Back at the clearing where Ash's starving party had gathered, Max was rummaging through his own backpack. "I need food, so..."
May immediately looked hopefully at her little brother. "Hey, what have you got in there?"
The answer to May's question was a box of chocolate cookies, which Max took out of his bag, as the others gathered eagerly around him.
"Of course, you're gonna share with your sister, right?" said May with a sweet smile.
"Sorry, I've only got the one cookie left in here," said Max as he got the chocolate biscuit out of the box. "It's my emergency stash."
"Never mind, it's better than nothing," said Misty.
"Yeah, if we split it, we'll each get one bite," grinned Ash.
Max nodded, but before he had a chance to start dividing the cookie, something swooped down from the trees and snatched the cookie right out of his hand!
"Huh? What was that?" exclaimed Misty, as they all looked in the direction of the thing that had snatched the chocolate and was now flying away from them. It looked like a small bird with dark blue feathers. It had a red marking with pointed tips that stretched from its chest to its forehead, and a white underside. It also had narrow brown eyes, a short yellow beak, elongated wingtips, black feet with yellow talons, and two sharply pointed feathers that formed its tail.
"Yeah! I finally found a Pokémon!" said Max excitedly, as they all began to chase the thieving bird.
"It stole our chocolate!" wailed May.
"Come back here, you thief!" yelled Misty at the bird.
"What is that Pokémon?" asked Ash.
"A Taillow," replied Max, and as they ran, Ash got out his Pokédex to look the Pokémon up:
"Taillow, the tiny swallow Pokemon. Taillow has a fierce personality, never backing down, even against the most powerful opponents."
Ash looked impressed by this, but all May could think about was the food that Taillow had taken from them.
"Give back that chocolate!" she bellowed at the Taillow.
"Careful, May! Where's there's one Taillow, there's always a whole flock of them!" warned Max.
"You mean we may have a whole load more to deal with? Oh terrific!" groaned Misty as they continued breathlessly chasing the Taillow, which eventually landed on the branch of a tall tree and began eating away at the cookie.
"Give us back that chocolate, you robber!" May yelled up at the Taillow. "I want it back! Give it back!"
But the Taillow ignored her as it greedily finished devouring the cookie, leaving chocolate stains all over its yellow beak.
"Waah! It ate the whole thing," cried May in dismay.
"Guess that Taillow must have been really hungry," commented Ash.
"Yeah. I wonder if my chocolate cookie filled it up?" said Max.
"We're hungry too!" retorted May as she weakly sunk to her knees.
As the others looked up at the Taillow high above them, Misty noticed that Pikachu was a little distance behind them, looking at something on the ground.
"Hey Pikachu, what is it?" she asked, carrying Togepi in her arms as she crossed over to the electric Pokémon.
Pikachu picked up the object and held it up for Misty to see. To her delight, she saw it was an apple core and as she looked up, she realised that there were a whole load of apples in the trees around them.
"All right!" she said brightly, before crossing back over to the others, their attention still on Taillow.
"Taillow! How did you like my chocolate?" asked Max.
The Taillow gave a very approving squark, indicating that it did indeed enjoy the chocolate.
"Glad you enjoyed it," muttered May scornfully.
"Don't worry, May," said Ash soothingly. "I'm sure we'll get some food in the next town."
"No need to wait that long, guys," smiled Misty, as she pointed at the apple trees behind them. "Just look at all the fruit Pikachu's found!"
Ash, Max and May turned and looked in the direction that Misty was pointing, and their faces lit up at the sight of the red apples hanging from the tree branches.
"We've been saved!" cheered Max elatedly.
"Watch out, tummy! Here it comes!" squeaked May in delight.
Ash grinned. "Pikachu, help us out and knock down some of that fruit!"
With an eager smile, Pikachu let off a series of electric shocks at the trees, knocking several apples off the branches. But before any of the fruit had a chance to land on the ground, a whole load of Taillow shot out from behind the leaves and used their beaks to snatch the apples in mid-air!
"Oh no! Not again!" cried May, as all the Taillow surrounded the group of travellers and screeched angrily and menacingly at them.
"Uhh, I don't think they look too happy with us," said Misty fearfully as she hugged Togepi, who gave a nervous squeak.
"It almost looks like they're about to attack," agreed Max seriously.
"But they got their fruit back, so what's the problem?" asked May.
"I think they're upset because we might be in the middle of their territory!" realised Ash.
"So they're probably mad since we were about to help ourselves to their fruit!" gulped Misty.
"Exactly what I was about to say," said Max, as the Taillow flock glowered at them.
"What should we do?" asked May anxiously.
"Perhaps we could just apologise?" suggested Misty.
Alas, the Taillow seemed to be in no mood for apologies, as their leader, the one who had stolen the chocolate, gave a command and the flock shot towards the humans in an attack run!
"Ash, can't you do something?" squealed May in terror.
"Pikachu, thunderbolt!" commanded Ash quickly.
Hurriedly, Pikachu fired one of its powerful and dazzling thunderbolts, which hit the entire flock at point-blank range. As the Taillow cried out in pain and surprise, they all collapsed to the ground, apparently stunned.
"Wow, that was too close!" said May in relief.
"Another second and things could have turned nasty," agreed Misty.
"Lucky for us that electric attacks are so effective against flying Pokémon," said Max.
"Yeah, that'll keep them down for awhile," said Ash confidently.
But to the group's dismay, the Taillow flock seemed to recover and quickly got back to their feet!
"Argh, maybe not!" cried Ash as he and the others jumped in surprise.
"Do you think we woke them up?" suggested May tensely.
"But how could they have recovered so quickly?!" said Max in disbelief.
"I don't know, but it looks like they're about to attack again!" yelped Misty, as the flock flew up and charged towards them once more!
"Pikachu, thunderbolt them!" shouted Ash desperately.
Once again, Pikachu managed to hit all the Taillow with a thunderbolt attack, but despite looking dazed from the electric bolt, the flock shook off the attack and managed to stay in the air!
"Pika!" cried Pikachu in shock, as the Taillow regrouped and surrounded Ash and his friends.
"It didn't affect them!" said Ash in astonishment.
"How is that possible? Pikachu scored a direct hit!" pointed out a confused Max.
"Remember what the Pokédex said?" said Ash in realisation. "Taillow are fierce, and they won't back down no matter how strong the opponent!"
"That means they'll keep on attacking no matter what!" hollered Misty in terror.
At that moment, the Taillow Leader, its beck still covered in chocolate, swooped down towards Pikachu, who just barely managed to leap out of the way. The Taillow quickly turned around and swiftly flew right into the landing Pikachu, sending the electric Pokémon skidding across the ground! As Pikachu quickly recovered and got back to its feet, the Taillow leader turned around for another pass.
"Thunderbolt, now!" called Ash hurriedly.
Pikachu fired another thunderbolt, this time concentrating all its power on the Taillow leader. But to everyone's distress, the Taillow shook off the attack, as the rest of its flock closed in on the human travellers.
"Argh, nothing seems to work!" said Ash in frustration.
"Hang on, Ash! I'll get Gyarados to help out," said Misty as she frantically rummaged through her backpack for Gyarados' Poké Ball.
"Too late! Here they come!" shrieked May, as the entire Taillow flock charged straight for them!
Suddenly, a voice called out from nearby, one that Ash and Misty recognised instantly:
"Forretress, explosion!"
Before the surprised group knew what was happening, a Fast Ball was thrown into the clearing between them and the attacking Taillow. The ball opened up and the large, spherical insectoid Pokémon known as Forretress appeared right in front of the Taillow, whereupon it let off a powerful explosion attack, which made the startled flock squark in alarm, before they flew away in terror. As the Taillow retreated back into the woods, the smoke from the explosion cleared, and a familiar figure stepped out in front of Ash and the others.
"I... I don't believe it!" Misty managed to stammer.
"It's Brock!" Ash said in surprise, as their old friend grinned at them.
"Hey guys," smiled Brock. "Long time no see, huh?"