The Year of Rocket's Revenge
Session July, Part 4 (08.01.05/04.25.06)


There are some places man isn't expected to go. Or that they expect to go. But sometimes, life can throw you a loop.

Some of these places don't seem scientifically possible, yet there are those who wish to test the limits of the feasible, even if it yields disasterous results. The unlucky ones who fall prey to these mad scientists put their own lives at risk, with no clue as to what may happen as a result of dabbling in things they don't understand.

Maybe we're just all fools, and we prefer to take life as it comes to us.

Or maybe because a certain trainer from Pallet Town doesn't think anything that happens in his life is weird, and that every event in his life is his destiny.

Being shocked daily by his Pikachu and getting his memory erased a couple times hasn't helped, either...


A ferry pulls into port at the Seafoam Islands, and its passengers begin the process of disembarking. Among the arrivals to this group of island east of Cinnabar are Ash Ketchum and his merry band of followers.

"We're finally here!" Misty shouted gleefully. "Island vacation, here we come!"

"Misty..." Ash interrupted. "We've got a job to do! We don't have time to relax!"

"Aw..."

"This better not turn out like our trip to the Orange Islands last week," Duplica said, reminded of the turn of events there.

"Knowing our luck, it wouldn't surprise me," Brock said despondently.

The group made their way out of the port and onto the main street leading into town.

"Okay..." Ash wondered as he looked around. "Which way is south?"

"Hmmm... I'm no navigator," Duplica stated, "but I think that there is a pretty good indicator."

Duplica was pointing at a brown building on top of a cliff about a mile away. Next to it was a lighthouse, which strangely was shining its beam out into the ocean despite there not being a cloud in the sky.

"A laboratory overlooking the ocean," observed Brock. "How ironic."

"Why do I even act surprised anymore?" Misty waved nonchalantly.

"Okay!" Ash said, raising his fist into the air. "Let's get to that laboratory!"

"Nice to see someone doesn't mind the strange coincidences."


After a long walk of about ten or fifteen minutes, the group took their final steps up to the laboratory's front door. But to their surprise, they saw that it was unlocked and open.

"Talk about convenient," Ash remarked.

"Hmmm..." Brock thought. "Maybe too convenient."

"Be ready for anything," Ash told his Pikachu.

"Pika!" the little rodent Pokémon nodded.

"You too, Ditto!" Duplica said to the Pokémon resting on her right shoulder.

The group calmly stepped inside, on guard for anything that might jump out at them. None of the lights were on in the building, though the morning daylight helped brighten the main hallway enough for Ash and the others to see down it. And at the end was a closed wooden door. With light streaming out from underneath.

"Ah!" Misty said. "There must be someone in there!"

"Well, let's see who!" Ash said, leading the way.

The group creeped up to the door slowly, on their guard for any surprise that may be waiting for them on the other side. Ash reached for the doorknob, but hesitated in turning it. Looking back at his comrades for any signs of objections, he saw Pikachu, Misty, Brock, Duplica, and Ditto all nodding for him to proceed. Taking a deep breath, Ash began to turn the knob...

"Here goes nothing!"

...and opened the door, causing the lights to filter out into the hallway and onto them. Ash stuck his head inside, followed by the rest of the gang, as they checked the surroundings.

They had found the main laboratory, which was lined with scores of machines along both walls. Most of them seemed to be the standard computative units, though there were a couple of exceptions. Such as a Pokémon healing unit, a Pokémon transportation module, a Pokéball repair apparatus, and a Lotad-themed coffeemaker. But the biggest anomaly was standing just twenty feet in front of them. A tall machine that reached more than halfway to the ceiling. It was decorated with an assortment of flashing colored lights, and a plethora of varying gauges, each measuring a different quality than the others. In fact, it looked so futuristic and high-tech that the machine's most primitive feature, a maple-colored wooden door leading inside of it, looked horrendously out of place.

"I wonder what that thing is," Brock asked out of curiosity.

"Looks like some sort of machine," Ash said, stating the obvious. "But just what does it do?"

"I'm glad you asked, my boy!"

The foursome (well, sixsome if you count Pikachu and Ditto) jumped back in fright as short, bespectacled man in a white lab coat had suddenly appeared before them.

"This is the machine that will revolutionize the Pokémon transfer system! Ha ha... no one dares match my genius, for I am the great Professor Schtickly, master of solving the world's most unsolvable Pokémon world mysteries!"

Duplica sweatdropped. "Is he serious?" She then quick-changed into an exact copy of the professor, glasses, gray hair, and all, and openly mocked him. "I'm solving the world's most unsolvable Pokémon world mysteries!"

"Figures he'd be a quack," Misty stated out loud.

Professor Schtickly shook his head in disdain. "Tsk tsk... it seems that young women these days still lack the genius to recognize genius when they see it."

"Are you calling me stupid?" Misty yelled angrily, head about to explode.

Duplica held her friend back. "Easy, Mist... no need to get riled up over this old coot."

Ash looked confused. As usual. "I'm sorry... but you didn't answer my question. Just what does this thing do?"

"Well," Professor Schtickly began, "it's supposed to be able to automatically transfer any Pokémon from one place to another. Anywhere 'round this big ol' world! There doesn't even have to be anyone waiting on the other side!"

"Sounds amazing!" noted the easily-impressed Pallet Town trainer.

"So," Brock asked with careful intrigue, "why 'supposed to?' What's wrong?"

"Well," the professor uttered, bonking himself on the head with his bare fist, "I can't figure out how to turn the darn thing on."

The group stood still for a minute, the shock of the problem so sudden that they had to take some time to process it. They then group facefaulted to the floor, and then quickly bounced up, pretty much 'absorbing' the blow.

Except for a certain ill-tempered redhead...

"YOU'RE CALLING ME STUPID AND YOU CAN'T EVEN FIGURE OUT HOW TO TURN THAT DARN THING ON! WHAT KIND OF LOGIC IS THAT, YOU PEABRAIN?"

"Somebody needs a timeout," Duplica sang as she dragged Misty off to a safe distance away... for the professor's sake.

"Pi Pikachu!" Pikachu suddenly sounded off, prompting the men to gaze in his direction. He was standing by a panel that was loosely screwed into one side of the device.

"That's where the power source is located!" the Professor cried, oblivious as to why the panel covering it was left unscrewed in the first place.

Pikachu skipped back to Ash as the professor knelt down to examine the panel. It was then that he noticed... or didn't notice... that the power source wasn't on. Or to be more exact...

"I put the darn thing in upside down," Schtickly chuckled as he pulled away the panel to show an unlit green cylinder. "Silly me... guess I'd better fix it!"

In seconds, Professor Schtickly did just that. Upon doing so, the cylinder began glowing green, and the machine powered up.

"Success!" he yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Wait a minute..." Brock said, realizing why the source glowed green, "that's not safe... aaahhh!"

Brock quickly ran to other side of the room, with Pikachu quickly following. Ash and the professor scratched their heads dumbfoundedly.

"What's the big deal about this glowing green cylinder?" Ash wondered out loud.

"Nothing, my boy," the professor replied as he began screwing the latch back on. "My machine is nuclear powered, is all."

"Really? Wow, that's amazing, Professor Schtickly!"

Brock and Pikachu shook their heads in dismay.

"Well, Misty won't be happy the professor just shortened Ash's life by a year."

"Pika pika."

"But maybe she'll be pleased that he took a year of his life too!"

"Pika pika."


Outside, where Misty was enjoying a cup of water from Duplica's thermos bottle...

"Did you feel that?" Misty asked.

"Feel what?" Duplica shot back.

"Like something just happened to Ash?"

Duplica chuckled. "Knowing Ashy-boy, I'd be more shocked if stuff didn't happen to him."


Meanwhile, in Trovitopolis in the Orange Islands...

A brown haired woman in an orange tank top and matching colored skirt and sandals grunted as she lifted her last bag of luggage and placed it into an already overstuffed taxicab trunk. The taxi driver with tanned skin, who was wearing a pineapple-motif short sleeve shirt and blue swimming trunks, looked peeved.

"Just how many more bags does your family have, lady?"

"That's all, I believe. And we're not your typical family, either."

The driver shook his head. "Whatever... just tell your 'family' to hurry up!"

He slammed the trunk door closed and then walked off to wait in the car. The woman glanced into the hotel the cab was parked at, and saw one of her 'family' members waiting by the front desk. Checking his watch. As if he was waiting for someone.

"Darn that Amber, making us wait!" she scowled. "If I had my way, Gary and I would just leave her butt behind and make her find her own way to Kumquat Island!"

Inside the hotel, the person she had been watching was the Gary Oak of Pallet Town. Best known for being the grandson of Professor Oak, but he was one of the best trainers at his age. He blew through the Kanto League gyms as if they were nothing. Some called him the most successful trainer ever to come out of Pallet.

But he didn't do it alone. For as famous as he was for his impressive skills as a Pokémon trainer, he was also famous for having his own personal cheerleading squad. The squad, made up of six beautiful young women roughly twice his age, followed him everywhere and cheered him on as if their lives depended on it.

But the girls got tired of the everyday duties of being cheerleaders, and they all eventually quit on him. Gary realized that he used them as nothing more than mindless followers, and made an attempt to try and get them to travel with him again. Not as cheerleaders, but as travel companions and friends.

Only two of them agreed to rejoin him. Amber Gyro, one of the youngest members of the squad, who was hoping traveling with Gary would give her an opportunity to discover what her true purpose in life was. And the lady outside, Stephanie Applegate, who was considered the squad leader, was the only one that ever had true intimate feelings for Gary. Though he's never reciprocated those back.

"Gary, let's just leave her!" Stephanie yelled into the hotel. "Besides, you know the trip would be much more fun if it were just the two of us!"

"I can't abandon her!" Gary shouted back. "I'll go and find her."

Stephanie scowled even more as she watched Gary walk off towards the elevator.

"She is so gonna make us miss our flight!"


After wandering around the first floor for a minute or so, Gary spotted a brown-haired girl, a few years younger than Stephanie, gazing at a TV playing a video of something in the window of the hotel's gift shop. He also noticed a few local teenage boys ogling what little clothing she had on... a light blue bikini top and a pair of tan shorts... the real short ones that left little to the imagination.

"Amber!" Gary yelled, calling out her name and getting the boys' attention.

"Aw man," one of them complained as he led the others away. "She's taken."

"Yeah! I don't want anything that isn't fresh off the market!"

"That's some fine piece he's tapping there!"

The trio were suddenly shut up when an Arcanine materialized right in front of them and roared loudly in their faces, practically scaring their clothes off. Frightened for their lives, the three of them ran off as fast as their legs could carry them. Arcanine disappeared as quickly as it had appeared, back into its Pokéball... the one Gary had taken out of his pocket.

"Jerks," he muttered under his breath as he pocketed the Pokéball and walked over to Amber, who was still fixated on the TV.

Gary looked to see what Amber was watching. It seemed to be a video of some sort of Pokémon competition. But it wasn't like any competition he'd ever seen before. Though battles were part of the competition, he also noticed a heavy emphasis on showing off attack moves and dazzling displays.

"What's this you're watching, Ambs?"

"It's a Pokémon Contest!" Amber responded without turning away from the TV.

"And just what does that entail?"

That question grabbed her attention enough to shift her gaze away from the spectacle she was witnessing.

"Oh, it's the bestest and most beautiful display of Pokémon bonding and showmanship I've ever seen! I want to be in one ever so badly!"

"Since when?"

"Five minutes ago. Oh Gary... we have to find a place that holds these Pokémon Contests! I want to become... a Pokémon Coordinator!"

Gary sighed. "Oh, so that's your 'calling' for this week, huh? Well, let's get this over with..."

"No!" Amber exclaimed, grabbing Gary by the shoulders. "This isn't just any 'calling.' It's THE 'calling!' This is what I want to do with my life!"

"You're really into this stuff?"

"It's the stuff legends are made of!" Amber quoted, starry-eyed. "After you earn your fourth and final Orange League badge, we have to find one of these places that hold Pokémon Contests! We must!"

"Well, anything to make you happy," Gary agreed, sounding sort of fatherly. Even though he had no idea where these contests were being held.

The two headed back to the lobby, unaware a boiling angry Stephanie was waiting for them.

"Say... you didn't notice those guys..."

"There were guys looking at me? I was too busy watching that program to notice."

At that, Gary ran back to the shop, pulling Amber along with him.

"That's it... I'm buying you some new clothes to cover up some of that skin of yours!"

Amber freaked as she was dragged inside. "What are you now, my mother or something?"


Back on the Seafoam Islands, inside Professor Schtickly's laboratory again...

Duplica, Ditto, and a now mellow Misty joined Ash, Pikachu, and Brock back inside as the professor was hard at work punching buttons on his newest machine's console, prepping it for a test run.

"So I guess it works fine now?" questioned Misty.

"Yep," Ash nodded. "We're about to get a trial run."

"It didn't take long to fix once we figured out the problem," Brock reassured the girls.

"Ha ha, it is ready!" the professor exclaimed. "Now I must get my Pokémon that I will be making the test with!"

He reached into his lab coat and pulled out a Pokéball. He then opened the door leading inside and tossed the Pokéball into it. Running back to the controls, he immediately started the test sequence!

"This is it! I am about to become the pioneer of instantaneous Pokémon transport!"

The gang shielded their eyes as the machine roared to life, enveloping the room in an overbearing flash of assorted lights and loud noises. Nothing could be seen or heard in the room other than the machine for quite a few seconds, until it suddenly powered down without rhyme or reason. Regaining their senses about them, the group watched hopefully as Professor Schtickly went to open the door to the machine's transfer chamber, thinking it would be empty.

But staring them right in the face was that Pokéball, not having moved an inch.

"That wasn't much of a disappearing act, you know," Duplica commented blandly.

Professor Schtickly glared at Misty, expecting her to make some sort of 'I told you so' comment. But she didn't even so much as chuckle.

"You can stop hiding it, young lady... I know you think I'm an idiot."

"I wouldn't dream of saying such a thing!" Misty said innocently.

Ash glanced at Misty, then at Duplica, then back at Misty.

"Hey... did you two switch places?"

Before Duplica could clarify, Ash reached for one of Misty's pigtails and pulled on it. She screamed in pain and... you can guess what happened next.

"DON'T YOU EVEN KNOW YOUR OWN GIRLFRIEND WHEN SHE'S STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU?" she screamed as she chased a hapless Ash around the room.

"Poor Ash," Brock said, shaking his head (and Pikachu doing likewise).

"Don't you know running around a lab is dangerous!" the professor yelled at Ash and Misty.

"I thought the thing was that running around with scissors is dangerous!" Duplica stated, back in her 'professor' costume.

"That too! And... stop copying me!"

Truer words were never spoken... about the dangerous part, as Misty, within mere inches of grabbing Ash by the hair and exacting some revenge, tripped on a wire running across the floor. She stumbled right into Ash's back, pushed him into Brock and Pikachu, and sending them all tumbling into the machine. They all piled up into the back of the chamber, smashing into hard enough to shake the door closed.

Professor Schtickly, Duplica, and Ditto gasped as the machine came to life, once again filling the room with obnoxious noises and flashing lights.

"What's going on?" Duplica asked.

Of course, the professor couldn't hear her question over all of the noise. So she didn't even get an answer until the machine had ceased to a stop a minute later.

"Oh my..." the Professor gasped, running over to check the transfer chamber.

"Are they alright?"

The professor opened the door, temporarily blocking Duplica and Ditto's view of the chamber's interior. She was then surprised to hear Professor Schtickly laughing maniacally. As if he were an evil genius.

"It works! It really, really works! Ha ha!"

Duplica peered inside and gasped in horror.

Ash, Misty, Brock, and Pikachu were gone.


"Wha... where are we?" Ash asked aloud, picking his face up from the ground.

He had woken up at the bottom of a pile with Misty, Brock, and Pikachu on top of him, face-first in the dirt. As he tried to push them off of his aching back, they began to stir. The trio rubbed their eyes as they too awoke to sights and sounds they had never seen before.

"We're not in that kooky professor's lab anymore!" Misty observed.

"Looks like some remote village," noted Brock as he took in the surroundings.

The quartet was surrounded on either side by small adobe houses made out of stucco, obviously designed to withstand the extreme heat common with the lower mountain regions of the area. The weather felt particularly cool there, though.

But the weather and the housing structures were far from their minds, as they were more concerned as to where they had been teleported to.

"I thought he said his machine was designed only to transport Pokémon?" Brock said, scratching his head.

"I told you this guy was a nutcase!" Misty exclaimed. "Some genius he turned out to be!"

"Pika pi!" chirped Pikachu, tugging at Ash's pant leg.

"What is it, Pikachu?"

"Pika!"

Pikachu was pointing at a teenage boy walking towards them. He was dressed in a sandy-colored poncho that pretty much ran the length of his entire body. The barefoot young lad was dusty all over, but still, he seemed friendly enough.

But the gang couldn't get past the red, spiky hair and his all-too familiar face.

"That's Gary!" the group gasped in unison.

"Huh?" the stranger began, before freaking out at seeing Misty in front of him. "Wha... you know better than to be out here in your condition!"

"My condition?" Misty growled, offended by his comment. "You know better than to insult me, Gary Oak!"

He blinked strangely at the name. "Who is this Gary Oak you speak of? And how dare you raise your voice to me! I'm surprised you have that much energy considering you should be fighting for your life!"

"Fighting for her life?" Ash and Brock asked in unison.

"Why is that?" Misty added, albeit a bit calmer.

'Gary' gasped in disbelief. "The doctors told us all last night! You only have a month to live!"

To be continued in Part 5...