Casey looks at Ash in shock at his suggestion. Casey's never travelled with anybody other than her Pokemon before, so the concept is completely and utterly foreign to her. At the same time, however, it sounds like it could be a lot of fun. There's probably many things that Casey can learn from Ash, Dawn and Brock, and travelling with them would be the perfect way to do that. Besides, despite the fact that she's only known them for a short time, they've become good friends to her, and her Pokemon seem to get along great with all of theirs.
When she thinks it through, there's one clear answer to Ash's suggestion, and she knows that her Pokemon would agree with it wholeheartedly.
"Alright. I'm in. Let's do this!"
Casey walks alongside Ash, Dawn and Brock as they reach the top of a small incline, all of them pausing and marvelling at the breathtaking view they find at the top of said incline. They're currently on their way to Floaroma Town which is en route to Eterna City, and it also just so happens to be the location of Dawn's next Pokemon Contest. Apparently she's already competed in a contest, the one in Jubilife City to be precise, but she didn't do so well; she plans to turn things around at this next contest, and Casey and the others can't wait to see her compete.
Since leaving Oreburgh City, Casey sure has seen some interesting things on her travels with Ash and the Gang. Dawn recently caught a Pachirisu with quite the fiery personality, and around that time Casey also had the displeasure of meeting Team Rocket. Apparently Jessie, James and their talking Meowth (Casey was stunned when she heard it speak for the first time, to say the least) have been pestering Ash and Brock for as long as they've been travelling together, but apparently they don't usually cause too much of an issue for them, since Pikachu and their other Pokemon often defeat them with ease.
"Whoa! What a beautiful field of flowers!"
Casey silently agrees with Dawn's stunned remark. From the top of the hilly pathway, they can clearly see the entire field, which is brimming with flowers of a variety of colours and luscious green grass. It truly is a sight to behold.
Ash makes his own remark about how amazing the flowers look, but Casey's attention is quickly drawn away from Ash when a large shadow is suddenly cast over them. The four trainers look up, in the hope that they can find out what's causing the shadow, and the sight that they see is more shocking than even the flowers.
It's a Salamence, and who Casey assumes is its trainer atop of it, flying straight for small cottage at the end of the flower field. Casey reaches into her pocket and quickly withdraws her Pokedex. She's seen a Salamence before, but she's yet to scan it into her Pokedex. The last time she saw a Salamence, she was so in awe of it's size and strength that she forgot to scan it in before it disappeared.
"Salamence, the Dragon Pokémon. As a result of a powerful desire to fly, Salamence were able to trigger the cells in their body and cause them to grow wings."
"Something doesn't feel right about this." Casey remarks as she pockets her Pokedex once again.
"What do you mean, Casey?"
Casey watches with skepticism as the Salamance lands down by the cottage, but she's too far away at the moment to see much other than that, "I don't know, but I say that we check it out. Come on!"
Casey begins to run towards the cottage and despite their confused shouts, the others are soon to follow. She runs with an odd sense of determination; she has an uneasy feeling in her gut, so perhaps that's what's making her run so fast towards something she has no idea about.
It turns out that the uneasy feeling in her gut was correct. When she and the others reach the cottage, they find that a Gardevoir has somehow been turned to stone by the woman who was on the back of the Salamance, the Dragon Pokemon stood just behind its trainer. An Ariados is also stood beside the woman, glaring menacingly at another woman opposite it, who is bound to a nearby tree by some kind of web. Casey takes a bet that its from a String Shot attack.
"Gardevoir!"
The woman bound to the tree cries out in anguish for the Psychic-Type Pokemon as it is put into some kind of glass container and transported into a large transit vehicle, which goes speeding down the pathway as soon as Gardevoir is inside.
"Are you okay?"
Casey turns away from Ash and the others, who are busy checking to see if the woman bound to the tree is okay, and back towards where the other woman was, watching with a glare as she and her Ariados take off on the back of Salamence.
We can't let her get away!
Casey turns and begins to run after the transit vehicle, knowing that it's her best lead to catch up with Salamence's trainer. She can't just let her get away, especially not after what she did! It's just downright wrong!
"Come on! We need to catch up to them!"
Casey sharply turns to her right when she hears Ash's voice, stunned that he's managed to catch up with her. By no means is she the fastest person, but she did take off rather abruptly. Not that Casey's complaining about Ash following after her; it's good to have backup, especially in a situation like this.
They come to a sudden stop when they reach the edge of a steep incline, the transit vehicle already driving down the pathway at the bottom of the incline.
"Now what are we supposed to do?"
"We keep going!" Ash shouts. He begins to rush down the incline, struggling to keep his footing as he goes.
Is he crazy?!
Casey considers stopping her chase right then and there, but then she remembers why she ran after the vehicle in the first place; that's what makes Casey goes running down the incline much like Ash did, landing in a heap as the vehicle comes to a halt not too far from where they are, having just endured a powerful Thunderbolt from Pikachu. It didn't do much damage wise, but it sure caught their attention.
"An impressive Thunderbolt." Casey and Ash whip their heads around as the woman sets back down on the ground, still atop of her Salamance alongside her Ariados, "That's quite a Pikachu you've got there! It'll fetch a good price!"
Casey glares daggers over at the woman, instinctively reaching for one of the Pokeballs clipped to her belt, "Okay, lady! I don't know who you think you are, but we aren't letting you get away with this! Give back Gardevoir right now!"
"No can do."
Her calm response angers Casey further, leading her to toss the Pokeball in her hand out in front of her, "Dratini, take her down!"
Dratini emerges from her Pokeball and stands readily beside Pikachu as the woman throws her Pokeball effortlessly out onto the field, a menacing Drapion appearing from it.
"What's that?!"
"It's a Drapion." Casey clarifies, keeping her eyes trained on the Poison-Type Pokemon before her, "And it looks strong too. We need to be careful."
"Right." Ash nods. His voice is full of determination as he calls Pikachu's first attack, "Use Volt Tackle!"
Pikachu charges towards Drapion, cloaked in its own electrical power, at breakneck speed. Drapion somehow manages to dodge the attack, Pikachu charging right on past it and coming to a stop just to the side of the woman and her Salamance.
"Marvellous! No doubt that you're worth quite a lot!"
Ash, Casey and their Pokemon are all stunned when the woman extends her arm out towards Pikachu, firing out some kind of blast from a gadget attached to her wrist and turning Pikachu to stone, his appearance similar to that of Gardevoirs.
"No! Pikachu!"
No way! No, she can't do this! I have to stop her!
"Dratini, use Draco Meteor!"
Dratini charges up her power before unleashing the attack, the fiery orbs raining down and hitting Salamence, Ariados and Drapion, causing significant damage to Salamence. Casey's not surprised as the attack is super effective.
"Now, Dratini! Use Slam!"
Dratini surges towards Drapion and jumps up into the air with the intention of hitting Drapion; she doesn't get too far, as the woman hits her with the same device that she got Pikachu with, rendering Dratini in a stone like state.
"Dratini!" Casey glares menacingly up at the woman once again, "What did you go and do that for?!"
"Your Dratini sure is powerful. It'll fetch a even higher price than Pikachu."
Ash and Casey both begin to run towards the woman, who turns towards her Ariados and demands it to attack. Ariados fires a String Shot attack in their direction, which Casey manages to jump out of the way of just in time. Ash isn't so lucky, the attack hitting him directly and sending him spiralling back, binding him to a nearby rock similar to how Gardevoirs trainer was bound to that tree.
"Dratini! Pikachu! I'm coming!"
"Drapion, Cross Poison."
The vigorous Poison-Type attack hits Casey directly, causing her to stop dead in her tracks. She feels the poison spread across the body and she cries out in pain, dropping down to her knees as she groans in agony. She's in so much pain that she doesn't even notice the woman fly away on the back of her Salamance again, the transit vehicle now carrying two new Pokemon in Dratini and Pikachu.
"Ash! Casey!"
She feels somebody grab her by the arms, though she's not exactly sure who it is. The pain still hasn't died down just yet. She stumbles as she tries to stand up and clutches at her stomach, but the person who grabbed her arms is quick to catch her before she can hit the ground.
"Hey, take it easy." She recognises the calm yet concerned voice to be Brock, which means that Dawn is likely over with Ash, "What happened to you guys?"
"She took them!" Casey's voice is teeming with anger and hatred as she begins to regain her strength, hissing slightly in pain as she talks, "She took Dratini and Pikachu!"
"I sure do hope that this plan works."
Casey quickly jumps off of Arcanine's back as they reach their destination, Pokemon Hunter J finishing up catching her next target, which just so happens to be an Absol. After regaining some more of her strength from the effects of Drapion's attack, Casey, the others and Gardevoir's trainer, who Casey has come to learn is called Melodi, tried to chase after the woman who took their Pokemon, but she narrowly escaped aboard some kind of aircraft, similar in design to the transit vehicle they say earlier.
Casey, much like the others, instantly thought that was it, but Officer Jenny arrived along with her Arcanine shortly afterwards, saying that she was trying to apprehend the woman herself, who it turns out is a nefarious Pokemon Hunter called J. She captures Pokemon and sells them on the black market for high prices, something which all of them found absolutely despicable upon first hearing about it.
They came to the conclusion that chasing after J and her men was futile, but perhaps if they could predict where J would strike next, they could catch her off guard and get their Pokémon back. That's where Melodi came in handy, as her Kirla looked into the future and saw a specific destination which, as Casey and the others just discovered, turned out to be the right location.
"We still haven't got them surrounded yet!" Officer Jenny gasps, referring to the fact that her backup squad hasn't arrived on the scene yet. That doesn't seem to faze out though, as he quickly charges down the grassy hill and towards J, "Ash, wait! It's too dangerous!"
Officer Jenny's right. It sure is dangerous, well, to be more precise, J and her Pokemon are dangerous, but that doesn't seem to stop Ash. Because of this fact, Casey doesn't see why this should stop her either. She has to get Dratini back.
"J, give me back Pikachu, now!"
"And Dratini and Gardevoir as well!" Casey rushes down the hill and stands defiantly beside Ash, glaring daggers over at J much like before. She really can't stand this woman.
"Oh, it's you two."
Jenny rushes down alongside her Arcanine, pointing an accusing finger towards J, "Don't move! I'm placing you under arrest!"
"I guess I should commend you for discovering Headquarters, but..." J falls silent for a few moments before speaking again, her voice as calm as ever when she gives her next order, "Salamence, Hyper Beam!"
"Arcanine, Flamethrower!"
Both moves collide with extreme force, but in the end Salamence's Hyper Beam overpowers Arcanine's Flamethrower. Casey and Ash quickly dive out of the way as the attack breaks through, hitting Arcanine directly and knocking it out cold, leaving a small explosion in its wake.
Casey groans in pain as she lands on the rough ground beside Ash, who is already pushing himself up and out of the dirt. Casey quickly scans the area around them, frantically trying to come up with a plan as J begins to fly away. Ash beats her to it, and it doesn't take long for Casey to figure out what he's thinking. He's eyeing the bottom of J's transit vehicle, which by the looks of it is going to follow after J any moment now.
"Come on!" Ash shouts.
He sure has lost it now!
Casey gulps worriedly before rushing after Ash, who has made a run for the underside of the transit vehicle. The two of them slide underneath it and grab on tight to the metallic framework, breathing sighs of relief when they have a firm grip on the vehicle.
That sigh of relief, however, is soon replaced with a shocked gasp, which is on the brink of becoming a panicked scream, when she sees the two other people hiding out underneath the transit vehicle as well.
It just so happens to Jessie and James, the vexatious members of Team Rocket that Casey has already had the displeasure of meeting.
"What are you two doing here?"
"That Hunter hussy hauled off poor Meowth." James says. His voice is rather despairing, which is a direct contrast to how he usually sounds. Albeit, Casey has only seen him once but, from what she's already seen, the blue-haired crook tends to hold a confident demeanour, well, that is until the plans of him and his comrades fail, which is when his voice sounds fearful disappointed.
As the transit vehicle speeds throughs the hills and after J, soaring up into the air as it traverses over bumps in the road, Casey's thoughts draw away from Team Rocket and towards what's truly important. Getting Dratini and the other Pokemon back.
Don't worry, Dratini! We're on our way!
"We better split up and have a look."
Casey follows Ash, Jessie and James through the automatic sliding door connecting the hanger of J's airship to the rest of the high-tech mobile facility and listens intently to his plan. Splitting up sure does seem like the best way forward. The more ground they cover, the more likely they are to find their Pokemon.
"Monferno! Let's go!"
"Aipom! I choose you!"
The two Pokemon emerge from their Pokeballs and look at their respective trainers, awaiting to hear further instructions or insight into exactly why they are in such an unfamiliar place. Ash and Casey are quick to catch their Pokemon up to speed.
"Aipom, help us look around. We gotta find Pikachu."
"You too, Monferno. We can't let Dratini down." Casey turns to Ash after addressing her Pokemon, motioning to the long, bleak hallway to her right, "I'll go right whilst you go left, Ash. Team Rocket can take the path directly opposite the hangar door."
"Right, lets go!"
They all take off in their respective directions, Casey and Monferno moving at a steady yet quiet speed. The last thing that they want to do is make it known that they are here. That...well, that would be disastrous. They might as well try to use the element of surprise to their advantage whilst they still have it. They have to get Dratini back.
The two of them check room after room as they frantically try to find their stolen friend, each of them taking a side of the extensive hallway to search, thus checking two rooms at the same time and narrowing down their search. Most of the rooms are thankfully unoccupied but, frustratingly, at the same time most of them just turn out to be storage rooms. Seriously, there's enough storage rooms in this strangely advanced aircraft to store supplies for hundreds of passengers, which only adds to Casey's trepidation of what's to come. They need to find their Pokemon and get out of here, and fast.
"Mon! Monferno!"
Casey pauses hastily when her partner Pokemon calls out, his sudden action making her stomach churn. She whips her head around to face the Playful Pokemon, sending a sharp and concerned stare in his direction, "Shh! Monferno, what is it?"
"Mon! Monferno!"
Monferno is pointing eagerly at a door on his side of the hallway, which just so happens to be open every so slightly. Casey takes this as an indication that Monferno's checked this room, and she takes his eagerness as a sign that he's found something inside.
"Hmm, what did you find, Monferno?"
Casey walks towards the door and pushes it open mutely, still being careful as to not draw attention to herself and Monferno. You never know who could be lurking just around the corner. Casey smiles at what her Pokemon has found, "A surveillance room!"
A multitude of monitors playing live video feed from across the airship sit mounted upon the back wall of the room, a sleek black desk and chair there to accompany them. An interior blueprint of the facility also adorns the wall, likely for reference when studying the monitors, which each have a specific code in the bottom right corner linking to a room code marked on the blueprint.
"This is perfect, Monferno! Thank you!" Casey beams, "Do you mind keeping an eye out whilst I check this stuff out. Let me know if you see anybody coming."
Monferno responds with a nod and a determined cry, turning away from its trainer and moving to stand by the doors edge, keeping its eyes trained on the space outside of the vicinity of the surveillance room which they are currently in. Casey feels reassured at this. She knows that nothing will get past Monferno. Knowing that, she feels comfortable to go and sit down by the monitors and attempt to locate the Pokemon.
Her eyes flicker over the numerous monitors, only spending brief moments looking at each one. There sure is a lot of monitors, and she has a sneaky suspicion that her time for searching is running thin. She has to wrap this up speedily.
"Come on, Dratini." She murmurs, her eyes still scanning the monitors hectically, "Where are you?"
She swiftly stops her search when her eyes land on a monitor showing surveillance footage from what appears to be yet another storage room, but the particular things being stored in there is what catches Casey's eye. It's the Pokemon! All of them. Dratini, Pikachu, Meowth, Gardevoir and Absol. They're all there!
That's it!
Her eyes drift towards the bottom right corner where the room code is located, "SF4-H3."
What on Earth does that stand for?
Casey doesn't have time to ponder on such trivial things. Now that she knows what room the Pokemon are in, she now has to figure out exactly where that room is in relation to where she is now. She does so by looking over at the blueprints on the wall, where the room that she is currently in is conveniently marked upon it through a large red 'X'.
X marks the spot, I suppose.
"It looks like we've got to take a right at the end of the hallway and head 5 doors down on the left." Casey turns around and looks towards Monferno, who is still standing alert at the door, "Did you get that, pal?"
"Monferno!"
Casey nods over to her Pokemon confidently; she rises out of the black, leather chair and rushes out of the room, Monferno following in tow. They run stealthily down to the end of the hallway and then make a sharp right, continuing to run until they reach the correct door.
She pauses abruptly outside of the room and glances down at Monferno, who is looking at her with a determined expression on his face, "Let's hope that we've got this right, Monferno."
Monferno responds with a supportive cry, showing that he has faith in his trainer; his response gives her the confidence to push the door open and head inside of the room, finding exactly what she was expecting inside.
"Dratini!"
Casey closes the door before she and Monferno rush over to a metallic table at the side of the room, where the containers of all of the stolen Pokemon, Dratini included, have been placed, all of the Pokemon still in their motionless, stone state.
"Hey, Twerpette!"
"Meowth?" Casey looks over at the Cat Pokemon as he speaks up, surprised to find that the very top of his head has been left unaffected by J's technology; the position that he's in does look rather uncomfortable though. Perhaps he tried to talk his way into J's good books. That's Casey's first guess, at least, "How do I reverse the effects of these capsules?"
"Slide that lever down, and do it quick before my head falls off!"
Casey listens to his instruction and slides down the lever, the stone that constricts Meowth moving down and eventually off of his body as the lever reaches the bottom of its slider, the glass around the container falling away as it does so. As soon as Meowth is free, Casey quickly moves to release the other Pokemon from their restricting containers, smiling brightly at Dratini when she can move around freely.
"Dratini!" Dratini coos happily and jumps into Casey's arms, clearly happy to see her trainer again, "Yeah, I'm glad to see yo-."
Casey pauses when she hears a metallic sound coming from above, instantly darting her eyes towards the source of the sound and taking a defensive stance. She instantly assumes that its some kind of scouter Pokemon lurking around in the vents (she knows that it sounds crazy, but you never know).
"Pika!"
Pikachu jumps down from the table and stands protectively in front of Casey, the electricity at its cheeks crackling as it prepares for a forthcoming attack. Monferno takes on a similar stance, the flame on the back of his tail flaring instinctively as he glares in the direction of the ventilation shaft. Both Pokemon are prepared for a battle, that's for sure.
"Ai-pa!"
"Aipom?" Casey's expression softens as Long Tail Pokemon emerges from the ventilation shaft, instantly jumping down to the ground to say hello to Pikachu, "Well, that's a relief."
"Casey!"
Ash exits the shaft next, Turtwig, Jessie and James following after him. The raven-haired trainer instantly rushes over to his partner Pokemon, hugging him in relief as soon as he reaches them. Jessie and James both rush over to Meowth, the two of them as relieved as Ash to see their friend.
"Good job on finding them, Casey." Ash smiles gratefully.
"It was all Monferno really." Casey says modestly, not to mention truthfully, "He was the one who pointed out the surveillance room which led me here in the first place. I would've run right past it if it wasn't for him."
Ash nods and directs his gratitude towards Monferno, who responds with an enthusiastic cry in response, grateful that he was able to help in some way.
"There you are!"
All of them turn towards the door as various large, muscular men burst into the room, stern expressions plastered on their faces. They do not look happy to see them, to say the least. Casey glares back at them; they're part of the reason why Dratini and the others were taken in the first place, "If you crooks know what's good for you, you'll let us go now!"
"Silence!" The man at the front of the group throws his Pokeball out in front of him, a Golbat appearing in a flash of bright light, "Golbat, Steel Wing, now!"
"Pikachu, use Volt Tackle!"
Pikachu surges towards Golbat, surrounded by thousands of volts of electrical current and makes a direct hit, sending Golbat tumbling down to the ground instantly. Even if the move wasn't super effective, Casey still bets that it would've done a lot of damage all the same thanks to Pikachu's immense strength.
"Golbat, Supersonic!"
The sound of Golbat's Supersonic attack sounds through the room, its ear-splitting noise forcing Casey and the others to cover their ears. She can see that Ash is trying to yell out a command to Pikachu, but he is clearly struggling due to the unbearable noise being emitted through Supersonic. Casey decides that it's her turn to give it a shot.
"Monferno, use Flamethrower!" She manages to yell above the noise of Supersonic.
Monferno obeys her command and fires his intense Flamethrower attack right at Golbat. The scorching hot attack makes a direct hit just like Pikachu's Volt Tackle did and it sends Golbat flying right out of the door and into a electrical control unit just outside, the impact from the heavy Bat Pokemon combined with the force of the attack causing the wall by the control unit to explode!
Everybody screams frightfully as violent, Gale-force-esque winds blow inside the hangar, acting as a powerful vacuum from the inside-out. She and Ash are both quick to the react, making their Pokemon return to their Pokeballs before they can come to any harm (well, excluding Pikachu, but he never goes into his Pokeball anyway).
"Ash!" Casey shouts to her friend above the noise, latching tightly onto one of the many metallic storage units bolted to the wall, "What are we supposed to do?!"
Ash seems to take a brief moment to come up with a plan before wordlessly reaching for one of the Pokeballs in his pocket, throwing it high up into the air, "Staravia! Go and tell Officer Jenny where we are?!"
Staravia bursts out of its Pokeball and instantly executes Ash's order, flying out of the hangar through the hole in the wall at breakneck speed. That makes Casey feel slightly more reassured. Now she knows that somebody's coming to get them. Perhaps they'll be okay after all.
"Good idea, Ash!" Casey calls over to him, "As long as Staravia can get to Jenny, we'll all be fine!"
Bang!
Casey instantly regrets her words when the hangar suddenly plummets, a sickening feeling erupting in her chest with it. It's as if the hangar has been detached from the aircraft! From what she's seen of J so far, she wouldn't put it past the Pokemon Hunter. She's borderline sociopathic!
"Me and my big mouth!"
Everybody erupts into screams once again as the Hangar plummets towards the hard surface at an alarmingly fast rate. It's absolutely terrifying, but what's even more so is how everybody is acting. J's men, well, former men, are simply clutching at the walls as they yell, none of them saying anything else. They're probably still in shock that their leader left them for dead so suddenly. Team Rocket are blubbering amongst themselves, Meowth saying something that angers Jessie and leads to the short-tempered woman striking the Scratch Cat Pokemon harshly. Casey notes that the woman is still as abrasive as ever, even remaining so as she falls to her demise.
Casey turns to look at Ash, somehow hoping that her friend has one last plan to get them out of this horrifying situation, but thankfully she doesn't need Ash to do such a thing, as just mere moments later everybody inside of the hangar is somehow safely on the ground in a clearing.
"Are you three alright?"
Casey looks up from the ground slowly when she hears Brock and Dawn run over; she's almost scared that she's somehow still in the falling hangar. It's crazy, but that's how she feels.
"Yeah. We're fine." Ash says.
"We're alive!" Casey jumps up from the ground and cheers in relief. She probably looks absolutely ridiculous, but she's honestly too relieved to care, "Hah! We're alive! I don't have a clue how, but we are!"
"I still can't get over J!"
Casey follows her friends as they continue their journey towards Floaroma Town, the events of the day now behind them. All of J's men that were aboard the hangar were arrested by Officer Jenny right after they all landed safely on the ground, which turned out to be thanks to Melodi's Gardevoir's Teleport attack. Even though J got away, Officer Jenny promised that she and her police force would continue to try and apprehend the cruel Pokemon Hunter.
"I can't believe that people like that actually exist!"
Casey nods reluctantly over at Dawn, "I agree with you, Dawn, but sadly they do exist. There's no other way to put it; some people just have no sense of right and wrong."
"I get so mad when I think about all of the Pokemon that she stole just to make a quick buck!"
Casey and the others look over at Ash with concern. He's really taking all of this hard. Brock is quick to reassure his longtime friend by placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. It's a simple gesture, but it seems to calm Ash down, "Yeah, me too. But Officer Jenny will catch her one of these days."
Casey sure hopes that Brock is right. People like J deserve to pay for their crimes, but nobody can make them pay if they can't be caught. As doubtful as she feels, she believes that J will get caught in the act eventually. It's just gonna take some time. But, then again, doesn't everything worth fighting for?
