
then," she said dangerously, "as you are the
Challenger, I will allow you to choose your Pokémon first. Choose
well, my arrogant young friend."
Ash considered the Gym Leader.
Erika Valerian was famed for her mastery of the Plant-type of Pokémon.
They were strong, and their close alliance with the Poison-type
made them dangerously unpredictable, but they had a weakness. He
would show the Gym Leader the price of contempt. "Charmander
I choose you!"
Ash threw a Pokéball, which split
apart mid-air, releasing a flash of white light that resolved
into his lizard-like fire-type, Charmander. The little creature
landed on his side of the starting circle and stared fearlessly
at the Gym Leader.
"A first-level?" Erika
asked with a laugh. "Well, it's your funeral, kid. Go
Weepingbell!" The Gym Leader threw her own Pokéball. Her
motile pitcher plant materialised and landed opposite Charmander,
waving its tendrils threateningly. There was a long dangerous
pause as the two protagonists stared levelly at each other before
Erika spoke. "Weepingbell, Razor Leaf!" The plant-type
launched a hail of poison-laced razor-sharp leaves at Charmander.
"Flame Wall," Ash
countered. The leaves entered the fire defence and were eaten up.
"Now, use Flame Lances," Ash continued. "Maximum
power!"
Charmander breathed in a spat out
several pencil-thin streamers of bio-thermal flame right at
Weepingbell. "No, Weepingbell, use Leaf Cloud!" Erika
shouted.
"Bellllll!" Weepingbell
wailed, launching a cloud of leaves into the air. The Flame
Lances stabbed into the defence and incinerated it, leaving
Weepingbell undefended and vulnerable.
"Agility!" Erika
shouted, pointing up at a 45-degree angle. Weepingbell reached
out with its vine whips and coiled them like springs. It used
them to launch itself up and over Charmander. Ash tracked the
creature as it vaulted overhead and dropped back to the ground,
now in between him and his Pokémon. "Bind that lizard,
Weepingbell!" Erika shouted.
"Watch it, Charmander, back
off," he warned. It was too late. Weepingbell's vine whips
lashed out and seized Charmander around his waist, lifting him
off of the floor.
"Char!" Charmander
squealed in pain and surprise, making Ash wince in sympathy.
"Don't focus on the pain,
Charmander," Ash shouted. "Use Tail Burn," One
interesting feature of the Charmander evolutionary chain is that
they have a small tongue of flame burning at the very tip of
their tails. The strength of this flame reflects the strength of
the Pokémon. Charmander concentrated and forced his power into
his tail, causing the flame to flare up brightly. He then thrust
the tip of his tail at the vine whips holding him, causing the
plant material to catch light.
Weepingbell shrieked in pain and
released its' hold on Charmander. It was quite comical, watching
it beating its' vine whips against the floor, trying to put the
flames out, but Ash took no pleasure from causing another
creature pain. He wanted this bout over now. "Now,
before it recovers, use Flame-thrower," Ash ordered.
"Chaaaaaarrrr!"
Charmander roared, unleashing a massive fire attack that boiled
all around the hapless Weepingbell. When the flames died down,
the smouldering Plant-type was lying on the ground, quite
unconscious.
"Yeah! You did it
Charmander!" Ash shouted. "Great job!"
"Char-ar-man-an-ar-der,
Char-ar," [We're team Supreme, Ash,] Charmander squeaked in
reply, rushing into his Trainer's arms for a congratulatory hug.
"Pi-chu-kachu-chu-pi-pika,
Pika-pi?" [And that shows her, eh Ash?] Pikachu
added, shooting a wink and a victory sign at the fuming Gym
Leader.
"Weepingbell, return,"
Erika said, recalling her beaten friend to his Pokéball. She was
quite proud that she was able to keep her voice steady. She
looked at Ash thoughtfully as the boy recalled his fire-type and
returned his attention to her. Okay, so he may be a blowhard,
but that doesn't make him a bad Trainer, she reminded
herself. Stop underestimating him just because he hates your
hobby and show him the respect he deserves for getting in here
despite your precautions.
Ash turned to Erika. "Uh, is
Weepingbell going to be all right, Ma'am?" he asked.
This concern surprised Erika, who
wasn't expecting any empathy. "Uh, he'll be fine after a
little rest and rejuvenation," she replied. Okay, so I
don't know anything about his personality at all, she
thought wryly, now get on with it Erika. "Okay, the
score is one-nil to you," Erika said. "You took me by
surprise, Mr. Ketchum, I admit that. However, you will need more
than that to win. This match is best out of three, and I aim to
win it, got that?" Ash looked surprised at Erika's vehemence
and this made her feel bad for taking out her bad mood on him.
"Let's continue. Second bout, I will choose first this time.
Go Tangela!"
There was a flash of white light
and what looked like a ball of vines with two feet coming out of
the bottom materialised on Erika's side of the starting circle.
The creature looked comical, but it was a formidable fighter,
being a hybrid of the plant- and earth-types, meaning it could
use earth-energy attacks and defences.
Ash considered for a second before
deciding. If one could not use the antithesis of your opponent's
type, then you should match like-for-like. "Bulbasaur, I
choose you," he said, releasing his plant/poison-type.
"Bulbasaur!" Bulbasaur
growled as she walked forward to face Tangela.
There was a long pause before Ash
suddenly gave his opening command. "Bulbasaur, Vine
Whip," he ordered. Before Erika could react, Bulbasaur's
vine whips lashed out and seized Tangela and lifted it off of the
ground. "Spin-dizzy," Ash continued. Bulbasaur begin to
swing Tangela around her like a hammer, a discus, or a shot-putt.
"Oh, heck!" Erika said,
actually alarmed. "Uh Aurora Shield?" Tangela
assembled an earth-energy force field, but Erika knew that, with
Bulbasaur in physical contact with her Pokémon, the defence was
useless. "No Ash, don't.." she shouted
desperately. "Don't you dare throw him against a
wall! You could cripple him!"
There was a long silence in the
arena and Misty and Brock found themselves wondering exactly how
Ash was going to respond to Erika's pleas for her friend.
"Why should I want to do something like that?" Ash
asked, genuinely confused.
Bulbasaur released Tangela,
rolling him along the ground like a giant bowling ball. The
plant-type rolled to a halt in front of his Trainer, his eyes
crossed. He was so dizzy that he couldn't even stand up.
"Tan tangela-tan-gela-gel-el, Gel-tan," [Uh
I see three of you, Erika,] Tangela groaned.
Erika bit her lip in relief and
recalled Tangela to his Pokéball. "Okay," she said
quietly, "that's the second bout to you." She sucked in
a deep breath. She now realised that she had totally misjudged
Ash. He might have some opinions that she found personally
distressing, but he was a fine Trainer and an honourable person.
Still, she had her pride "Let's get on with the third
bout," she announced.
"Uh, excuse me?" called
a voice. Erika whirled and saw one of Ash's travelling
companions, Brock Harrison, the Gym Leader at Pewter City.
"Ash has won two out of three bouts, as the rules demand,
Gym Leader," he said. "He has already won the Rainbow
Badge, there's no need for another bout."
"I run my Gym my way,"
Erika replied. "If I say there we are going to have a third
bout, then we are going to have a third bout!"
Erika restrained the urge to stick her tongue out at Brock and
turned back to Ash. "Besides," she added with a slight
smile, "I'm not going to let you out of here after you
insulted my perfumes without losing at least once!"
She called her most powerful Pokémon. "Gloom, I choose
you!"
Gloom, the second level of the
Oddish evolutionary chain, walked to the Gym Leader's side of the
starting circle.
Ash frowned at the Gloom
thoughtfully as he considered whom to choose. Gloom could beat
just about anything he threw at it with just its' smell It's
a pity you let Butterfree go, a cynical part of him commented. He
would have been perfect for this bout. Ash shook his head.
It would have been inhumane not to release the bug-type, besides
that was past and he couldn't do anything about it now. Okay,
so what if they couldn't smell it? Ash reached for his Pokédex
to call Muk from Professor Oak's labs
"Prepare for trouble!"
shouted a female voice.
"And make it double!"
responded a male voice.
Ash looked upwards to see Jessie
and James standing on the gantries supporting the Arena's lights.
They were in their usual ridiculous heroic pose, Jessie fanning
herself coquettishily and James sniffing his long-stemmed red
rose.
"To protect the world from
devastation," Jessie announced.
"To unite all peoples of our
nation," continued James.
"To denounce the evils of
truth and love,"
"To extend our reach to the
stars above!"
"Jessie,"
"James,"
"Team Rocket, blasting off at
the speed of light,"
"Surrender or prepare to
fight!"
Meowth jumped up between his two
human colleagues. "Me-owth! Dat's right!"
"What the hell are you three
doing here?" Ash shouted.
"Well," Jessie said with
a laugh, "while you were doing the shy girl bit and
you make a wonderful girl, by the way, Ash dear, James was most
impressed Anyway, we've stolen the Gym Leader's secret
perfume formulas!"
There was a stunned silence.
"Are you trying to tell me that you broke in here to steal
my perfumes?" Erika asked in utter disbelief.
"Yes, they'll make a
wonderful addition to my range of scents," Jessie said,
hugging herself excitedly with stars in her eyes.
"Come on, let's get out o'
here!" Meowth said, tugging at her thigh boots to bring her
back to reality. Jessie shook her head and nodded to show she was
ready. "Now for da big boom!" Meowth announced,
pressing a button on a remote control that he produced from
somewhere.
There was a series of explosions
and the lighting gantry began to collapse. People were running
everywhere in confusion. It was the perfect distraction for a
quick exit, but the three terrorists had failed to take one thing
into consideration: They were standing on the gantry!
As the gantry collapsed, Team
Rocket was sent tumbling off their perch into the air. Jessie
shouted in anger and disbelief as the sheet with Erika's formulae
written on them went tumbling from her hand. At that point a
damaged spotlight exploded almost directly beneath the hapless
villains, launching them up into the air through the hole the
roof created by their explosives.
"This time the Twerp didn't
even have to shock us!" James wailed. "But, nonetheless"
"Team Rocket is blasting off
again!" the three shouted in chorus. Ash watched as they
vanished into the blue sky. A beam of sunlight reflected off of
some metal fitting on their uniforms, creating a little twinkle
of light as they disappeared. The explosions had stopped, but
several fires had begun among the wrecked lights.
"The whole bloody building's
alight!" Erika was shouting. "Let's get out of here!
Everyone out!"
Ash, Misty and Brock helped get
everyone out. A few minutes later, Ash's Squirtle and Misty's
Starmie and Staryu were playing their Water Gun attacks over the
Gym, trying to control the fires until the City's Fire Department
could arrive with their heavy-duty Blastoises and Dragonites.
Ash's Pidgeotto and Brock's Geodude were helping throwing sand
over the fire.
Erika ran over to them.
"Guys, have you seen my Gloom?" she asked hurriedly.
"We thought he was with
you," Misty replied.
Suddenly, everyone heard a
plaintive cry from the burning building. "Gloom! Oom-oom!
Gloo-oom-gloom-gloom!" [Help! Erika! Someone help me!]
"Gloom!" Erika screamed.
She would have rushed into the burning building, if it were not
for the fact Ash and Squirtle were already running in through the
doors.
"Ash come back!" Misty
cried desperately, but he was already long out of earshot.
There was a long pause. There was
nothing for the bystanders to do now except watch. Suddenly a
cheer rose from the watching crowd. Ash, Squirtle and Pikachu
staggered from the doors, coughing from the smoke. Ash was
carrying something in his arms, wrapped in a damp towel.
He walked over to the Gym Leader
and presented her with a singed but intact Gloom. "I think
this is yours," he said with a smile.
Viridian City General Hospital
Blood Bank
June 19, 2063
Erika was finishing her version of
the story. "And after that, he received the Rainbow Badge.
He deserved it, after all."
It was three o'clock in the
afternoon when the blood donation finally ended. Erika was very
happy to see the nurse take away the needle.
Denise patted her friend on the
head patronisingly. "There! You were a brave girl," she
said with a laugh. "For your courage under fire, we will buy
you dinner!"
As the party from Celadon City
walked out, two new people entered: a woman with her red hair in
a bun and wearing hoop-framed glasses, and a young man with blond
hair and a droopy moustache. They walked over to the nurse.
"We would like donate blood
for Ash Ketchum," the man said.
"Your blood type?" the
nurse asked, starting on a new form.
"Type O negative," the
red-haired woman answered. "Both of us."
"Come with me," the
nurse said and walked off.
Jessie Gibson and James Morgan
exchanged glances.
Viridian City General Hospital
Ultra-Intensive Care Unit Waiting Room
June 19, 2063
The afternoon was just turning
into evening. Misty sitting next to Delilah Ketchum in the
Waiting Room. Brock had gone back to the hotel to get right some
things and Professor Oak had to return to the Pokémon Center.
Misty didn't know exactly why, he said something about a problem
of bad bone formation in a Rapidash...
Delilah had shut her eyes, her
face expressionless. Chikorita was in her lap, trying console
her. Misty didn't have the courage to disturb her; the poor woman
was already going through a lot. Suddenly Delilah opened her eyes
and managed to smile slightly at Misty. "I can feel you
fidget through the seat cushions," she said. "What is
it, dear?"
"Mrs. Ketchum, I need do a
phone call. Is that okay?"
"Oh, yes, sure."
After telling Pikachu, Togepi and
Chikorita to keep an eye on Mrs. Ketchum, Misty went down until
the third floor to telephone to Pallet Town. On the way, she
passed by a red-haired woman, with thick hoop glasses and a green
dress and a young man, but with blond hair and a droopy
moustache, wearing an old UN Army jacket. They were leaving the
Blood Bank.
Misty stopped for one moment on
the stairs. Where had she seen those two? She shrugged
the feeling off and went up to the telephones to make her call.
The face of a 22 year-old young
man, wearing a white laboratory coat and a pink headband,
appeared on the screen.
"Misty?"
"Hi Tracey, How are
you?"
"I'm fine. But how are you?
And Ash?"
Misty sighed. "Ash is
he's not doing so well, Tracey, as you can tell from the
newspapers... And me neither..." She knew that could open up
with Tracey. She knew that she could trust him: he knew when to
stay quiet about certain matters. "I saw Ash inside of that
high-tech coffin, Tracey... I..." Misty sucked in a
deep breath, trying to hold back her tears. Last night, she had
vivid nightmares about that sight.
Although Professor Oak's assistant
was concerned for his friend, he did his best to cheer her up.
"I know how you feel, Misty," he said gently, "but
remember that Ash is a die-hard! He's been in life-threatening
danger before, and he's always come out fine. Do you remember
that adventure in the Shamuti Island?"
"Or course," Although
Misty would not call that an adventure. Could
you say that saving the entire world was a routine
adventure for a Pokémon Trainer?
Meanwhile, Tracey was thinking
back to when he first met Ash and Misty, on Tangelo Island...
Ocean Highway 7
Tangelo Island, Orange Archipelago
April 4, 2061
"You are not going
to escape!" Ash screamed at the three thieves in the truck
before him.
Tracey pedalled his bike as fast
as he could, alongside the Pokémon Trainers that he had just
met, who were riding hired bikes of their own. They were pursuing
a truck that was carrying the stolen baby Lapras. It was
pointless, though. The motor vehicle was pulling away easily.
Suddenly, he heard the boy with strange eyes give an order to his
Bulbasaur.
"Bulbasaur, use your Vine
Whip to catch the back of that truck!"
The Pokémon executed the order
with perfection, his vine whips wrapping around the rear bumper.
Ash's bike suddenly launched forwards, towed along by the truck.
"Okay Bulbasaur, that's good," Ash said. "Now pull
us up to the trailer!"
Ash had lifted his feet from his
bike's pedals, as a Plant-type Pokémon and a Team Rocket truck
were now propelling the bicycle. The Bulbasaur reeled them
forwards until they were right alongside the Trailer. Ash lifted
himself off of his seat and spent a few seconds frantically
trying to judge the distance between himself and the trailer.
Then he leapt into the air and landed on the back of the Trailer.
He landed on the very edge of the bumper and had to grab the back
of the load gate to stop himself from falling off again.
"ASH!" Misty
screamed at the top of her voice, her face reflecting utter
horror and a terror that went beyond anything the Pokémon
Watcher had seen before.
Misty's scream caught Jessie,
James and Meowth's attention. Meowth's eyes bulged out when he
looked in the rear view mirror. "Meowth! Da Twoip is on da
Trailer!"
Jessie turned around and saw Ash
perched on the front of the trailer with the Lapras, working at
the tow bar with fierce concentration. She knew that she should
do something, but she couldn't figure what! "I
don't believe it!" she blurted.
"You have to admit it. He
doesn't give up easily!" James exclaimed between his teeth,
concentrating on keeping the truck on the narrow, twisting
highway.
Suddenly stirred to action, Jessie
pulled out a Pokéball. She and Meowth opened the passenger side
door and began to work their way back along the tractor to the
tow-bar so they fight Ash. Before they could get close, Ash
released Squirtle. Tracey saw the hard-shelled water-type, along
with Pikachu and Bulbasaur, attacking the three terrorists, while
Ash continued to try to loosen the tow-bar.
"Ash, watch the curve!"
Tracey screamed. The truck was heading right for a hairpin turn
with a sheer drop to one side and a rock wall to the other.
By some miracle, Ash unfastened
the tow-bar and recalled his three Pokémon. The out-of-control
tractor shot off the road and out into the air over the ocean. As
it fell down to the sea, Tracey heard a despairing cry that he
would hear many other times, with variations: "Team
Rocket is falling off again!"
Ash was now manning one of the
manual breaking levers either side of the trailer's axle, while
Pikachu and Bulbasaur controlled the other. In theory, it was a
simple task: use differential breaking to steer the trailer down
the highway and onto the beach below. Unfortunately, the hero and
his Pokémon were having a few communication problems. Pikachu
and Bulbasaur were trying to turn left, while Ash was trying to
turn right. The result was the trailer continued in a straight
line, fish-tailing to the left and the right as its brakes kept
locking up. One particularly violent shimmy threw Ash against the
side of the Trailer and he felt his arm snap and the ribs below
it buckle. He pushed the pain away, knowing only that he had
to protect the helpless baby Lapras, so out of its' natural
element.
Misty and Tracey pedalled like
lunatics after Ash and Lapras. My God, Misty thought,
exasperated, if Ash doesn't come out of this intact I'll
I'll break what few bones of his that aren't broken!
At that moment her heart went to the mouth. Ash had not steered
around another curve. Misty could only watch in horror as the
trailer soared off of the cliff, tumbled once end-over-end, and
hit the sea with a massive SPLASH!
Some minutes later, Misty and
Tracey reached the seashore. To Misty's immense relief, there was
Ash and Pikachu, riding on the back of the baby Lapras, who was
treating them like a pair of old friends.
"Are you okay?" Tracey
shouted.
"Sure!" Ash replied, his
eyes bright and his whole posture excited.
Lapras turned its' big head and
began to lick the face of the boy with brown-on-blue eyes.
"Laah-ahh-aap," [I like you,] Lapras said gently.
"Stop that, Lapras," Ash
begged, laughing. "It tickles!"
Misty and Tracey looked on as
Lapras swept into the shore and crawled a few metres out of the
water. Ash gingerly got down from the back of the big
water/ice-type and caught Pikachu as he jumped down to him.
"I think have to go to the hospital," Ash said gently.
"Why?" Tracey asked,
surprised. He suddenly noticed that Ash was favouring his left
arm and was strangely pale.
"I took a bad tumble on one
of those turns and I broke some ribs. And my left arm." Ash
explained with a resigned smile.
Tracey was amazed with the
peaceful way that that Ash said that.
"Ash..." Misty murmured,
burying her face in her hands. "That was God, why do
you always try to kill yourself being so?"
she was going to say 'heroic,' but hesitated, worrying that it
would make her sound silly, "so dumb?" she
finally concluded.
"I couldn't let them kidnap
Lapras, Misty," Ash replied, as if it were self-evident.
Tracey noticed Misty didn't seem to know whether to beat Ash or
to hug him tight... Finally, she compromised and hugged him
gently around his neck.
"Let's go," she said.
The two friends and their new acquaintance began to walk up the
beach.
"Laa! Aap-raass-Lapras,"
[Hey! Wait for me,] Lapras called. Ash and Misty turned in
surprise. The water/ice-type was crawling up the beach as best as
he could with his flippers.
"Lapras, go on, go back to
your family," Ash said gently. "You're free now!"
There was a long pause.
"Laa-aap-aap-Lapras-raas," [You are my family,] Lapras
said in a quiet, certain tone.
"Laapraas-aap-aap-raas-laap." [My place is with you.]
Ash and Misty looked at each
other. Then Ash walked over to the big Pokémon and stood right
in front of him. "Do you want to come with us?" Ash
asked in amazement. "Do you want to come with me?"
There was a long pause, then
Lapras gently leaned forward and nudged Ash's outstretched right
hand with his big nose. "Laa-aah-aap-aapraas," [You are
my Trainer,] he said in a certain tone. Tracey gasped in
amazement and pulled out his pad to sketch the incredible scene
of one of the rarest of Pokémon not being captured, but
choosing a human to be his Trainer. Misty found herself
crying at the emotion of the moment and impatiently wiped the
tears from her eyes.
Ash didn't know whether to laugh
or cry. "Thank you, Lapras," he said quietly. "I
will try to be worthy of you."
"Pika-chu-kachu-chu-pika-ka,"
[Welcome to the team, Lapras,] Pikachu added with a mischievous
smile. Ash raised a blue-and-white Aqua-type Pokéball. He made a
few adjustments to its' controls and then pressed the 'recall'
button to collect his newest friend.
Viridian City General Hospital
Service Area - Public Telephones
June 19, 2063
Misty had just finished her call,
when she noticed a sudden commotion. She recognised several of
the doctors from the medical team treating Ash. She immediately
recognised Dr. Wiggins as she ran past in the direction of the
stairwell. "Dr. Wiggins!" Misty said, grabbing at the
sleeve of her white coat, "what is happening?" Please,
please, don't let anything else have happened to Ash!
The woman was breathing deeply,
not used to exertion. "The Blood Bank has got the blood they
need for Ash, my dear. They are preparing him for the transfusion
and to remove him from suspended animation."
An incredulous smile lit up
Misty's face before she turned and ran for the stairs. Mrs.
Ketchum needed to hear this good news. Before she got more than
two paces, she felt someone grab her arm. It was Dr. Wiggins.
"Miss Williams... Misty, I
don't want deceive you, even with the transfusion, we cannot
guarantee that Ash will wake up without some side effects of his
time in the Chamber."
Misty nodded her understanding and
bit her lip in worry.
Aurora Snack Bar
June 19, 2063
Still wearing their disguises,
Jessie and James had retreated to a café. The act of donating
half a litre of blood each had left them tired, thirsty and
hungry! They were now devouring their sandwiches and their drinks
so fast they seemed to be inhaling them.
"Meowth! Youse two are eatin'
like a pair o' Snorlax!" Meowth said, surprised at the way
they were eating. James always ate that way, but Jessie?
She was the model of deportment, even when they camped out in the
forest somewhere.
Jessie gave Meowth her classic
punch on the head for his comment.
At that moment, an INN special
bulletin began on the café's TV set. "Hey, turn that
up," shouted someone. The owner complied.
The three members of Team Rocket
looked watched the live report with a growing sense of horror and
disbelief...
Viridian City Central Police
Station
Press Room
June 19, 2063
The reporters waiting in silence,
as the Chief of the Viridian City Security Police, Commissioner
John Edward Morrison, enter in the room. The young Detective
Jennifer Wigand, the one responsible for the investigation into
the assaults on Ash Ketchum, followed him closely.
Commissioner Morrison stood at the
lectern with Detective Jenny at his side. The reporters waited
impatiently. "Ladies and gentlemen," Morrison began in
a bored 'report' tone, "we are holding this briefing to
inform you of the first concrete clue to emerge regarding the
attempts on the life of Pokémon Trainer Ash Ketchum. The bullet
cases found at the scene of the shooting have been identified as
those used by one specific type of rifle called the 'TRL.' This
weapon was developed by, and remains unique to just one
paramilitary organisation: Team Rocket."
"While the motive for this
assault remains an unanswered question..." and that was as
far as he got before a barrage of questions drowned his voice
out.
Aurora Snack Bar
June 19, 2063
Jessie and James were in shock at
the news. Even Meowth was speechless.
They looked at one another,
feeling as if the ground beneath their feet had disappeared. They
were all thinking the same question: Why did Team Rocket want
Ash dead?
To be Continued... Chapter 10
coming soon!
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