Disclaimer: I do not, nor have I ever, owned anything related to Nintendo's Pokémon franchise.

Legend:

"A human or a Pokémon is talking."

'A human or a Pokémon is thinking.'

"A machine is being used."

Chapter 11:

(Kanto—Mt. Moon—Tunnel)

Ash suddenly had an idea. He quickly ordered Eevee to use Helping-Hand on Abra—ignoring Team Rocket's jeers—just before Abra reappeared.
Eevee's Helping-Hand consumed Abra as Abra's eyes began to glow a sickeningly blood-red color. It was only milliseconds later that Ekans' massive, open jaw erupted out from Koffing's smog, threatening to consume Abra whole.

Time seemed to slow down for Abra. He couldn't hear his Pokémon Trainer shouting for him to dodge nor the Helping-Hand that Eevee was sending him. All he could hear was the sound of his own heartbeat. All he could see was Ekan's massive, gaping maw rushing towards him.

"Ab Ab—" Abra shouted, closing his hand. "—RA!"

Ekans froze as, not a second later, its entire body was consumed with blood-red energy. He glared fearsomely at Abra as his mouth was forcefully shut, struggling to broke Abra's control over its body. He could have succeeded if not for Eevee's Helping Hand.

As soon as the Helping Hand hit Abra, the red glow around his eyes brightened significantly and his hold on Ekans' body became that much stronger. He had been struggling to control Ekans but now it only took a little bit of effort to do so.

Jessie was furious, "You little—! I'll make you pay for that."
Anabel frowned. Then, having sensed Koffing's emotions, she had Abra dodge. She was correct in doing so as Koffing emerged a few milliseconds after Abra had Teleported away. Koffing looked around in confusion before Eevee jumped out of the smog and attempt to intercept it

"Not so fast, little foxy." Meowth stated as he jumped out of the smog and used his right leg to kick Eevee back. Landing in a crouch, he then extended his claws. "Meowth is gonna play wit ya!"

Eevee crashed against the right wall of the tunnel, letting out a brief exclamation of pain. She barely got up in time to see Meowth running towards her, his eyes shining eerily in the dark.

"Tackle!"

Meowth never got the chance to question what the twerp was thinking—that little fox was in no position to Tackle him—before he was hit in the side by a small, purple Pokémon. He yowled as he was sent tumbling backwards, kicking up a small amount of dust as he flew.

Rattata chittered proudly as he came to stand before Eevee, who looked at him in thanks. Then, when Meowth had gotten back to his feet, Rattata waved his curly tail to taunt the other Pokémon.

"I'll make ya pay for that ya little rat!" Meowth hissed as he ran towards Rattata, fury dancing in his eyes as his claws extended once more.

Rattata then waited for a few moments before he kicked off into the air and summersaulted over Meowth. As he landed, Rattata then lunged forward and used Bite to grab on of Meowth's paws, causing the other Pokémon to yowl in pain.

"Get off me ya rat! Get off!" Meowth shouted.

In Meowth's distracted state, he never noticed Eevee had recovered and was now running towards him at a rapid speed. Eevee Tackled him a few feet backwards before she used Tail Whip to hit Meowth in the face.

Meowth hissed before he swung his Rattata-covered paw at Eevee and sent the 'little foxy' back a few steps. He then tried to bash Rattata's face into the ground, only for Rattata to jump off as Eevee rushed back towards him.

While this was happening, Koffing was experiencing its own bit of trouble. He was trying to follow his master's orders—to damage the Abra—but nothing he was doing was working. To make it worse, two other Pokémon had entered the fray and were now blocking him from the Abra.

He had to keep dodging to the side to avoid the Pidgey as it flew towards him and the sticky ropes of the Kakuna. To say that he was mostly on the defensive would be correct, as he had no time to attack at the moment.

James clenched his teeth, "Use Smokescreen."

"Kakuna, String-Shot! Pidgey, use Quick-Attack!" Ash ordered as Koffing began to release a thick, black smog from its mouth. "Fly left… Good! Now, hit Koffing with a Tackle!"

Pidgey dived towards Koffing, his claws extended, and followed Koffing as it fled backwards with smoke trailing from its mouth. In his haste, Koffing never realized that he wasn't paying attention to the Kakuna.

In the next second, three ropes of sticky white material lunged from the smog-covered floor and wrapped around Koffing's body. With a tug, Koffing was pulled towards the darkened floor, where Kakuna was hiding.

Koffing struggled in an attempt to escape from his bindings, but it proved difficult as he had no easy way to tear it off him. He did, however, manage to loosen the bindings enough to start wriggling out of them before Pidgey hit him with a Tackle.

Breaking free of the String-Shot, Koffing was sent rocketing backwards into a nearby wall. Crashing into it, a small cloud of dust was created on impact. When Koffing rolled to the bottom of the wall, it was obvious that he was unconscious.

As this happened, Ekans was being thrown back towards Jessie with swirls in its eyes. Abra had used his hold over it to slam it into the ground until it was unconscious, leaving it with numerous, multi-colored bruises all over its body.

His job done, Abra then Teleported back to Anabel as the red glow faded from his eyes. Anabel spared him a brief smile.

Meowth rushed past Anabel not a second later, holding his sides. It was obvious that he had a hard time against his own opponents as, like Ekans, there were a lot of bruises visible under his short white fur. He also had a few bite marks scattered all over his body, courtesy of Rattata.

Jessie—seeing that they had lost—glared at Ash and Anabel. "… You may have won this time, brats but…" An almost-eager gleam appeared in her eyes. "We'll be back…"

"Buh bye." James mocked, waving.

With that, both Jessie and James threw smoke-bombs onto the ground. This added to Koffing's dissipating smoke, cloaking Team Rocket as they recalled their Pokémon and fled. When all of the smoke had cleared, it revealed that Team Rocket had gotten away.

"Damn it!" Ash cursed with an angry frown. "They got away… again!"

Eevee growled, "Ve Eevee Ve Eve-Ve."

"… At least we managed to beat them and drive them away…" Anabel said. "That's good, right?"

"… I guess…" Ash muttered.

XXXXXX

(Later—With Ash and Anabel)

Soon after Team Rocket had fled, Ash and Anabel recalled their Pokémon back to their Poké Balls before they set off down the tunnel. While both of them were still a bit upset that Team Rocket had gotten away—and curious as to what Teak Rocket was doing there—there was nothing more that either of them could do at this point.

With this realization, Ash slowly got out of his funk before he engaged Anabel in conversation. That quickly changed into a debate over which Pokémon Type they thought was best. Anabel would list reason after reason of why Psychic-type Pokemon were superior, firmly defending why Ash pointed out faults in her arguments.

"It doesn't matter if Psychic-Type Pokémon are weak against Bug- Dark-, or Ghost-Type Pokémon; if the Trainer is good enough, they'll be able to overcome those weaknesses."

Ash was about to respond but, before he could, he was interrupted by a loud cough. Slightly annoyed, he and Anabel turned to see a brown-haired boy standing in front of them. He was wearing a blue shirt, black jeans, and had a black backpack on his back.

"Could—"

"No." Anabel said.

"But—" The boy began.

Ash frowned, "Get lost!"

"All I want to do is—"

"I don't care!" Ash and Anabel interrupted in almost-perfect unison. "We were in the middle of an important conversation!"

The boy ran away from them not a second later, screaming. This caused both Pokémon Trainers to pause for a moment before they turned to each other. Ash was the first one to crack a grin before he began laughing about what had just happened. It seemed that his good mood was infectious as Anabel started to laugh a few seconds later.

Clefairy looked concerned, "... Fairy?"

"Eevee Ve, Eve Ee-V-Ee Eevee. Eve Ve Eevee." Eevee assured the smaller Pokémon.

Sometime after Ash and Anabel had finally stopped laughing, they began to feel guilty over what they had done. It wasn't right for them to have yelled at that kid becuase he had interuptted their conversation. Especially since they had caused him to run away from them, screaming his little head off. With that in mind, each Trainer promised themselves that they would apologize to the boy if they came across him again.

Five minutes later, Ash drew Anabel into another conversation. During this, he asked the other Trainer about her family, where she had come from, her likes, her dislikes, and her dreams for the future. He learned that Anabel liked to paint, listen to classical music, and Psychic-Type Pokémon. She seemed to dislike Pokémon poachers, thieves, and Ghost-Type Pokémon. And her dream was to open another Psychic-Type Pokémon Gym in Kanto someday.

In return, Anabel asked him the same questions. She learned that Ash really liked Pokémon Battling, drawing, and hanging around with his friends and Pokémon. He disliked thieves like Team Rocket, Pokémon abusers, and all vegetables in general. His dream for the future was to become the greatest Pokémon Master in the world; certainly one of the most, if not the most, ambitious dreams she had ever heard.

"Another Psychic-Type Gym in Kanto?" Ash asked teasingly. "And you say that I'm ambitous."

Anabel raised an eyebrow, "What about you? Your dream is far more ambitious than mine is! I mean, you want to be the 'Greatest Pokémon Master in the world'!" She retorted. "Opening a Gym is a piece of cake compared to that."

"I know it'll be hard but..." Ash grinned. "that'll just make getting to the top that much sweeter."

Anabel paused mid-step, taken back slightly. When he had originally talked about his dream to become the 'Greatest Pokémon Master', she had sensed his anticipation and drive but this was the first time she had felt so much conviction. There was so much of it that it actually made Anabel, despite not having known Ash for that long, actually think he could do it. He would have to train very, very hard but, if he kept that level of conviction, he could actually do it.

"Could you move the flashlight, Anabel?" Ash asked, snapping Anabel out of her thoughts. "I think I just saw something move..."

Anabel nodded. Moving the flahlight around, she looked for what Ash could've seen until she found something; a group of Pokémon hiding in the shadows. The Pokémon in question were red, crab-like creatures with six legs, two pincers, small and round blue eyes, and a small mouth. The only other thing of note were the red mushrooms with yellow polka dots and white stems that were growing on these Pokémon's back.

Following this discovery, Anabel heard Ash rummaging for something before she heard a 'click' as something flipped open. Confused, she was then scared out of her wits when a loud mechanical voice spoke out from behind her. "Paras: The Mushroom Pokémon. In the wild, Paras grow by sucking nutrients from the roots of trees. The mushrooms on a Paras' back are called tochukaso and grow as the Paras grows."

'It was just Ash's PokéDex...' Anabel assured herself. A bit angry, she turned on Ash. "Could you please give me some warning before you do that? You almost gave me a heart attack!"

Ash looked down, guilty, "I'm sorry, Anabel..."

"Please just don't do it again, okay?"

"I'll try not to." Ash agreed before her turned his head towards Eevee, "C'mon, Eevee. We've got a Paras to catch."

Eevee yipped before she sprung off of Ash's shoulders, landing on the ground only a few seconds later. She quickly took off in pursuit of the group of Paras, who had looked up when Anabel's light had shone on them. While they couldn't really see Eevee because of the light that shined directly behind her, they could see her outline and hear her as she approuched. Those that had not already fled from the light retreated, not wanting any trouble.

"Ras."

"Paras."

"Pa-pa ras."

"Pas."

"Eevee, use your Tail Whip!"

Eevee nodded before she came to a stop, blocking two Paras' escape routes with her body. Before either of the two Paras could react, however, Eevee quickly turned around and hit one of them with her bushy tail. The force sent the Paras tumbling back a few feet and back into the dark though, instead of taking the chance to flee, this Paras got angry. The Paras' crouched down, opened its mouth, and released a thick purple powder from its mouth.

"That's Poisonpowder!" Anabel said in recognition. "Be careful! If Eevee breaths any of that powder in, she'll be poisoned!" She frowned. "From the density of that cloud, it wouldn't take long for Eevee to go unconsicous!"

Ash nodded, "Thanks Anabel! Eevee, jump over that Poisonpowder! Then use a Tackle to knock it back!"

Eevee yipped in acknowledgment of her orders before she kicked off into the air and jumped over the poisonpowder. She then started to run towards Paras, who released another poisonpowder towards her in retaliation. This was followed by another cloud of powder, though this cloud was yellow as opposed to the purple of the first cloud. Eevee managed to jump over the poisonpowder but landed in the yellow cloud.

"Hurry up and finish this before that Stun Spore can paralyze Eevee!" Anabel warned.

"Thanks for the head's up again, Anabel!" Ash said before he turned back to the battle, "Use your Tackle attack!"

While Eevee's body already appeared to be going a bit stiff, Eevee forced herself forward and ran towards Paras. This semeed to suprirse Paras, as it thought that its attack would've been able to halt Eevee's movements, as it didn't even attempt to dodge. The force behind the blow sent Paras crashing into a nearby wall. However, instead of staying down, Paras soon got back up on its feet, though Eevee's attack had taken the wind out of its sails.

"Paras ras Pa-ras!" Paras clicked out before it opened its mouth and released a thick white powder towards Eevee.

Moving over to the side, Eevee managed to avoid the attack. Then, as Paras closed its mouth and prepared itself for another dose, Eevee rushed towards it. Once she got to the other Pokémon, Eevee began to scratch it rapidly, slowing with each strike as Paras' Stun Spore took effect.

"Alright Eevee, that's enough!" Ash said as before he pointed Eevee's Poké Ball at her. "Return!" He used his unoccupied arm to clip Eevee's Poké Ball to his belt before he removed another Poké Ball from his belt. "Go, Poké Ball!"

When the Poké Ball struck, it converted Paras into red energy before it absorbed it into itself while in mid-air. The Poké Ball then fell to the ground, shaking, as Paras fought against it. The Poké Ball continued to rock, three times a second, for six seconds before it finally glowed red. A faint 'ding' was heard .

Ash quickly walked over to the fallen Pokeball, grabbed it with his unoccupied hand, before he thrusted it into the air. "Yes! I've caught a Paras!"

"Congratulations."

XXXXXX

(Kanto—Route 4—Near Mt. Moon)

"You mean to tell me that a couple of brats managed to drive you off? One of which was partially responsible for your failure in Viridian City?"

Jessie flinched, sweating, before she exchanged a look with James. He made a shooing motion, causing her to scowl, before she turned back to the screen of the cellular phone she held. Her boss was thrumming his fingers on his desk, an expectant expression on his face as he waited for her answer.

"Yes, sir." Jessie murmured.

"Get your heads together!" The man shouted, his eyes narrowed into slits. "… If you two don't bring me the Moon Stone within two weeks, I will have you both terminated. Meowth will be reassigned as a 'graduation present' for the most abusive of my new Rockets."

Jessie, James, and Meowth all gulped. "W-We'll get it to you right away, sir!"

"You better; your very lives depend on it." The brown-haired man replied.

With that said, the leader of Team Rocket ended his call. He had already given those three clowns a second chance, after that incident at the Viridian Pokemon Center, but if they didn't accomplish this they would die. If he had to, he would kill them himself.

Ash's Pokémon Team:

Eevee (Female): Level 14.

Attacks: Growl (Normal), Helping Hand (Normal), Sand-Attack (Normal), Scratch (Normal) Tackle (Normal), Tail Whip (Normal).

Pidgey (Male): Level 11.

Attacks: Sand-Attack (Ground), Tackle (Normal), Gust (Flying), and Quick Attack (Normal).

Rattata (Male): Level 12.

Attacks: Tackle (Normal), Tail Whip (Normal), Quick Attack (Normal), and Bite (Dark).

Kakuna (Male): Level 12.

Attacks: String-Shot (Bug), Poison-Sting (Poison), Bug-Bite (Bug), and Harden (Normal).

Clefairy (Female): Level 7.

Attacks: Pound (Normal) and Sing (Normal).

Paras (?):

Attacks: Poisonpowder (Poison), Stun Spore (Grass), and Sleep Powder (Grass).

Anabel's Pokémon Team:

Abra (Male): Level 15.

Attacks: Teleport (Psychic), Psyshock (Psychic), and Confusion (Psychic).

Jessie's Pokémon Team:

Ekans (Male): Level 20.

Attacks: Wrap (Normal), Leer (Normal), and Poison Sting (Poison).

James' Pokémon Team:

Koffing (Male): Level 20.

Attacks: Tackle (Normal), Smog (Poison), and Selfdestruct (Normal).

A/N: Author's Note: Well, tell me what you guys think! Comments, concerns, and constructive criticism. This chapter was edited as of 6/20/2012.