Re-Incarnation

In hindsight, running to Slowpoke well was a pretty bad idea. As I reached the well, I heard Lyra yell, "Hank wait!" Just as I slipped on some mud and fell face first into said well.

"Ugghhh." I groaned.

"Hank?" Lyra called can you hear me?"

"Ly-ya?" I asked back. I couldn't pronounce my words too accurately because the fall had damaged my mouth. I put my hand on my scalp. Yep…It was definitely bleeding.

"Hank! I'm coming down there! Just hang- woah Ahhh mmmfff!"

I didn't quite understand what happened…but it seemed like Lyra had just been kidnapped.

"Ly-a?" I called. "Weh ah you? You okay?" I struggled to get up, but I eventually managed to get back on my feet. I was breathing heavily. I wiped some blood from off my mouth. "Lyra?" I called again. I heard some footsteps… "Lyra?" I asked again. I could feel myself fainting.

A man stepped out of the shadows. He was dressed in all black. There was a big red R on his shirt. "Hey Proton, I think I found him!" the man called over. Before I could do anything, even just say 'stop', I fell to the ground and lost consciousness.

*Slowpoke Well (Back)*

I woke up in pitch black darkness. I could feel two people beside me. One on my right, and one on my left. We were all tied up against some sort of rock. "Oh, good. You're awake!" I heard Lyra say on my left.

"Lyra?" I asked. "What's going on?"

"Oh, so this is the way Hank Coro acts…" The guy on my right said sarcastically.

"Who's that?" I asked Lyra.

"Kurt, leave Hank alone! Hank, that's Kurt, they guy we came to try and save."

"And you're doing a wonderful job so far." Kurt sneered.

"Will you just shut up?" I asked annoyed. "We ran into a little trouble but-" I was cut off by lights around the well bottom turning on. An important looking Rocket guy stepped into view. He had teal hair and was followed by around 3 regular Rocket grunts. This was new. I had never seen this Team Rocket member before. What I recognized, however, was the music that started to play.

"Well, well, well…" The man sang walking up to me. "What have we here? Hank Coro huh?" I glared at him. "Ooh I'm really scared!" He joked in my face. "So you're the one everybody's talking about, ha-ha-ha-hah…"

I growled in dissatisfaction at his mockery of me.

"You're joking!" He continued to sing. "You're joking! I can't believe my eyes! You're joking me, you gotta be! This can't be the right guy." He started singing it to his Rocket Grunts. "He's teenage! He's scrawny! I don't know which is worse! I might just bawl my eyes out, if I don't die laughing first!"

"Let us go!' Lyra yelled. He turned his attention back to us.

"When Mr. Captain Proton says there's trouble close at hand, you better pay attention now, cuz I'm the Proton Man!"

"This is ridiculous." I said.

"And if you aren't shaking," Proton directed his attention at me now. "There's something very wrong, because this may be the last time, you hear the Proton Song! Ohhh!"

"Ohhh!" The rocket grunts echoed.

"Ohhh"

"Ohhh" They echoed again

"Ohhh!"

"Ohhh, he's the evil Proton Man!"

"Well, if I'm feeling antsy!, and there's nothing much to do…I might just make a special batch of my famous Rocket stew! And don't you know the one thing, that would make it work so nice?" He asked me as he grabbed me, and lifted me up against my will, but I couldn't do much about it as I was tied up. "A lean and mean, Hank Coro teen, to add a little spice!"

The chorus of "Ohhs" came again and lasted just as long as the first won.

"Release us fast!" Kurt said. "Or you must face the dire consequences! My granddaughter is expecting me so please come to your senses!"

Proto dropped me on the ground and moved over to Kurt. I could feel a tear in the rope I was tied in…I started inching my way towards the rocks…suddenly a Zubat came down and helped me by chewing the rope apart.

"You're jokin' You're jokin'!" Proton sang at Kurt. "I can't believe my ears! Would someone shut this fella up? I'm drowning in my tears! It's funny, I'm laughing. You really are too much! And now, with your permission: I'm going to do my stuff!"

"wh-What are you going to do?" Lyra asked.

"Keep going!" I whispered to the Zubat who was helping me. "He's too distracted singing!"

"Oh, I'm going to do the best I can!" Proton said wickedly as he brought in a bunch on Slowpoke and pulled one out of the crowd. "Lucky Evens, unlucky Odds!" Proton said as he took out two dice and rolled them on the well floor. "ooh…Evens. That's lucky…for me!" He said as he pulled out a steak knife and cut the Slowpoke's tail clean off.

"You monster!" I yelled. Proton turned to me. Whoops. I began to back away from him, but he edged ever closer.

"Oh, the sound of rolling dice," He sang. "To me is music in the air, 'Cause I'm a gabling Proton man, although I don't play fair! It's much more fun, I must confess, when lives are on the line!" I realized I was right over the sewage removal part of the well. I better not fall, but Proton seemed to have a different opinion. "Not mine of course, but your's old boy, now that'd be just fine!"

"Release us fast or you will have to answer for this heinous act!" Kurt protested.

"Oh brother!" Proton sang, turning from me, back toward Kurt. "You're something! You put me in a spin! You aren't comprehending, the position that you're in!"

I noticed an empty poke ball of mine, click, and saw that the Zubat had voluntarily joined my party. And then I knew why it helped me. I knew who the Zubat was.

*Dracula (re)joined the party!*

I sent him out again. "You know what to do." I told him. "Just wait for the right moment!"

"It's hopeless!" Proton gloated while singing in Kurt's face. "You're finished! You haven't got a prayer! Because I'm a boss of the great Team Rocket, and you ain't going nowhere!"

"NOW!" I yelled and Gabriel flew in on Dracula. Gabriel used Extrasensory to push Proton into the sewage removal, and Dracula helped use Bite to chew Lyra's and Kurt's ropes apart.

"You-You actually did save me?" Kurt asked astonished before he fainted.

"Hank- how did you?" Lyra put her hand to her head. "Hank, I don't feel too well…can we go back to Azalea?" She asked before she too, collapsed and fainted.

"Yes…" I said as Gabriel and Dracula came back to me. I turned to all the Slowpoke. "Let's all get back to town."

*Kurt's house*

"Hank Coro!" An all too familiar voice said as I entered Kurt's house with both Kurt and Lyra hunched over my shoulders. "Of all the irresponsible-"

I knew she wasn't going to argue when she saw me carry in Kurt and Lyra and lay them both down gently on two beds. "It's nice to see you too Pearl." I said. Of all the five children in my family, Pearl was the 3rd born, making her the middle child of the middle children. She and Dia got along great, the same way Harold and I got along, and then Cynthia barely hung out with the family because she was off doing champion stuff in Sinnoh. Anyways, the point is, Pearl and I had never had the best sibling relationship. Since I had turned 16 recently I wondered if she had come to congratulate me, but that wasn't why she was here. Her reason was worse. Much worse.

*Outside Azalea Gym*

"Home? You want to take me home?"

"Hank, it's way too dangerous all the way out here!" She pulled me in a little more closely. "Plus, the Johto officials aren't the brightest bulbs in the box. Most of them think that Team Rocket still exists."

"Heh…" (It does still exist! I was just almost killed by one of their new leaders!)

"Hank, please just make the correct choice…"

"Hank?" Lyra asked as she walked up to me and Pearl. "Oh, hi Pearl… Hank, what's going on?"

"I'm sorry Lyra, but Hank has to come back to Kanto."

"No Pearl! I don't!" I said. "This region needs me! It needs me terribly! Today I learned that the hard way! Nothing you say is going to change my mind! I need to stay!"

"Hank, I can't put you through all this again! We all know what happened the last time you tried to do something like this-"

"Pearl, I liberated Kanto's biggest city from terrorists, defeated 3 supposedly undefeatable monsters, collected all eight badges in the region, and managed to defeat one of the Elite 4! I just need to do some more training!"

"No Hank! You aren't continuing on this quest!"

"Ummm…Excuse me?" A girlish boy walked up to us. He had purple hair and was in a Bug-Catcher's outfit minus the hat.

"What?!" Pearl and I both snapped at him.

"Well, I'm Bugsy. I'm the gym leader here. Maybe his battle with me can decide his fate. A simple one on one match."

"Fine." Pearl said crossing her arms. "Hank, what say you to that?"

"I say I'm not going anywhere. Prepare to be demolished Buggy."

"It's Bugsy."

"Sorry ma'am."

"I'm a boy."

"Sorry sir."

And there we go. Hank is about to battle Bugsy for his second gym badge, and for his right to continue journeying through the Johto region.