Disclaimer: I do not own anything in this story except Shita . . . besides her, infact, I own NOTHING! Except a little bunny plushie. . .

Author's Note: Once again, nothing to say here. . . well, maybe thank you to all that reviewed, special thanks to Luis who keeps giving me ideas, thankies!

Chapter eight: Old Friends and New Friends

'

"You feeling okay, Pikachu?"

Pikachu smiled weakly up at Ash, a tight bandage on his head. "Pika. . ."

Ash smiled back, then looked up at the ship taking them to earth. It was a lot smaller than the Bebop, which surprised him. It was only meant to take thirty people and their luggage to Earth and back, and since barely anyone wanted to go to Earth, There where about fifteen seats left empty.

Ash stood in the airport, looking thru a window at the small ship he would be flying in after a few minutes. He turned to look at Annie, who was standing next to him.

"I have to admit, I'm going to miss you and your Pikachu." She said, smiling. "Take care of yourself, okay Ash?"

Ash nodded. "I will. Well, I'd better get going. Thanks for everything, Annie." He turned and walked off.

"G'bye Ash!" Annie called, waving. Ash waved over his shoulder, then walk off.

~*~*~*

"So Spike went on the same flight as Ash?" Faye asked, sitting on the couch with Jet, eating Bell Peppers and 'Beef'. "Oh, I hope he murders that twerp. . ."

"But then we won't get the reward." Jet reminded her. "Anyway, this Ash kid has to be caught by surprise, or he'll send out one of those aliens on us. That's why Spike is going on the same ship, so when they're about to land-"

"I KNOW what he's going to do, Jet." Faye snapped. "I'm just sorry it's not me on that ship. . ."

~*~*~*

Shita and Vicious were sitting in a small apartment building. They sat on opposite couches, looking at their feet.

"I can't believe we failed." Shita muttered.

"We won't next time." Vicious vowed. "I have my name to live up to after all."

Shita looked up. "I expected you to respond using that Shakespeare crap." She said, smirking.

Vicious shrugged. There was a small silence, and then Shita leaned back, looking at the ceiling. "You know, at first I thought it was stupid to try and kill this kid. . . but then again, I guess we had better do the universe at least one favor by getting rid of him."

Vicious nodded. Another silence, then he stood up. "The cunning warrior attacks neither body nor mind. . ." (Okay, I kinda got that line from a movie I saw, but I'm not perfect.)

Shita blinked. "Speak English, William."

Vicious sighed. "I meant that if we grab that Pikachu if his and threaten killing it, he might agree with us."

Shita sat up. "How are we going to do that? Wait- Don't answers that- I have an idea!"

And so for the next half hour, Shita filled him in with a plan.

~*~*~*

Spike sat behind Ash, who was placing his backpack under the seat in front of him. Spike buckled his Seat belt and watched Ash boredly. He had to wait about fifteen hours, until they got to Earth, before he could grab him.

Why hadn't Spike tried to catch him after Vicious and Shita had gone? Spike wasn't sure of himself anymore. Maybe he felt that the poor kid needed a break.

He was distracted when he saw HER walk up to Ash.

"Hey, could you take the . . . erm, thing out of my seat?" Asked a voice from next to Ash.

Ash turned around and saw a girl standing next to him, looking at the Pikachu, sound asleep in the seat next to Ash.

"Uh, sure, um, I'm sorry; I didn't know anyone was going to sit here. . ." He picked Pikachu up and sat him on his lap.

The girl smiled, then sat down. "I'm Mayfa. (Yes, THE Mayfa from 'Boogie Woogie fung-shui, or however it's spelled.) What's your name?"

"I'm Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town." Ash replied, before remembering that Pallet Town didn't exist anymore.

"Pallet Town?" Mayfa asked. "I've never heard of it before. Is it a place on Earth?"

"Y-yeah, that's right." Ash said quickly, feeling a bit odd saying this. "Infact, I'm going their just to visit for a while. . ."

Mayfa shrugged. "That's neat." She smiled. "I'm going to meet my grandmother at the airport. Are you going to see your family too?"

Ash didn't know what to say. He looked down at his feet.

Mayfa's smile flipped upside down. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing. . ." Ash said silently. Spike watched the two of them, then leaned back and thought through what he had heard. So now Jet's 'Ex- girlfriend' was involved in this? What next?!? Spike sighed, racking his brain for facts as the ship took off.

~*~*~*

Spike had fallen asleep trying to figure out where Ash's creatures had come from in the first place. When he woke up, almost everyone around him was asleep, even Mayfa.

But Ash wasn't.

Ash looked out the window into the starry world of space. A sad expression was stuck to his face. He looked away, then leaned forward and searched thru his backpack for something.

Spike watched, interested in what Ash was doing.

Ash took out a small framed picture of him, Misty, Brock, and Snap the pokemon photographer. They were all lying on the floor, laughing.

Ash remembered how Snap had tripped before the camera had taken there picture, making them all fall over, laughing. He smiled at the thought.

This world was very different from his, besides the fact of their not being any pokemon around. There was cussing, fighting, crime going unpunished, and a lot more that Ash wasn't used to.

A tear fell down Ash's cheek. He missed Misty and Tracey. He wondered if they had left the island without him . . . that's when he realized they couldn't without him, because he had Lapras. That just made more tears flow. He didn't know if he'd ever get back.

He felt as if he had abandoned them. Or that they abandoned him.

Spike watched Ash silently, wondering what he was thinking about. He managed to get a good look at the picture Ash was holding.

'Those must be his friends,' Spike thought. 'He probably misses them.'

Spike leaned back into his chair and asked himself if taking Ash to jail was the right thing to do or not.

Both of their minds were disturbed at that moment when the ship shook violently, sending the picture in Ash's hands flying. Mayfa woke up as an alarm sounded and a voice rang thru the ship:

'This is your captain speaking, we have an emergency; an Asteroid has gotten thru the hyperspace gate and hit our Ship. Please remain calm, and seated until we-'

BOOM! The Ship shook again, making the people awake and start screaming. Chaos had started in seconds.

*~*~*~

Betcha wanna find out what's going to happen, huh? I am so evil, making cliffhangers like this . . .