Pokémon Type: Ice
Shipping: BikerBoyShipping

One-Shot 8: Pedal to the Rescue

Ash and his friends found themselves nearing Sunnytown, familiar faces hoping to come across. They found the bridge, now accepting vehicles from motorcycles to big rigs. However, the bridge had no traffic. "About time the bridge is up," Ash noted.

"It finished construction while we were in Johto," Brock informed. "Last time, only the bike path was open."

"Cool, so now we can get a ride and cross to Sunnytown, right?" questioned Max.

"We could or we can rent bikes like last time." Before they could head across, someone saw the group.

"Awesome Ash!" yelled out a young man. All turned to a few bikers, Ash recognizing the leader. He was the redhead with his hair standing up and held by a headband.

"Chopper!" he identified. "It's been a while."

"The feeling's mutual, but we've got a crisis on hand. Tyra's been kidnapped by those Rocket goons." Ash and Brock gasped. May and Max could join but hearing who the culprits were, they didn't seem too concern.

"You'd think Team Rocket couldn't get any lower," May mulled. Out of nowhere, Jessie came by.

"Well, it wouldn't be this low if that was us," she murmured. "Now would it?" May and Max gawked to the brazen Rocket woman's sudden appearance. James and Meowth also showed up.

"Okay, aren't you usually waiting to spring a trap for Pikachu somewhere ahead?" pondered Max.

"When our old gang's in trouble, we help each other!" roared James. "This is no time for Team Rocket shenanigans when someone's life's on the line!" Chopper came forward with more news.

"It gets worse from here," he reported. "Those Rockets captured our Pokémon and had them pummel us every time we fell." The Rockets who stood by the kids pondered to the identities of the Rockets who had a fellow member of the Bridge Bike Gang. Ash didn't feel like waiting to reveal the names.

"So let's get over there and rescue Tyra!" he demanded. Jessie wasn't as motivated to help a former member.

"Hold on, twerp!" she denied. "You'll need this!" Stepping aside, Team Rocket offered Ash and his friends bikes. Each black bicycle had the emblem of Team Rocket: the red "R" under the handlebars. Immediately, red flags flapped in their heads.

"Wait a minute..." halted Brock. "How do we know these aren't traps?" Exposed, James tried to ease the tension.

"It's like we need new material to fool you, twerps!" he gulped before bringing out a remote. He hit a button which metal wrist from the handlebars and ankle straps on the pedals shot out and connected. As if that wasn't enough, the bike fell to pieces, the handlebars and pedals still linked. Ash and his friends gawked to the trap.

"That's scary," Max gulped. Ash dreaded the thought of something like Team Rocket's bike but a life was on the line.

"Let me borrow one," Ash demanded. "I know what to do." His friends were in dismay.

"But Ash!" pleaded May. "They could use that trap to..."

"I know what they can do to me, but if Tyra doesn't come out, it's on Team Rocket's hands." Jessie, James and Meowth jumped, a game plan unraveled.

"Okay!" snarled Meowth. "Go and get her, you twerp!" Grabbing another bike and Pikachu joining, Ash pedaled onto the bridge in hopes to save a friend. After some biking, he found Tyra, several Pokémon and two Rockets he wasn't prepared for.

"Cassidy… and Butch!" Named, Butch turned to his partner while Ash saw that Tyra's arms and legs were tied and had a cloth wrapped around her head and over her mouth.

"See?!" he snapped. "Even the twerp can say my name right!" Cassidy pouted to the bickering.

"What else, he calls Doctor Panba something he likes to hear?" she nagged. That's when her cellphone rang. She answered. "This is Cassidy!" On the other end…

"It's Namba!" the doctor snapped. His yell made Cassidy shoot her arm away. She disconnected and put her cellphone away.

"Anyway, if you're looking to save this punk, you're asking for trouble."

"And this bridge will branch Team Rocket so make it double," Butch continued.

"To infect the world with devastation..."

"To blight all people within every nation…

"To denounce the goodness of truth and love..."

"To extend our wrath to the stars above..."

"Team Rocket circles the globe everyday and night..." Butch blinked at the motto having missed a couple of lines.

"Uh, Cassidy? We missed calling out our names."

"Why bother? He already knows who we are. Like you said, he knows how to say your name."

"Mainly because you don't!" Ash could wait for the two to stop their argument but he decided now to strike.

"Donphan, Rollout!" Ash threw his Pokéball and released his Armor Pokémon. Donphan curled itself into a wheel and slammed into the group. Both fell and reeled from the sneaky strike. Tyra gawked at the strike. Cassidy stood, rather miffed to the sneak attack.

"How dare you do that!" she bellowed.

"Oh, Team Rocket does that on a daily basis but when it happens to you, it's not right?" Pikachu growled lowly to their hypocrisy.

"I'll show you! Sableye, let's go!" Cassidy released Sableye to fight Ash.

"Mightyena, you're up!" summoned Butch. Mightyena came out to fight as well. Ash huffed a groan, seeing this from Team Rocket.

"That's not a surprise," he muttered before grabbing another Pokéball. "Sceptile, I choose you!" Ash's Pokéball opening, his Forest Pokémon looked ready for action with Donphan. Butch had the first move.

"Mightyena, use Hyper Beam!" Ash was quick to counter.

"Donphan, you use Hyper Beam!" Both Mightyena and Donphan fired Hyper Beam attacks, inciting a struggle of identical attacks. Both attacks exploded in the center, no side having an advantage.

"Hop to it, Sableye!" ordered Cassidy. "Use Focus Punch!" Sableye raced after Sceptile but Ash nodded to the oncoming attack.

"Sceptile, Leaf Blade!" Sceptile's leaves on its arms began to glow. Sableye came close but Sceptile struck home a powerful Leaf Blade. The counterattack propelled Sableye to Mightyena who it and Butch didn't see coming.

"Mightyena, go for a Bite attack!" he commanded. Mightyena began to chase Donphan but Sableye's hit nailed Mightyena on the side. Both of the Rocket's Pokémon sprawled on the concrete. Thinking Sableye interfered, Butch's anger focused on Cassidy. "Hey, learn to control your Pokémon! Okay?"

"Hey, it's not my fault you can't battle if your life depended on it!" shouted Cassidy. Noting their distraction toward each other, Ash took drastic action.

"Pikachu, use Quick Attack and then Iron Tail to free Tyra!" he ordered.

("You got it!") squeaked Pikachu. The Electric Mouse Pokémon darted passed Sableye and Mightyena before making a U-Turn and slashing his Iron Tail attack on the bindings. Freed, Tyra got up and removed the cloth from her mouth.

"Thanks!" she praised. She stood and scooped Pikachu before running back to Ash. "First, a sick Pokémon and now me? What can't Awesome Ash do?" Seeing their hostage freed, Cassidy and Butch refocused on their mission.

"Lovely ploy, twerp!" scorned Cassidy.

"Not my fault you guys weren't paying attention," Ash shrugged. "Now, charge up Solar Beam, Sceptile!" The bulbs on Sceptile began to glow from absorbing sunlight. Tyra wanted to pitch in.

"Cloyster, let's go!" she summoned. Her Pokéball opened to reveal her Bivalve Pokémon. "I've got a move even you'll see is cool." Ash nodded, ready to dish the pain to a now panicked Team Rocket. "Cloyster, Ice Beam!" Cloyster fired a ray of frost. Struck, Team Rocket and the Pokémon froze.

"This just keeps getting worse and worse, Chastity," Butch renamed. Hearing her name mispronounced, Cassidy turned her head as much as her frozen body could.

"That's Cassidy!" she snapped back… before understanding Butch's struggles. "Okay, okay… I'll stop butchering your name… Happy?"

"Now we got to straighten the doctor's name." Ash could care less about names when he's ready to finish the job.

"Donphan, Hyper Beam!" he instructed. "Sceptile, Solar Beam! And Pikachu, Volt Tackle!"

"One more Ice Beam, Cloyster!" ordered Tyra. Pikachu ran as fast as he could, collecting electricity. Donphan fired another Hyper Beam, Cloyster shot another Ice Beam and Sceptile let out a blast of solar energy, all tailing Pikachu and its Volt Tackle. Cassidy and Butch screamed for Pikachu to stop but not happening, Pikachu and the other attacks smashed into the ice cube. The explosion launched Team Rocket into the sky.

"Jessie and James have it easy, those attacks hurt!" whined Cassidy. "That twerp is ruthless!"

"Well, I bet those dimwits helped bottle that anger he threw at us," Butch murmured. "I've never been handed that kind of beating in sometime."

"Hey, at least we can't be in jail and Giovanni can get us back on our feet once our injuries heal." Now they flew to the horizon, gone from the bridge.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!" they shouted as they disappeared. Ash's and Tyra's friends, including the other Team Rocket, arrived at the scene as the two exchanged fives.

"Ash!" shouted the siblings.

"Tyra!" yelled Chopper.

"Twerp!" bellowed Team Rocket. The rest of the Bridge Bike Gang also joined and made sure Tyra wasn't harmed.

"You okay, Tyra?" asked Jessie.

"Thanks to Awesome Ash, I am, Big Jess," Tyra replied as she wrapped her arm around Ash. James decided to ask who the culprits were.

"So, was it Cassidy and Biff?" he questioned.

"Oh yeah!" confirmed Ash. "Probably working away from Doctor Namba." As if on cue, Cassidy's cellphone rang. She lost it from the explosion. He answered the phone, expecting it to be the doctor himself. "I am pronouncing your name right, Namba… or are you calling for spite."

"I respect you saying my name correctly," Namba called. "But don't think Team Rocket will rest until we poach each rare and valuable Pokémon."

"Then don't expect us to sleep until everyone of you is kaput." He disconnected before chucking the cellphone off the bridge. Seeing the bike in pristine condition, Jessie took the ride back, its use complete.

"So today, we'll leave you to recover," Jessie allowed as she and James rode off, leaving Ash with his friends and the gang.

"At least we don't have to deal with any of their traps," Brock pointed out. Chopper came forward and since he got to know May and Max traveling with Ash, had names for the siblings.

"So, since you two have Awesome Ash by you," he started. "I should give you names as well, like Marvel May and The Max Power." May and Max awed the names from the gang's leader.

"Marvel May..." she repeated. "I see it now." Max seemed happy enough to know of Ash's friendship with this gang.

"It's an honor, Chopper," he applauded with a handshake. Chopper had one more piece of gang business on hand.

"Now Awesome Ash…" he called out. "It's… rare to say this but there's a guideline in regards of saving one of my gangsters. Since I see Tyra over your shoulder, it seems she's fancied you. In a sense, as leader of the Bridge Bike Gang, I'll oversee this as a marriage." Ash, Brock and the siblings gawked hard to the sudden announcement.

"Marriage?" repeated Brock.

"But Ash is too young to be married, let alone to her!" protested May. Tyra snickered to May's upset.

"I don't mind," she brushed off. "Anyone brave enough to save me in a time of crisis like here, and show no fear… I'd like him as a future boyfriend, maybe husband if it goes far enough." Despite whimpers to drop the idea from May and Brock, Chopper placed his hands on both shoulders as Pikachu watched from on top of Cloyster's shell.

"Then it is my honor to declare Awesome Ash and Tyra as Bridge Bike Gang's husband and wife," he judged. "If you may kiss the bride." Tyra removed the cap, knelt and kissed Ash on the lips. The gang hooted and cheered loudly to congratulate the two. Max seemed indifferent to the occasion.

"Now that's a bridge too far," he muttered. While Ash may be away after today from his declared "wife," was it a prediction into the future that Ash and Tyra are an official couple? They'll need to cross that bridge.

END of ICE
Next Type: Grass
(Final deadline to vote: Sunday.)