The lights went out for a few seconds but no one noticed. No one but Jesse. Again, she wondered what James was doing deeper in the heart of HQ. She hoped that he would come back all right. Why did she care so much about him? Could she…no. James and hers' relationship was strictly professional. Still…. No, right now she had to think of the task at hand. They reached the entrance to the main hall after a few more seconds. Yes, time to think of the task at hand.
They lost. All of their pokemon had been better but there were just too many Rocket pokemon. Brock had no choice he was about to call a retreat when a giant horde of pokemon rushed the surprised Rockets from a side corridor. Jesse closely followed the hundreds of pokemon. She ran over to Brock.
"Where did all these pokemon come from!" Brock exclaimed, astonished.
"The Stolen Pokemon Storage room. Has Misty come back yet?" Jesse asked him.
"No. What happened to James? I thought you both went down there," Brock told her.
"He said that he has another important task to take care of. I think it had something to do with that hiccup in the power," she answered.
"Ah. It's kind of nice; you guys working with us for a change," Brock said smiling.
"Ya, we should work together more often," Jesse said, also smiling. That was all the small talk they could afford. It was time to get back to the battle.
Misty and Boss Rocket stood at a stand off. All of a sudden, the lights went out. With Boss Rocket momentarily blinded, Misty made her move. She sprang at him. The lights came back on a moment before Misty slammed into him. The gun slipped from Boss Rocket's grasp and skittered out of reach. One of Misty's hands grabbed for the antidote while the other fended off Boss Rocket's other arm. Unfortunately, Boss Rocket maintained his grip on the antidote bottle.
After recovering from his momentary shock, Boss Rocket tried to shove Misty off. Misty, in a desperate attempt to get the antidote, bit down on his nose, hard. Boss Rocket cried out in pain and released his grip on the antidote. Misty grabbed the antidote. She released her grip on Boss Rocket's nose and ran to the elevator. Boss Rocket crawled over to the gun. With one hand on his bleeding nose and the other on the gun handle, he fired at Misty. Still blinded by pain, the bullets went wild none hitting Misty. Misty reached the elevator and hit the button for the ground floor. After a while riding down, the doors opened to reveal Brock, Jesse, and hundreds of pokemon finishing mopping up the Rockets.
"Where's James?" she asked running over to them.
"Right here," James said running from a side corridor, "And we have to get out of here right now."
"No complaints ere," Meowth said. He turned to the assembled pokemon and yelled, "OK. Now let's get everyone outa ere!" All the pokemon lifted up unconscious pokemon and Team Rocket members and carried them outside. The trainers recalled their fainted pokemon before leaving. The remaining rocket members and their pokemon also fled. The stolen pokemon, still carrying unconscious people and pokemon, scattered into the surrounding forest.
"Brock, how long until Dr. Procter said they would administer the leukemia?" Misty asked.
"Six hours and twenty nine minutes," Brock replied tensely. Brock used a super potion on the heavily weakened Onix before they all got on and started towards Imperial City. While they were riding through the nearby forest, the Team Rocket headquarters exploded in an angry fireball.
"What in the world!" Brock exclaimed.
"The generator overloaded," James said coolly. Everyone turned to him.
"How?" Misty asked.
"First I shut off the main generator letting the auxiliaries cut in. Then I simply connected the positive and negative power couplers. I then turned the generator back on and let the computer system go through a five-minute check. When the check was over and everything was fine, the generator reactivated. Positive power went through the negative power coupler and negative power went through the positive power coupler causing an overload," James told them. Everyone stared at him in awe.
"And how did you know how to do this?" Brock asked.
"Do what?" James inquired.
"To blow up a generator!" Jesse said angrily.
"I blew up a generator!" James exclaimed astonished. Everyone but him sighed. James was definitely hiding something but what was unclear. They continued to ride in silence until they reached Imperial City.
"Prep the leukemia injection," Dr. Matthews said to Nurse Margaret.
"No! There's still a half-hour left those kids could be back in that time," Dr. Proctor yelled at Dr. Matthews for the umpteenth time.
"I know that there is still a half-hour left!" Matthews snapped. This constant watch over Ash was wearing away on his patience. "I know we can't issue it for another half-hour we have had this discussion with his mother! I just want to be ready when the time comes!"
Dr. Proctor rubbed his eyes. He hoped those kids got back soon.
Ignoring all traffic laws, the group road Onix right up to the hospital doors. Misty leapt off and ran through the hospital towards Ash's room. Nurses and orderlies ran after her trying to hold her back. Misty ran into the critical care room that Ash was in. Ash thrashed on the medical table. The doctors were just about to start the leukemia injection.
"Stop! I have the antidote!" she cried holding out the vial. Dr. Procter didn't waste a movement. He snatched the vial out of her hands and prepped it. Misty collapsed to the floor from exhaustion, but still crawled over to Ash's bedside. Dr. Procter finished his preparations and walked over to Ash. He stuck the needle the antidote was in into a tube sticking out of Ash's arm. He injected the serum. The entire room held its breath, the silence only broken by Ash's thrashing and the machines screaming. Sometime in between Brock, Jesse, James, Pikachu, Meowth, and the nurses and orderlies arrived in the room.
"I just hope his system isn't overloaded by the other medications we gave him," one doctor said. Ash continued to thrash, and with one last arching of his back, he fell motionless. The machines all gave a constant, unforgiving beep. He had flat-lined. Ash was dead.