Author's Note: For those who may be interested, that little trip I mentioned at the end of the last chapter went well. Of course this trip was actually just a simple shopping trip to get some manga, so it's not like I was taking a vacation to the Alps or anything like that. Anyway, I hope this chapter is worth the wait.

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.


Chapter 7: Richter Strikes Back

With Christine still on crutches, she and Bolt were forced to ride Raikou to the site of Jirachi's latest bit of mischief. The couple soon arrived at a location just outside the gates of the town cemetery where they encountered a very unbelievable scene; two zombies that were basically walking skeletons covered in grey desiccated flesh were running amok, destroying property and attacking people as they tried to flee for their lives. The zombies both appeared to be male and were wearing tattered outfits that hadn't been in style since the early 1970s. Their eye sockets burned with some sort of green spectral light. Just as Bolt and Christine had arrived, one of the zombies picked up a blue SUV and threw it through the large storefront window of one of the surrounding buildings.

"Okay, I am totally out of my element here." Bolt declared. "I have no clue how the hell we're supposed to stop these things."

"At least they don't seem to be biting anyone and turning them into more zombies like in the movies." Christine pointed out.

Just as one of the zombies threw a hapless victim through the storefront window that the other zombie had broken, the rest of the gang finally arrived on the scene. Ross, Quinton and Skins all seemed to be at a total loss as to how to resolve the situation just as Bolt was.

"Wow! Quinton, I totally thought you were yanking our chain when you told us that zombies were attacking the city." Ross admitted.

"I haven't the slightest idea about how we can take out these zombies." Quinton spoke as he rubbed the back of his head.

"I'll handle this." Lorain declared as she suddenly stepped forward. "Hey! Deadheads! Why don't you come and get a piece of me?"

"Lorain, what the hell?" a shocked Bolt exclaimed.

Both zombies seemed to hear Lorain and stopped what they were doing. In seconds, the living corpses started to advance on her.

A cold and determined expression was on Lorain's face as she pulled out a pokeball. "Go Volcarona!"

Flying out of Lorain's pokeball was a large plump insect that appeared to be moth that was over five feet long. It had six leaf-like wings that were orange and speckled with tiny black spots. Its torso was covered in smoky white fuzz and had four tiny stubby legs. The moth's abdomen was bluish-white with black spots and a thick strip of black in the middle. Its black head, which had a pair of blue compound eyes, was framed by a pair of red horns that made the head look almost like an Egyptian sun disk.

"Attack those zombies with Fiery Dance!" Lorain commanded. "Burn them both to a crisp!"

Volcorona began to flap its wings and its eyes started to glow blue as it gracefully flitted around in the air. Suddenly the fire moth's entire body became covered in crimson flames. With a flap of its wings, Volcarona sent forth a massive firestorm that consumed both the zombies. The flames burned for several moments and Bolt and the others waited with baited breath to see if the zombies would emerge and try to strangle Lorain. When the fire finally died away though, both of the zombies had been reduced to piles of bone and ash. Lorain called Volcarona back to its ball and silently walked back to the others.

"You okay kid?" Ross asked. "You seem kinda ticked."

"I'm fine." Lorain flatly told them. "Just not in the right mood to deal with this crap right now."

"Looks like cremating those zombies turned out to be the right move." Quinton observed. "Nice job, Lorain."

"Excuse me." A familiar voice spoke. Bolt and the others turned to see the green-haired policewoman known as Officer Jenny. "I've noticed you people showing up at most of the sites for these weird incidents, and I think there's something that you might be interested to hear."

With that, Officer Jenny stepped aside. Walking out from behind her was a man who appeared to be in his early fifties. He was bald and only slightly overweight, and had on a blue t-shirt with a pair of faded jeans.

"Um… my name's Jerry Thompson, and I'm the one who rose those zombies from the dead." The man hesitantly revealed.

"Why don't you tell us exactly what happened." Quinton requested.

"Well… I was visiting the graves of my favorite folk rock duo, Sampson and Goldstein." Jerry began.

"Wait, as in the folk rock duo from the seventies that died in that plane crash?" Ross recalled. "My mom has like all their albums I think."

"Yeah, well… it was Sampson and Goldstein's request to be buried in this town when they finally passed on." Jerry continued. "It was at the Stardust Falls Rock Festival where they really got their big break, you see. Anyway, I was just standing in front of their graves and thinking how great it would be if they could still perform today. Without realizing, I wished that they could both come back to life. Then this weird talking Pokemon popped out behind one of the headstones and said that it would grant my wish. The next thing I knew… the corpses of Sampson and Goldstein had burst up from the ground and started trashing everything!"

"Looks like Jirachi struck again." Bolt realized.

"Jirachi?" Officer Jenny repeated with a raised eyebrow. "I thought that Pokemon was just a myth."

"It's no myth, Officer Jenny." Quinton told her. "This particular Jirachi has been responsible for all the strange incidents that have been happening all over town during this past week."

"And the thing's a psycho." Skins added.

"This is the worst thing to ever happen!" Jerry cried out as he fell to his knees. "Now because of me… the bodies of Sampson and Goldstein are… are… they're kindling!"

"Okay, nobody tell my mom about this part of our trip!" Ross told the others as Jerry began to sob. "She'd be just as devastated as this guy here. Hell, she'd probably disown me if she found out I had a hand in barbecuing those corpses."

Bolt dismounted Raikou with Christine and went over to Jerry. "Okay, Jerry? I just need you to stay with me here for a second. What happened to the Pokemon that raised those two corpses?"

Jerry managed to compose himself. "I don't know. It flew away right after it granted that stupid wish of mine."

"Then I guess we came all the way here for nothing." A familiar voice interrupted. Bolt and the others looked and saw Cassidy standing a few feet away with Butch.

"It's Cassidy from Team Rocket!" Ross identified. "And her partner, what's-his-name."

"Dutch, I think." Quinton recalled.

"It's Butch!" Cassidy's green-haired partner protested.

"What the hell are you losers doing back after all this time?" Bolt asked.

"We came here to snag Jirachi." Cassidy explained. "But since it seems we missed out, we'll just have to settle for some good old fashion revenge."

"Those uniforms you have on… I thought you two were kicked out of Team Rocket that time when we visited Professor Oak's!" Lorain recalled.

"Hell, I didn't even think there was still a Team Rocket after your boss got arrested in Lilycove City." Bolt assumed.

"You know Bolt, you never really told us how Boss Rocket was even captured back then." Quinton recalled. "Just what happened exactly?"

"Not now, man." Bolt told him.

"There are now many different factions of Team Rocket now." Cassidy revealed. "But ours will bring Team Rocket back to what it once was!"

"And I'm guessing that you two are the ones who're gonna lead this new Team Rocket." Ross assumed.

"Actually, no." Butch revealed. "Cassidy and I may have been top agents, but we know we don't really have what it takes to lead a major organization."

"Which is why we've gotten someone much more qualified for the job." Cassidy added.

"So just who is this new boss of yours?" Bolt asked.

"Hello Hanson." A familiar voice cut in as an answer to Bolt's question. Bolt turned his head and saw Richter standing nearby. "I never thought I'd have to deal with trash like you again."

Christine went totally pale upon seeing that Richter was alive. Meanwhile, Bolt stormed over to where Richter was standing and punched him in the face. The punch knocked Richter back a few steps but he managed to remain standing.

"Well… guess you're just as happy to see me too." Richter remarked as he wiped the blood from his lip.

"I'm gonna kill you, you bastard!" Bolt declared. "I know how you've been knocking around Christine! And I know how you blackmailed her into coming back to you ten years ago!"

"How I handle Christine is none of your business." Richter coldly told him. "She belongs to me, and nothing is going to change that. But since you're too thick to get that simple fact, I'm just going to have to put an end to you!" With that, Richter pulled out a pokeball. "Go Torterra!"

Bursting out of Richter's ball thrown was a very large tortoise that was green and dirt-brown in color. Each side of its head was a large white spike. Three similar spikes grew from the right side of its moss-covered shell at an upward angle, and growing from the right side of the shell was a large bonsai tree.

"Raikou! Get in there and use Extrasensory on Torterra!" Bolt commanded.

"Attack with Bulldoze!" Richter ordered.

Raikou roared and charged towards Torterra. As the tiger of thunder moved in, Torterra stomped the ground and sent a wave of spiked earth towards his opponent. Raikou easily jumped to the side to avoid the attack and fired a beam of gold light from the crest on its forehead when it got in range. Raikou's attack hit Torterra in the face but didn't seem to do much damage.

"Richter's Torterra is just as strong as ever." Quinton observed. "And with Bolt in his current frame of mind, he may not be able to beat Richter."

"Then we better help him out." Ross decided.

"I don't think so." Cassidy interrupted as she pulled out a pokeball. "You've all got problems of your own. Go Mandibuzz!"

Flying out of Cassidy's thrown ball was a vulture-like Pokemon with a body covered in mostly in black and grey feathers. It had an almost featherless pink head with a single tuft of black feathers growing on the top with a bone tied into it for decoration. The bird also had black markings that looked like eyeliner around its eyes, and around the base of its neck was thick ring of rough light-brown feathers. Decorating the bird's lower half was a large bone that looked like some kind of jawbone with sharp fangs.

"Don't forget about me!" Butch cut in. "Go Shiftry!"

Bursting out of Butch's pokeball was a brown bipedal creature with yellow eyes, pointed ears, and a long pointed nose. Much of its face was covered in long white fur that trailed down its back. Its hands were a pair of fans made up of three green and brown leaves, and its feet resembled a pair of Japanese tengu-geta shoes.

Skins pulled out a pokeball in response. "Go Aerodactyl!"

The drummer's stone wyvern flew out of its pokeball with a roar.

"Go Chrome!" Quinton called with the throw of his own ball.

Quinton's silver Metagross burst out of its ball with a sparkling flash.

"We don't have time to deal with you losers!" Quinton declared. "Chrome, take down Mandibuzz with Thunder Punch!"

"Use Sky Drop of Shiftry!" Skins commanded.

"Attack with Dark Pulse!" Butch and Cassidy commanded together.

The stones in Skins and Quinton's Mega Rings suddenly began to glow, and in seconds their two Pokemon began to glow and change shape. Aerodactyl and Chrome finished their transformations as multicolored lights resembling DNA strands glowed momentarily above their heads and they began to fly full speed towards their opponents. Mandibuzz and Shiftry opened their mouths and fired a barrage of black energy rings at Chrome and Aerodactyl respectively. Aerodactyl and Chrome plowed through the attacks, with Aerodactyl grabbing Shiftry and flying up into the air. After doing a midair flip, the prehistoric wyvern flung Shiftry back down into the ground with enough force to make a crater. Meanwhile as Chrome got in range of Mandibuzz, the golden claws on its upper right arm began to crackle with yellow electricity. The spaceship Pokemon slammed its electrified claws into Mandibuzz, knocking her to the ground.

"This isn't going to end well for you!" Quinton declared. "Now step aside so we can help Bolt!"

Cassidy smirked. "I think you should take a look at what's going on."

"Uh, guys?" Lorain spoke. "I think we've got a new set of problems."

Quinton, Skins and Ross looked and saw that they had been completely surrounded by a gang of twelve men and eight women wearing Team Rocket uniforms. Bolt paused his battle with Richter when he soon noticed the small army as well.

"Hey boss!" a male voice called. Everyone looked to see one of the male Team Rocket agents holding an unconscious Christine. "This is the girl you wanted us to nab, right?"

"It is. You've done well, whoever you are." Richter praised. "I'll see that you get rewarded when we get back to our base."

"Let go of Christine now!" Bolt ordered.

"I think we're done here." Richter decided. "Cassidy!"

"Koffing Squad! Give us some cover!" Cassidy ordered.

All of the other Team Rocket agents except for the one holding Christing threw out a pokeball. Bursting out of each one was a floating purplish-grey ball with a face. Each one had an off-white symbol resembling the skull and crossbones.

"Use Explosion!" the Team Rocket agents commanded.

On cue, all of the floating gas balls glowed white and exploded, covering the entire area with thick black smoke. When the smoke finally cleared, Richter and his gang were gone, as was Christine.

Bolt cried out and slammed his fist into a nearby lamppost. "Dammit!"

"Dude. Calm down." Skins told Bolt.

"I can't calm down! That son of a bitch has Christine!" Bolt exclaimed.

"It's okay Bolt. Earlier I planted a tracking device on Christine's jacket." Quinton revealed. "We should easily be able to locate where she's being held."

"Dude! Why'd you put a tracker on Christine?" Ross asked with a raised eyebrow. "It's kinda creepy."

"Well, Richter's remains were never identified among the bodies found at the Wyler villa, so I thought there was a chance that he might still be alive and that he might try and take Christine." Quinton explained. "It's a little thing called justifiable paranoia. I'm only sorry that I was right."

"So what you're saying is that we can just head over to Richter's hideout and take back Christine." Bolt realized. "Fine! Let's get the hell over there!"

"Hold on! This Richter has probably taken Christine to wherever Team Rocket's base is." Officer Jenny pointed out. "Let me get a team together and come with you. It'll take a few hours, but it's better if you have backup."

"She's right, Bolt." Lorain told him. "And you need to take a few minutes to calm down. This is Richter you're up against, for crying out loud! You can't take him down by just charging in."

Bolt took a deep breath. "Okay… we'll fall back for now. But I want us to get to Richter's base as soon as we can."

As Bolt and the others left to prepare for the raid against Team Rocket, they were totally unaware that Jirachi had been watching everything from a nearby alley. The little Pokemon flew off to follow Bolt and the gang in secret.


Please review and let me know what you think.