Chapter 14

*Undella Town*

"Guys! Isn't that… Hunter J?!" Dawn exclaimed

Hunter J was spotted at a distance away from them. May noticed that Ash's facial expression turned serious.

"Who is she?" Lyra asked

"She's always trying to steal pokémons and sell them away just to make money! We've got to stop her!" Dawn said furiously, as she recalled the horrible times she had with Hunter J along with Ash and Brock.

'She's probably here for me… I guess it's best that I make this the last time I'll have to meet her.' Ash thought. He stood up, not noticing May watching him, and went to Pikachu.

"Hey buddy, you know what to do."

"Pika!" Pikachu ran off straight away, with a confused Piplup chasing after him.

"Oh no! She IS stealing a trainer's pokémon!" Lyra said.

"Come on, let's go stop her!" Ash said. Without waiting for the others he dashed off towards Hunter J.

"WHAT?! Why must we?!" Lyra stood rooted to the spot. She wasn't used to dealing with dangerous adventures like this. May ran right past her and followed Ash.

"No need to worry! Ash and I have dealt with situations like this before, we know what to do." Dawn assured Lyra and pulled her along.

"But-But I-WAIT! SLOW DOWN DANE!"

*Professor Oak's Laboratory*

"Now where did I leave it…?"

"Professor, is there anything wrong?"

"Oh, nothing Mandy, I'm just looking for my book…"

"Maybe it's upstairs, I'll go help you look for it."

"Okay, thank you…" Professor Oak said absentmindedly; still busy searching for his book.

'Now's my chance…' Mandy thought. She moved quickly upstairs, just to find a Bulbasaur standing right at the top of the stairs.

"Bulba…" Bulbasaur mumbled, as he prepared himself to fight off the woman.

"Oh, hello Bulbasaur. I'm Mandy; it's nice to meet you!" Mandy said, reaching out her hand to pet him. Bulbasaur simply turned away and avoided her hand.

"Erm… well, I'll just go help Professor Oak find his book, okay?"

"Bulba!" Bulbasaur swiftly blocked her from reaching the top of the stairs.

"Now… why won't you let me go?"

Bulbasaur stood his ground steadily, ignoring her questions.

At this point Mandy was getting impatience. 'Just when I got this chance to come up here alone… wait a minute…' Mandy froze as she recalled the incidents earlier before. 'So it WAS this Bulbasaur that was hiding at a corner and also all along trying to get Oak's attention...'

Bulbasaur watched Mandy intently. By now it was clear that she was up to no good, however he had to act fast before Mandy snap out of her thoughts. 'What would Ash expect me to do if he was here?'

"Bulbaaa!" Without hesitating, Bulbasaur used his vines to lift Mandy and got her down to the foot of the stairs.

"What the-! Why did you do that for?" Mandy demanded angrily. She moved her hand to her waist and pulled out a device-

"What's going on?"

Mandy quickly placed her device back.

"Nothing serious, I was going upstairs to help Professor find his book, but this bulbasaur won't let me up." She explained as Tracey helped her up.

"Oh I see…" Tracey climbed up the stairs towards Bulbasaur, "Is there something wrong, Bulbasaur?"

'Is there something wrong? Sounds like this pokémon is their guard dog or something… Well, no wonder he's been acting so strangely.'

"Look, I'll just go to the study room to find the book. There's nothing else I would do." Mandy said, sounding like she was offended.

"There's no need to, Mandy. I've got the book." Professor Oak said, appearing from behind Mandy

"What? Oh…okay."

"You seemed rather disappointed, what's the matter?" Professor Oak asked. Unlike his usual smile, he had a frown on his face

"N-nothing. Why did you ask, Professor?"

"Well, I was hoping you could explain what's with this device you have here." Professor Oak said, showing the device Mandy initially wanted to use on Bulbasaur.

"Huh?!" Mandy quickly felt for her waist, just to find nothing there.

"That's…that's just a device that we use back at The Scientific Research Base. I forgotten all about it and brought it along with me. It's nothing much…" Mandy said. She reached for her device from Professor Oak, but he pulled his hand back just in time.

"Well then maybe you could explain why you almost wanted to use it." Tracey said skeptically.

"What… What's going on? Is there some sort of misunderstanding?" Mandy asked worryingly.

"Yes and actually we can discuss this back at the police station." Officer Jenny said, appearing from out of nowhere.

"What?! No way!"

"Mandy, Officer Jenny here helped us did a quick scan. Apparently the Scientific Research Base doesn't recognize you as their team member…"

"And all along Bulbasaur had sensed danger from you." Tracey explained.

"But…arggh WHATEVER!" Mandy said. In a flash, she grabbed the device and threw it on the floor. It exploded and huge smoke poured out rapidly.

"ARHHH!" Professor Oak, Tracey and Officer Jenny struggled to keep their breath as the smoke filled the whole place. Mandy took this chance to wear her mask and ran upstairs. She went in the study room and locked the door behind her.

'Now to work!' Mandy searched through the shelves quickly.

"OPEN UP!"

"SURRENDER YOURSELF!"

'Screw you… Darn, how can there be no information at all!'

"I DEMAND YOU TO OPEN THIS DOOR AT ONCE!"

The repeating banging on the door increased Mandy's fear. She frantically scanned the room, until she spotted a window.

'SCREW THIS! I'm out of here!' She ran towards the window and pulled out yet another device. She opened the window and attached the device to the window frame. By the time Professor Oak and the rest barged in the room Mandy already climbed her way down.

"Ha! Try and catch me!" she yelled as they looked down the window, and ran towards the gates

"Well, not so fast!" Tracey yelled back.

Mandy turned back in front to find her way blocked by a few pokémons.

"Oh crap!" she pulled out another device and proceeded to throw it, but her hand was stopped midair.