Chapter 14: Lost (Part 1)

Ok, picking up where last chapter left off…

Ash stood on the opposite side of the dining room from Cassidy. He knew his friends were at his side, and Cassidy had her partners. However, taking Cassidy down was Ash's sole focus now. If he was victorious, he'd assist his friends, then rescue Pikachu. He was slightly worried, though, as there were four Rockets to fight this time instead of the usual two. On top of that, Butch and Cassidy were far more ruthless than Jessie and James. Nonetheless, Ash kept his game face on as he rededicated himself to the task at hand.

Ash's Buizel stood his ground, glaring at Cassidy's Houndour, who was wearing a similar facial expression. Buizel would have an advantage as a water type over Houndour, who was part fire. Houndour didn't look easy to beat, however.

Taking a deep breath, Ash ordered the battle to resume.

"Buizel, hit Houndour with your water gun again!"

"Buizel!" The aquatic weasel Pokémon took a short breath before shooting a spray of water from his mouth towards Houndour.

Cassidy had been expecting this. "Houndour, counter it with fire spin!"

The water and fire attacks collided in mid-air, disappearing in the formation of steam. Still neither side had made progress.

It was now Cassidy's turn to take the offensive. "All right, Houndour, now use your flamethrower attack!"

"Hound-DOUR!" the dark/fire type cried, shooting out a stream of flames towards Buizel.

"Quick, Buizel, dodge it and hit with hydro pump!" Ash commanded.

Buizel did as he was told. Jumping out of the flaming attack's path just in time, Buizel fired a powerful jet of water at Houndour. It was a direct hit, but Houndour shook it off after a moment.

"Okay then. I see how it is, twerp. Houndour, shadow ball!"

Houndour opened her mouth, and dark energy formed into a ball. She then threw the ball of darkness at Buizel, who was knocked flat on his back from the force of the hit. He wasn't done yet as he got up.

"Buizel, are you okay?" Ash asked.

"Buizel, bui!" the creature nodded at Ash.

"All right then, use double slap!"

"Houndour, defend yourself!"

Buizel ran at Houndour, but just as he was about to use his tails to beat at Houndour, a shield of energy formed in front of Houndour, making Buizel's attacks useless.

Cassidy laughed. "Now, Houndour! Knock that weasel back with your take down!"

Houndour's shielding faded as she suddenly ran full speed into Buizel. Buizel was hurt, and it was plain to Ash. However, just when he seemed defeated, Buizel got up.

Buizel stared at his opponent, a worthy foe. He was huffing, and so was Houndour. It was clear that whoever landed the next blow would be the winner.

The final commands were given. Buizel put his all into the hydro pump attack shooting from his mouth. Similarly, Houndour was focused on nothing but getting her continuous fire blast attack to connect with Buizel.

The two attacks connected, and steam appeared as both attacks continued. The water was still evaporating as it extinguished the oncoming flames. Gradually, the fire began giving way. Buizel's streaming attack began pushing towards Houndour. A minute later, the water hit the tired Houndour with a sickening force. Houndour slid across the room, past Cassidy, into a wall. When the steam cleared, Buizel was hyperventilating, with sweat condensing on his forehead. Houndour, however, looked dazed and defeated.

Ash smiled. Cassidy glared at Ash as she recalled Houndour.

"You got lucky at this moment, twerp, but we shall have the upper hand!"

"I wouldn't count on that," Ash smirked.

He turned to Buizel. Ash was afraid the battle with Houndour would make him too weak to assist in any of the other battles in progress. He needed rest.

"You did great, Buizel," Ash commented as he returned Buizel in a red beam into his pokéball.

While this was going on, Brock and his Croagunk were deeply engaged in his conflict with Butch and his Mightyena. Although Croagunk was helped by the fact he was a partial fighting type up against a dark-type, he still had some difficulties. Mightyena was an elusive foe.

"Croagunk, use cross chop!" Brock ordered, wanting to exploit the enemy Pokémon's weakness.

Neither Butch nor Mightyena were caught off guard because of this.

"Crunch that oversized toad, Mightyena!" Butch shouted.

Croagunk launched one flat hand across the air towards Mightyena, missing by a few inches. Mightena then bit down hard on Croagunk's arm. Despite the pain he was feeling, Croagunk managed to bring his other hand crashing down upon Mightyena's skull. This had the effect of Mightena releasing his toothy grip.

"Grrr! This isn't over, kid! Mightyena, it's payback time!"

Mightyena, who just recovered from the beating, readied its payback ability and charged down Croagunk, striking with a forceful blow. Croagunk had just enough strength to continue, much to Brock's relief.

"Okay, Croagunk, hit him with your mud bomb attack!"

"Croagunk!" The poison/fighting type sprung into action, and it shot a ball of mud from its mouth. It might have been a crippling blow, had Butch not commanded Mightyena to endure the attack.

"Mightyena, let's finish this! Rock Smash now!" Butch cried.

Brock knew that if he was to prevail, he'd need to take a dramatic course of action.

"Croagunk! Counter it with your dynamic punch!"

The two opposing Pokémon both leaped into the air. In mid-flight, they landed their blows upon each other before falling down to the floor. They each stood momentarily before collapsing. Seeing as both were now fainted, neither Brock nor Butch could claim victory in this battle. As they recalled their respective gladiators, they stood alongside their friends.

Drew was locked in a heated battle with Jessie, who had a stern look on her face. To Drew, he didn't care to hear the reasoning behind it. All he knew was that there were four very annoying Rockets he and his friends had to eliminate. In front of him, his Roselia fought against an intimidating Seviper.

So far, Roselia had successfully paralyzed Seviper with his stun spore attack. Before that, though, Seviper had landed a lucky blow with its poison tail attack, and Roselia was only now beginning to feel the effects of the poison. Although Roselia was still able to land good blows on slow-moving Seviper, each attack came with its price in lost stamina. It would be over soon, as trainer and Pokémon were well aware of.

Before ordering an attack, Drew took a moment to look around. To his right, Max was battling James's Carnivine with his Mudkip, and although he seemed to be doing well, Mudkip was getting fatigued. To Drew's left, Ash and Brock were battling away in what was presumably the final moments of their own fights.

Drew now returned his attention and thoughts back to this battle of his own. Suddenly, an idea came to him that would be of benefit to himself and his friends (not so much Ash and Brock, who were dealing the final blows in their own battles).

"Roselia, lemme see your aromatherapy!"

"Rose!" The grass-type released several multi-colored spores from his rose-shaped fists and took a deep breath. This resulted in Roselia recovering much of his health, as well as being cured of the poison. This seemed to give a boost to Mudkip one battlefield over.

"Thanks, Drew!" Max shouted without looking towards him.

"Don't mention it!" Drew said without taking his eyes off the battle in front of him.

"Seviper, try and bite that silly plant!" Jessie commanded.

Seviper moved as quickly as it could to sink its large red fangs into Roselia. Drew, trying to stifle a laugh at the paralyzed Pokémon's disability, gave one last command to conclude the battle.

"Roselia, use solarbeam at full power!"

"Rose!" Roselia cried before firing a bright beam of energy point-blank at Seviper, whose mouth was wide open and about to strike. Very nasty surprise to get a solarbeam in the mouth!

Max may have been the newest combatant of the eight trainers here, but he had seen Team Rocket trounced enough to know how it was done.

His starter, Mudkip, stood on the field, staring down his opponent. He was fully refreshed and ready for round two, thanks to Roselia's aromatherapy ability. Carnivine, however, looked excited to have another chance to humiliate Max.

"Carnivine, use your hidden power against that Mudkip!"

Max smiled. "Oh, no you don't! Mudkip, dodge it if you can, then give him a little ice beam!"

Carnivine produced several balls of energy around itself which, a moment later, fired in several directions. One ball flew through the air at Mudkip, but the mud fish Pokémon was successful at maneuvering around the attack as it deflected harmlessly off the floor. Taking in a deep breath, Mudkip then shot a ray of freezing energy at Carnivine, who was encased in a block of ice as a result.

Just as the bout seemed over, however, Carnivine glowed an eerie red in his ice casing, which shattered after shaking violently. Mudkip looked surprised. Max was too, but reasoned that Carnivine must have been holding a burned berry.

James chuckled before continuing. "Nice going, Carnivine! Now let's show the twerp and his little friend a sludge bomb attack!"

Carnivine shot a large purple goo ball from its large maw at the diminutive Mudkip. As it made contact, Mudkip flew through the air and hit the ground hard at Max's feet.

"Mudkip! Are you alright?"

"Mudkip, mud!"

"Glad to hear it, buddy. Let's try a mud slap!"

"Carnivine, hit it with your bullet seed attack!" James ordered. In a moment of reminiscence, James hoped this would be just as effective as it had been for the one twerp when he still had a Sceptile.

"Mudkip, watch out!" Max shouted as Mudkip ran towards Carnivine, dodging the small glowing projectiles and, placing a paw to his cheek to get it good and muddy, gave the Carnivine a good slap on the top of the head. Carnivine reeled from this blow.

"Excellent! Now ice him again!"

"Carnivine! Hyper beam!" James shouted in desperation.

The two energy beams collided in mid-air with a small explosion following. Something unusual had taken place, though. Both trainers were surprised by the scene that was revealed with the disappearance of the smoke cloud.

Mudkip stood its ground, seeming to be unharmed. Carnivine, however, was once again encased in a tomb of ice. It seemed that Mudkip's ice beam not only deflected the hyper beam, but had enough force to it to be able to freeze Carnivine a second time. James looked very enraged as he recalled his frozen Pokémon.

In that one instant, all four battles were concluded. All of the Rockets' Pokémon were either fainted or rendered unable to continue battling. The heroes, however, still had two Pokémon standing on their side of the floor. It appeared as though the Rockets' blast off was very imminent.

Jessie, James, and Meowth all cringed. Typically, this would be the part where the twerps, fresh from victory, would use Pikachu or one of their other partners to send them "blasting off again." Out the corner of her eye, Jessie thought she saw a smirk of some sort on Cassidy's lips.

Drew had had enough of the annoying villains. He stepped forward, frustration in his eyes.

"Okay, Roselia, use solar beam to send them sky high!" he cried.

"You help him, too, Mudkip! Use hydro pump!" Max joined in.

Just as their Pokémon were about to launch their final assault on the Rockets, Butch seemed to jump at them.

"Not so fast, twerps! We had a …ahem, backup plan in case things turned sour."

"Say wha-?" Meowth gawked. Jessie and James also shot incredulous looks at the green-haired Rocket.

"You may have won the battle, but we'll be the ones walking away with the ultimate prize this time, twerps!" Cassidy shouted. She withdrew from her pocket some kind of remote control and pushed a button on it.

A mechanical whirring sound was heard behind the heroes. Just as Ash, Brock, Drew, and Max turned around, they saw a few cannons shoot four durable rope nets. In seconds, they and the two Pokémon were ensnared. Their attempts to get out of the entanglement proved fruitless.

Cassidy pushed a second button on the remote she held. A large metal plate in the ceiling opened. Through the sunlight pouring in from it, Ash could see a helicopter lowering a hook. The hook snagged the four nets and began lifting them out of the room.

"Pikachu!" Ash shouted as loudly as he could at his shrinking friend.

"Pika pi! Pika pika!" Pikachu screamed so Ash could hear it before the nets disappeared through the ceiling. A second later, the metal plate closed with a loud clang.

Jessie, frowning, turned to face Cassidy.

"All right. Why didn't you tell us you had this planned?"

Cassidy let out a small laugh. "Typical Jessie, never having a follow-through plan. It's no wonder they always beat the pants off of you three!"

"Ever wonder why the boss holds such high regard for us and next to none for you three clowns?" Butch interjected.

James clenched his teeth and caught himself before he could make a snide remark.

"Just shut up and help us carry carry this Pikachu to the boss," he managed to say in as calm a voice as he could muster.

Meowth decided to help break the ice on a positive note.

"Hey, since we got Pikachu, dat means de boss will give us the attention we so badly desoive afta all dese years!"

"Thanks to us, of course." Cassidy said offhandedly.

"Oh, just can it, Cassidy. Nobody likes a gloater." Jessie retorted.

Cassidy gave Jessie an offended look but grabbed the cage Pikachu was in and carried it towards the doorways. The others followed.

Meowth sighed. I guess dere's no convincin' them ta woik together, he lamented to himself as he stepped through the doorway. He took one look back at where success and defeat had been mingled for everybody. Sighing again, he walked out of the restaurant and followed the others to where the boss's office building was. The same building the helicopter took the twerps to.

Nobody knew it yet, but this was the first battle in the clash that was coming to Viridian City. The first round of an epic war came to a close. It was only just the beginning.