Chapter 4

Black Jack and his comrades quickly made their way to the top floor of the building and searched non-stop until they stumbled into a security room where they found not only Lawrence Gartner, who was lying on the floor but was conscious, they also found the former Team Rocket agents, Jesse, James and Meowth, much to their shock.

"What are you three doing here?" Black Jack asked suspiciously.

"I'll handle this," Stevens said as he held Black Jack back. He then turned his attention towards his three assistants. "What are you three doing here?" he asked suspiciously.

The former Rocket agents freaked out. "He was like that when we got here!" James said quickly.

"Yeah! We don't know why he's like dat, but he is!" Meowth continued, also speaking quickly.

The three continued bickering as everyone listened intently, apart from Black Jack who placed his face in his hand as though he was being annoyed.

"And now the satellite is aiming at this very building!" Jesse yelled in panic.

"Oh shut up! You're so annoying!" Black Jack yelled in frustration. Suddenly, he and his other comrades showed shocked expressions on their faces. "Wait a minute? Did you say that the satellite is aiming at this building?"

"Yes! I did!" Jesse yelled, still in panic. "We're in trouble! We don't have much time!"

Black Jack quickly walked towards the screens and one of them showed a timer that said that they had less than three minutes left until the satellite would shoot out the diamond's destructive power.

"I'm going to the roof," Black Jack said as he took out a pokeball.

"I'm going too," Ash said, as did everyone else.

"You three," Stevens said, pointing to his three assistants. "See if you can crack a code to stop the firing."

"Like lightning speed," the three said in unison as they immediately tapped the keys of the controller.

As everyone ran out of the security room to make their way to the roof, Black Jack looked down on Lawrence. "You," he snarled as he grabbed him by the collar of his shirt. "You're coming with me!"

He hoisted him to the top of his shoulder and carried him to the roof. As they made it to the top of the roof, Black Jack tossed the leader aside.

Everyone looked in awe at the satellite that was floating in outer space, as a huge ball of energy slowly grew bigger. Knowing what little time they had, Black Jack took a pokeball off his belt. "Come on out, Metagross!" he yelled as he tossed it out.

The blue armoured creature materialised as it became released from its pokeball, yelling out its battle cry as it landed on the surface of the roof.

Ash took one of his pokeballs off his belt and tossed it out. "Meganium! I choose you!" he yelled as the pokeball released red energy, which materialised into the green dinosaur as it yelled out its battle cry.

Wes also took out his pokeball and tossed it out. "Go! Ampharos!" he yelled. A yellow long-necked creature materialised as it became released from its pokeball, yelling out its cries.

Their comrades were about to release their pokemon to help fight back the incoming attack from the satellite but Black Jack held his hand up, signalling to not help them. "Save it," Black Jack said. "We're more than enough for that thing. If things get nasty, then you guys can help us."

"Nasty or not, we're still helping out!" Misty yelled as she tossed out her pokeball, which released a Gyrarados.

"You're not leaving us, out!" May yelled as she, Brock, Isaac, Stevens tossed out their pokeballs, which released Blaziken, Ludicolo, Ninetales and Houndoom.

"Plusle," Rui yelled in a determined tone. "Ya ready?"

"Plus!" Plus yelled as it leapt off her shoulder, ready to help the others.

A smile showed up on Black Jack's face. Despite his confidence his partners would do anything to save the home they live in. "Thanks, kids," he said.

Everyone looked at the satellite, as the huge energy ball was about to shoot out.

"C'mon, guys," Stevens mumbled desperately, hoping that his assistants would stop the satellite firing out its attack. Unfortunately, the satellite, with the power of the Solar Diamond, shot out a huge light beam that was capable of destroying everything.

"Alright, Metagross!" Black Jack yelled. "Give everything you got! Hyper Beam!"

Everyone else also shouted their respective attack and each pokemon, at their fullest power, shot out their elemental attacks. Their attacks collided with the beam and they began to push the light energy beam back into the satellite.

With their trainers encouraging them, they struggled long and hard as they pushed the energy beam back into the satellite with their elemental attacks.

The heroes were gaining the upper hand as they pushed the beam harder and harder back into the satellite. "Yes! We're gonna make it!" Misty yelled.

But to her, and everybody else's shock, they saw a huge barrier that surrounded the satellite from outer space and a huge spark appeared, blinding everyone. "Gah! What's happening?" Ash yelled.

Black Jack and Metagross were the first to recover from the temporary blindness and quickly saw the energy beam shooting down on them again. "Hyper Beam again!" Black Jack yelled quickly.

Metagross quickly got up and shot out two laser beams out of his eyes at the incoming beam of destruction. The other quickly followed as they yelled out their pokemon to shoot out their attacks.

"What was that?" Ash yelled. "Did the Solar Diamond shoot out another attack?"

"I don't think so," Black Jack replied. "The satellite must've used the Diamond's power to defend itself while ours evaporated."

"Then how are we gonna stop it?" May asked in a desperate tone.

"I don't know, we're not gonna try either… we're gonna trash that thing!"

"I just hope that Jesse, James and Meowth know what they're doing," Stevens replied.

Meanwhile, Stevens assistants were doing the best they can to crack the code to stop the satellite's attack. "Any luck?" Jesse asked as she looked at the screen, sweating some cold droplets.

"It's no good, Jesse!" James whimpered fearfully as he kept tapping on random keys. "I don't know the codes!"

"Don't give me excuses!" Jesse snarled as she grabbed him by the collar of his uniform slapped her scared comrade a few times on the cheeks. "Give me results!"

She pushed James aside and turned her attention to Meowth. "You! Progress report!" she snarled in a desperate tone.

"Well so far, we discovered that dis satellite is usin' the Diamond's power as a shield while it's energy beam is bein' fired back at us," Meowth said theoretically while rapidly tapping the keys. "I tink dat there's probably more than just one code to stop dis ting."

"In English?" Jesse said uninterested.

"Working on it," Meowth replied showing a frown.

Back at the roof of the base, Black Jack and the others were encouraging their pokemon to do their very best as their pokemon were shooting out their strongest attacks.

As the pokemon shooting the beam away from the beam, they began to lose strength as the beam began to close in onto world the heroes live called home. Slowly, one by one, the pokemon fell unconscious as they lost their energy. The pokemon that were still standing were Black Jack's Metagross, Wes's Ampharos and Ash's Meganium. "This is bad," Black Jack thought. "But Metagross has one more defence in his armour. We just need the right moment."

He started to have flashbacks in his mind while the beam was closing in on the base and he felt like this could be last battle. "No!" Black Jack thought desperately as he remembered his past battles and times he spent with his family. "It can't end this way! Not with the promise I gave to Alice!"

"Now!" Black Jack thought loudly in his mind as light energy began to surround him.

"Metagross!" he yelled. "Counter with barrier!"

Light energy also began to surround Metagross as it yelled out its battle cry. A huge barrier shot out of his body, surrounding and protecting his friends whilst stopping the energy beam in its tracks and reflecting it back towards the satellite, much to the surprise of Ampharos and Meganium.

The huge barrier began to appear again, attempting to reflect it back towards the planet. "Metagross!" Black Jack yelled. "Hyper Beam!"

Metagross quickly shot out its most strongest attack out of its eyes again and his powerful beams rammed into the Diamond's energy beam and pushed it into the barrier again. But the barrier still showed signs of breaking.

"It's now or never, Meganium!" Ash yelled as a multicoloured energy began to surround him. "Solar Beam!"

"C'mon, Ampharos!" Wes yelled as strange blue energy began to surround him. "Give it your best Thunder attack!"

Their respective pokemon also began to glow the same colours their trainers had. They charged up their powers until their very fullest and shot out their elemental attacks and joined up with Metagross's power.

The struggle was long and tiring for the pokemon and their trainers. Sweats appeared on the faces of the three surviving pokemon and their trainers. The trainers began to shake their clenched fists in high hopes. As they and their friends yelled out their encouragements to the pokemon, the pokemon gave their attacks even more power; it was like a yell to enforce extra strength for an attack.

Suddenly, the barrier around the satellite broke and the three attacks caused a huge explosion on the satellite upon impact. The satellite was no more.

Downstairs in the security room, the controls began to malfunction as it sparked with electricity. "Hey! Wot's happenin'?" Meowth asked in shock.

Before anyone could answer, an explosion occurred, blasting the former Team Rocket trio out of the building and into the skies.

"No fair!" Jesse yelled. "We're not even criminals anymore and this is what we get in return!"

"I just hate it when history repeats itself," James whimpered. "Still, you can't help it when things happen."

"Wobbuffet!" a blue blob croaked loudly as it released itself from Jesse's pokeball.

"Oh well," Meowth moaned. "For old times sake…"

"WE'RE BLASTING OFF AGAIN!" the three yelled in unison.

"Wobbuffet!" Wobbuffet yelled as they flew out of sight.

Back at the roof, the others were so astonished by the explosion they caused that they didn't hear the screams. After the explosion cleared, the energy began to slowly fade away as Ash, Black Jack, Wes and their pokemon collapsed to the floor exhausted.

"What was that?" Black Jack asked, gasping for air.

"I have no idea," Ash replied.

Their friends, comrades and loved ones came to aid and helped them up, only Black Jack motioned them away as he, Ash and Wes returned their pokemon back into their pokeballs, thanking them in the process. "Hey," May said as she spotted Black Jack's bleeding forehead. "You're hurt."

"It's nothing," Black Jack replied as he wiped some blood off with his forehead.

"Y'know, you could get germs in there," she warned as she took a plaster out of her pocket. "C'mon, it's the least I could for you… after all, you did save me from one of those bases."

"I prefer stitches but okay," Black Jack said with a shrug.

He crouched down and May placed the plaster on his bleeding forehead. "Thanks," he said as he got back up. "Now we're even."

Black Jack looked and walked over to the paralysed Lawrence Gartner. He crouched down towards him and moderately squeezed his face by the cheeks. "Let me ask you a question. A question that you should ask yourself," he said in a croaky voice. "Is world domination really worth it?"

Without needing an answer, Black Jack lightly patted Lawrence on one of his cheeks before leaving the scene.

"Where are you going, Black Jack?" Ash asked.

"I'm gonna check on the pokemon first and then I'm heading out of here," Black Jack replied.

"See ya around, Black Jack," Ash said as he and the others waved him goodbye. Black Jack didn't turn around to their attention but he waved them back in response.

"Boy, I'm glad that this is over," Black Jack heard Ash say as he walked down the stairs.

He proceeded back into the battling room and found several police officers and medics checking on the grunts and placing them on stretchers. The psychotic pokemon were nowhere to be seen. He walked over to one of the officers.

"Where are the pokemon?" he asked.

"What pokemon?" the policeman replied. "Officer Jenny reported that there were injured pokemon here but when we got here they were nowhere to be seen apart from that Rhydon over there."

Black Jack looked at the direction the police officer was pointing to. Mecha was leaning his back against the steel wall while a doctor was checking on him.

He walked over to him. "Mecha," he said, catching the Rhydon's attention.

"Black Jack," Mecha replied back while a doctor wrapped a bandage around his non-metal arm.

"So, what happened to Shocker and the other guys?" Black Jack asked.

"I don't know," Mecha replied. "When I came round, they weren't here. I think that they somehow recovered quickly and got the heck out of here."

Black Jack turned round and observed around the battling hall and spotted the injured officer Jenny on one of the stretchers. He walked over to the stretcher and the medics were about to carry her away. "Hold up," Black Jack said loudly, making the medics stop in their tracks, and walked up closely to her.

"Let me guess… those crazy thugs did this to ya?" Black Jack asked.

Jenny nodded in response. Convinced, Black Jack decided to let the medical workers get on with their job but they were stopped again when Jenny called him back. Black Jack turned his attention back to her.

"Was this adventure worth it?" she asked weakly.

Black Jack gave a little shrug in response. "It was alright," he replied.

With that, the medics quickly took the stretcher and carried her out of the room. As the medics and police officers continued working, he said goodbye to Mecha as they tapped fists and with that, he left the building.

As he got to the entranceway of the base, several police vehicles and ambulances were outside. One of the police officers walked over to him and offered him a ride to Phanec City, reasoning that Black Jack's bike was there.

"Couldn't you have brought it with you?" Black Jack asked.

"Well, Stevens did warn us about touching your bike," the officer replied.

"Smart of him," Black Jack replied as he walked towards one of the police vehicles that the officer motioned him to. "Still, I hate it when I don't get to crack skulls."

Half an hour later, Black Jack came out of the police vehicle and spotted his motorcycle still there in Phanec City. "Aren't you gonna rest tonight, Mr. Black Jack?" asked the officer.

"I don't sleep," Black Jack replied as he got on his motorcycle. "Anyways, I got someone waiting for me back home."

With that, he drove out of the city, into the darkness of the night. He began to think back about this entire adventure and what to tell his only niece. He then remembered about Damien, Tombstone and Darkfire, and then Samson, Shocker and the other psychotic pokemon.

Then as he remembered Ash's words 'Boy, I'm glad that this is over', he said to himself, "No, Ketchum… this is far from over."
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Epilogue coming up! Reviews please!