HEY.
quick chappy here, because I have bad news.
I'm going on vacation for two weeks, and there is no internet for miles around. So no updates for two weeks. (Sorry, everyone! Especially you, digiboi...oh jeez...)
I don't own pokemon, but this chappy's a doozie for me. (Doozie?)
The next afternoon, Ash rushed to the Mossdeep gym once again. Spotting Tate just inside, he quickly went through and came up to him.
"Ah, it's you again…" Tate paused. "You never did tell me your name."
"Ash. Ash Ketchum. And is it safe to assume that your sister got back yesterday?"
"Yes, I did." And a young woman that looked almost exactly like Tate came toward them. "I'm Liza."
"I told Liza about you situation, and—"
"—we'll be glad to help you," Liza finished. "Now, where—"
"—do you want to go?"
"Petalburg City, please. I don't care where you drop me. It can be in a dumpster for all I care. I just need to get there," Ash replied.
Tate and Liza shared a long look before saying, "Okay, then," in unison. Liza took out a pokéball and let out Alakazam.
"Just take Alakazam's hand, and then stay very still," Tate ordered. He looked to Alakazam. "We'd like you to Teleport Ash to Petalburg City, please." He looked to Ash. "If you want to come back here, just give us a call, okay?"
"Ala." Alakazam held out his hand.
Ash hesitantly held it and tried his best to stay still.
"Goodbye, Ash. Come back and visit sometime, okay?" The twins said together.
And after that, Ash saw a flash of white, and suddenly he dropped—quite literally—in front of the Petalburg Gym. Groaning but getting up, Ash then heard a loud boom in the distance.
Raising his eyebrows, Ash began to run to the sound.
He must have run for a mile before he saw a lot of smoke, and heard a scream of, "Give me back my pokémon!"
And there was another boom and a scream in pain.
Ash poured on the speed and finally made it up to where there was an all-too-familiar hot air balloon floating a few feet up in the air. Both Jessie and James had a grenade in one of their hands, and Ash could spot a half a dozen small craters from where the grenades hit.
He ran over to the person who was screaming. She was covered in blood and unconscious. He could spot just a few other people who were also injured.
"Pikachu, use Thunderbolt on that Sealeo!" Jessie called out, and Ash heard Pikachu discharge energy. "Thank you for kindly donating your pokémon to Team Rocket," Jessie said in a singsong voice.
The hot air balloon was getting quite ahead of Ash, and his lungs were burning so hard he thought they were going to burst. But he just kept on running…
"I thought I told you crooks never to come back!" boomed a voice.
Ash knew that voice.
"Slaking, I choose you!" said the voice, apparently letting out a pokémon.
Ash finally skidded to a stop about twenty feet away from where Team Rocket was floating, which was about ten feet away from Norman, the Petalburg Gym Leader, the father of May and Max.
"Seviper, Dustox, help me out!"
"Cacnea, come on out!" Team Rocket threw the pokéballs on the ground, right in front of Slaking.
"Slaking, use Focus Punch on Seviper!" yelled Norman.
"Seviper, dodge. Dustox, Pysbeam!"
"Pin Missile, Cacnea!"
Seviper narrowly dodged Slaking's attack, making the lazy pokémon pummel the ground with his Focus Punch attack. That opened him up for a direct hit from both Dustox and Cacnea. Slaking was a little hurt from the attacks, but being such a powerful pokémon, he had a great advantage over the weak pokémon of Team Rocket. Unless…
"Seviper, Poison Tail! Dustox, Tackle!"
"Cacnea, Needle Arm! And Pikachu… Use Thunder!"
Ash heard a slight, "Huh?" from Norman, who was obviously wondering where Team Rocket got a Pikachu.
That one moment of surprise let in all the attacks from Team Rocket, making Slaking faint.
Norman growled deeply. "You're going to pay for all those people you hurt, and all those pokémon you stole!"
Jessie laughed. "I don't think so. How can you stop us if you don't have any pokémon?"
Norman clenched his fist. He apparently hadn't expected Team Rocket coming, and hadn't had any other pokémon on him. But luckily, Ash did.
"Torkoal, I choose you!" Ash threw his own pokéball, going unnoticed by the others. "Use Overheat on Team Rocket's pokémon!" And by saying 'Team Rocket's pokémon', Torkoal knew Ash meant everyone except for Pikachu.
"Koal…" Torkoal charged up energy, and then let it all out in a fiery streak that was so hot it put hell to shame.
All three of Team Rocket's pokémon got hit head on, and, since they didn't even expect an attack, fainted.
A glaring Jessie and James turned to stare at Ash.
"You again!" they screamed in unison.
"Ash?" Norman asked, confused.
"How'd you get here so fast, twerp?" Jessie asked.
"And don't you have better things to do that follow us around! You lost, get over it!" James added. "You should know by now that we're not afraid to hurt you." He pulled the pin out of the grenade in his hand. "Bye, bye, twerp." He tossed it down.
Ash watched the egg-sized bomb fall toward him, and it seemed like everything was going in slow motion. He quickly returned Torkoal to his pokéball and leapt as far as he could. He couldn't even land before the grenade blew up and threw him several feet.
Ash tried his best to push himself up, but it just wasn't enough. He fell back down to the ground in pain.
"Ash, watch out!" Normal yelled.
Ash knew what was coming, and tried once again to get up. Nothing…
BOOM!
The grenade narrowly missed, and Ash got thrown several more feet. He felt like his body was on fire, like his body was in so much pain, it wasn't real…
"Crap! That was our last grenade!" It sounded like Jessie was screaming in his ear. "Let's take the pokémon and go, James!"
"Got it!"
"You two aren't getting away!" Norman exclaimed loudly.
"It's not like you can stop us, Norman!" Meowth proclaimed.
That was that last thing Ash heard. He prayed for unconsciousness. The pain was just too much for him. There was something unbelievably hot in his mouth. It tasted so bad… Coughing the hot liquid up, Ash prayed again. Prayed again for the darkness…
His wish was granted, and Ash could hear someone yelling right before the darkness enveloped him.
"It's a commercial," Brock stated disappointedly, grabbing the remote. "I hate that, they always have commercials that last, like, ten minutes!"
May smiled. This was the life. Her, Drew, Misty, Brock, and Max were all watching a movie. A movie with action and adventure, romance and angst. It fit everyone's style. The only problem being, the commercials were so long. And if only Ash was there too…
Brock sighed and began to flip around.
May sat back and watched the channels as Brock flipped, seeing some pictures from one TV show to the next, nothing really catching her eye until…
"Brock! Stop!" she said, and Brock froze in mid-flip, pausing on a channel that was showing the news.
The news reporter came on the screen, not looking so good. "I'm Jenny Getsitall and we're here in Petalburg City. Just a few minutes ago, this little town was hit with a fierce attack. Apparently, two people came into town and began to steal pokémon—just like that! And when people began to object, the culprits unleashed at least a dozen grenades from what we can tell! One killed, twelve injured. The culprits made off with several pokémon as well." Jenny paused, pulling a strand of pure red hair from her face. "When we come back, we are going to talk to Norman, the Gym Leader here, and the only person who went at these people and didn't get hurt!"
And the commercials commenced.
May just sat there, her mouth wide open.
"May! You don't think those guys got Mommy, do you?" Max asked fearfully. "Or…or…" He began to breathe heavily.
"I—I don't know Max… I…I…guess we have to wait and see what they say."
"Don't worry, you guys…," Brock tried to assure them, but inside, he was white with worry, and he knew all the others were too.
"We're back with Norman!" And Jenny's face filled the screen again, but this time, she was accompanied by the familiar face of Norman. "Tell us, Norman, what exactly happened?"
"Well, I was just out training my Slaking, when I heard screaming, and a loud explosion. So naturally, I fled toward the scene. By the time I got there, I could see that several people were injured. Most unconscious, some still trying to get their pokémon back. I eventually caught up and confronted…them…" Norman bowed his head and sighed sadly. "I only had Slaking with me. They had four pokémon, and one was very powerful. They beat my Slaking."
Jenny leaned in closer. "If they beat your Slaking, then how come you got away so easily? Why didn't they just throw grenades at you?"
Norman sighed sadly again. "A…young man…came, and out of the blue, he attacked their pokémon with his own and fainted three of them. They threw their last two grenades at him, before fleeing the scene, dozens of pokémon in tow. Including my Slaking."
"And what happened to this young man? Is he alright?"
"He… I don't know, exactly. He's in pretty bad shape. Found him coughing up a ton of blood. And since our little hospital here is overwhelmed with the other ten or so people who got injured, my wife and I are taking care of him."
Jenny Getsitall looked straight at the camera. "That's touching, everyone. For the young man who saved Norman's life; now Norman strives to save his. I'm Jenny Getsitall, and I'm the one with number one news on the Petalburg Disaster. Signing off."
Tears were streaming down May's face now. "We've got to go back to Petalburg!" she cried.
"I can get us a helicopter," Misty said seriously. "I'll call now."
"Thank you, Misty," May sobbed, not even noticing as Drew held her close.
Caroline hugged Norman tight. "You don't think the kids were with Ash too, do you, dear? What if they're hurt? Out there all alone… In pain…"
"I—I don't think they are…"
"You don't know that! My babies……… What if they got—got ki—"
"Caroline, don't say that! I bet they're just fine…"
Caroline cried hard into Norman's chest. "I can't imagine life without them, Norman. Even if they are gone all the time."
Norman rested his chin on the top of her head and rubbed her back soothingly. "I know. I feel the same way. Maybe if Ash wakes up… He can tell us what happened."
Caroline pulled away from him and frowned. "About him…"
"What? What's wrong with him?"
"Well, he's terribly injured from today, but… There are older cuts that were all over his chest that looked pretty bad. He has a few burns, some new, some old. He also has this huge, nasty-looking scar down his left leg. Also recent. Norman, he's been hurt pretty bad before this." Caroline shuddered.
Norman's mouth fell open in worry. "Let me see him…"
Caroline nodded and led him into the living room, where Ash lay, covered in blankets and a wet washcloth on his forehead. He was still unconscious.
"I haven't gotten to bandage him yet, so if you could do that, it'd be a real help," Caroline said softly, still feeling shaken by seeing a young man so bloody. "I just can't stand…the sight of…the sight of…" Her sentence trailed off as her eyes watered.
Norman shot her an 'it's-okay' look. He pulled up the upper part of Ash's blanket.
"Oh, God." The words slipped from his mouth as he gazed upon the young man's chest. "Caroline, please, something to clean these cuts, some burn cream, and maybe some pain killers for when he wakes up."
Caroline nodded and quickly left the room.
Norman scratched the back of his head. "God, Ash, God." He was silent for a moment, just waiting for his wife to return, when he noticed something. Where's Pikachu! Ash will be devastated if… Wait. Team Rocket had a Pikachu… No, it couldn't be… pokémon don't just turn on their trainers like that. Especially not Ash's Pikachu…
Norman took the supplies from Caroline and began his work, pulling himself out of his thoughtfulness and telling himself that he needed to focus on bandaging up Ash's injuries.
Taking the wet towel, Norman first cleaned off all the blood on Ash's face. Maybe then he could recognize the kid underneath it all.
It took quite a while to just clean the excess blood off of Ash, and Norman was worried that he lost too much blood. But since Ash's breathing was regular, and he looked a little better, Norman thought that he didn't have to rush Ash to the emergency room just yet. Besides, every room in the small hospital down the street was an emergency room now.
Damn, this kid is amazingly good at enduring things, Norman thought wryly, beginning to bandage the teenager. It's a wonder he's not…dead…
"Here, honey," Caroline said, holding out some clean clothes. "I found these in Ash's backpack. They didn't look like they were destroyed too much…" And she held up some pokéballs. "And here are his pokémon."
Norman nodded his thanks and took the clothes and the pokéballs. He then looked once again at Ash. Hang in there, kid…
yay! Norman and Caroline are really fun to write for some strange reason... well, more in two weeks! I hope you guys survive!
-Kaisa