A/N thanks to everyone that is reading this
In advance I'm going to let everyone know that this will most likely end up rayshipping, but even if it doesn't Ash and Cynthia will still be close.
Reviews
Grassy nol – yeah I plan for Ash and Cynthia to travel together, although I don't know if it will be constant since I'm just starting this, and yes I plan for Ash to be smarter than canon,
Me Llamo Berry – sorry about the punctuation, but I am trying to work on it, thank you for pointing that out though.
Disclaimer – still don't own pokemon
"Insert words here" normal voice
'Insert words here' thinking
"Insert words here" machine voice
"Insert words here" telepathy
Ch 3 - meeting the enemy
Ash woke up with a yawn as he was gently shook awake by Pikachu, since he was still tender from his injures a few days ago. Since he first was brought to Cynthia's camp it had been three days, during which she had kept her promise and continued teaching him what he needed to know as a Pokémon trainer. Both Ash and Cynthia talked more and got to know each other as time went on and shared a few laughs at some of the stories from before they left home.
While she thought back on the last couple days she had to admit that it was a lot of work since they had to start almost from scratch, following the lesson on Pokémon types they started covering the different rules for league matches. After all, learning about all of this wouldn't make a difference if Ash were to be disqualified because of a rule he didn't know about.
When he was able to move around on his own, he tried to help around the camp, which to Cynthia's dismay uncovered the fact that Ash had absolutely no idea how to cook. When attempting to make a simple stew like he'd seen his mother make when they went camping, the result was blackened, and nearly made both trainers sick, so it was agreed that Ash wouldn't be cooking for a while (if ever).
Ash had finished his reminiscing when he realized that he had to get up to start the day, so he got up and changed into what remained of his clothes, he sighed as he once again reminded himself to get new clothes when he finally made it to viridian city. He was fortunate that Cynthia was able to contact Prof. Oak via poke gear so he and Ash's mother didn't assume the worst and start a search party to find him.
"Morning everyone" Ash greeted as he exited the tent, he was similarly greeted by everyone in the camp. Over the last couple days, ash was introduced to all of Cynthia's team, which consisted of Gabite, who he learned was the one who carried him to the camp when he was found, Roselia, a grass Pokémon that stood with its legs crossed and had a red flower its right hand and a blue for its left. Then there was Milotic, which was a beautiful sea serpent Pokémon that he was only slightly shocked to learn was extremely rare. The most interesting Pokémon that she had though was a small blue jackal looking Pokémon that had a black mask looking patch of fur around its eyes; he learned that this was Riolu.
While ash was thinking, he had almost tripped over Pikachu, "pika!" Pikachu yelled as he narrowly avoided being stepped on.
"Sorry buddy, I was just thinking." Ash apologized as he returned his attention to the present. Ash and Pikachu had both gotten much closer over the days, and both were already good friends, in spite of their rocky start. Pikachu had also been training with Cynthia's Pokémon a bit, and had improved with their help in his training.
"Finally decided to join us?" Cynthia said as she had just put down the dish she had been eating from. "Breakfast was actually finished about an hour ago" she said as if reading his mind, making him grin sheepishly at how obvious he had been.
"Thanks" Ash said as he picked up a bowl to scoop up some of the oatmeal (I can't think of anything better) that she had made for breakfast. He noticed that it was still a bit warm, which he was thankful for.
"Ash" Cynthia started as he sat down to start eating," I think it's about time to start heading into town to get supplies" in her head she added 'I only had enough for a week by myself' she didn't hold anything against Ash but she had used up all her first-aid supplies, and was low on food as well.
"Ok" was Ash's reply after he finished the bite he had been eating. One of the main things Cynthia had made sure to drill into his head had been table manners. She had quickly made that her top priority after seeing how he ate.
'Thank arceus that he doesn't eat like that anymore' Cynthia didn't admit it out loud but she was disgusted by how bad his table manners, or lack of, had been.
After Ash had finished eating, both decided to start packing everything up, with Ash following Cynthia's directions on where she wanted everything. In all it took about 20 minutes to take down the tent and pack it up. The rest of the camp took maybe 15 minutes at most.
After gathering up the camping supplies and dousing the remainder of the camp fire, Cynthia returned her Pokémon and the two trainers set out towards Viridian city. Ash let Cynthia lead since he had no sense of direction, which he finally admitted after failing miserably to read the map of Kanto.
An hour or so from the camp, Ash thought he had heard something in the nearby bushes, and decided to see for himself. Being careful not to make too much noise, Ash snuck up to the edge of a small clearing that would have been missed if he had not been on the path. Hiding behind a fairly large tree, Ash noticed that there were two people standing in the clearing, a man with short purple hair and green eyes, and a woman with long red hair reaching down to the middle of her back in somewhat of a ponytail with blue eyes. The thing that caught Ash's attention was the white uniforms that the two were wearing; both had a red R on their chest.
"So what are we gonna tell the boss now?" the man spoke in a irritated voice
"We can't tell him that we failed because of some bratty little girl" the woman said fearfully
'whoever this boss of theirs' is, they sure sound scared of him' Ash thought to himself, he still had no idea who these people were, but whatever they were talking about must have been important.
"We don't have to tell him anything" spoke a third voice that broke Ash from his thoughts, the voice sounded somewhat nasally, and had a bit of a New York accent to it. Looking around, Ash couldn't find anyone else in the clearing; he then took notice of a Pokémon that was standing in the clearing with the man and woman. It looked like a cat, but stood on its hind legs and had a gold coin on its forehead. Ash had seen this Pokémon, though he couldn't remember where, and knew it was a Meowth.
"Really? How do you figure that Meowth?" the woman snapped at the cat Pokémon
"She's right. We have to make a report on the operation" the man said dejectedly
To Ash's surprise, the cat Pokémon responded, "it's simple, alls we has to do is sneak back into the Pokémon center when nobodies looking and then we can swipe the Pokémon in the place, then the boss won't even know that we failed on the first try" the cat explained. Both the man and woman thought for a moment on this.
"That's all well and good Meowth, but since we tried once already, the cops are still keeping watch over the center" the man said.
Listening to the conversation happening a few meters away from him, ash stood horrified as he realized who these people were. Ash had grown up without a father, since his died before he was born. When ash had asked his mother about how he'd died one time, his mother had told him about how his father was a well known and respected Pokémon ranger who was dealing with a well organized group of criminals who were known for their brutality and for stopping at nothing to achieve their goals.
"Team Rocket" ash whispered, forgetting for a moment that even whispering would be the same as yelling in such a small clearing.
"What was that?" the man said looking towards where ash was hiding
Panicking, Ash took off in a dead run, forgetting any ache or pain from his lingering injuries. As he ran he cursed himself for wandering off by himself, especially after what had happened last time he got himself in a situation like this.
"Beedrill, GO!" came a shout from the man behind him, telling Ash that they were following him. "Twinneedle!" the order for the attack made Ash run as fast as his legs could carry him, with Pikachu hanging on for all he was worth to avoid being left behind. Ash had heard stories of people being swarmed by hives of beedrill and being killed with the same attack that had just been called.
"Gabite, flamethrower" came the voice that Ash was never happier to hear at this point, followed by a stream of flame crashing into the Pokémon that was chasing him. "Ash are you alright?" turning, Ash saw Cynthia running up to him, as Gabite took its place between the pair and the team rocket trio that was chasing them.
Ash finally got a look at the Pokémon that had been chasing him, it was a large bee that had black stripes down it's abdomen with a sharp yellow stinger that upon a closer look dripped poison, it had two large red compound lenses for eyes. The most intimidating feature though was the huge silver stingers on its forearms.
Currently the bee was struggling to pull itself off the ground, and was covered in burns from the flamethrower, eventually it got up and started flapping its wings and flew over in front of its trainer to await an order.
"What's with everyone bothering us today?" the man mumbled as he looked over his Pokémon.
"What are you thinking? Do you really expect me to stand by and let you kill my friend?" Cynthia demanded there weren't a lot of things that made her especially angry; attacking her friends was one of them, "just who do you think you are"
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
If you are one of the many who hate the team rocket motto, then skip this section to the next line of X's
Prepare for trouble
Make IT Double
To protect the world from devastation
To unite all peoples within our nation
To denounce the evils of truth and love
To extend our reach to the stars above
Jessie!
James!
Team Rocket, Blast off at the speed of light!
Surrender now or prepare to fight!
Meowth, that's right!
Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx x
After finishing their introductions, the now named Jessie, pulled out a pokéball, and threw it calling out "Go, Gloom!" in a flash of light a Pokémon that had what looked like a wilted flower on its head.
At any other time, Ash would have pulled out his pokédex to scan the Pokémon, but he decided to forgo the act in favor of keeping his attention on both of the Pokémon. He knew he couldn't do much, but still felt that he should help as best he can. Understanding the situation, Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder to take his place by Gabite,
"You should stay out of fights that aren't in your league kid" James spoke up, truth be told he didn't see the kid as that big of a threat, but he had a job to do and he was going to finish it.
"Let the battle decide who's out of their league" Ash shot back, ' I hope the training Pikachu has done with Gabite and the others was enough for this.
"gloom, use razor leaf" Jessie yelled, which sent the Pokémon into action. From the flower on its head, Gloom released a barrage of sharp leaves towards both Gabite and Pikachu. Not waiting for a response, both Pokémon went with what came naturally and dodged to the sides.
"Beedrill use fury attack on Gabite!" James ordered while both Pokémon were in the act of dodging. Beedrill dove towards Gabite, and started attempting to slash her with its stingers, Gabite was forced to dodge since she knew about how dangerous the poison on its stingers was from even a scratch.
"gabite use metal claw and parry it!" Cynthia knew that the steel type move would protect her Pokémon from the poison on the stingers. Moving in on beedrill, Gabite's claws took a slightly polished look to them and emitted a white light, she met Beedrill's stingers and the two both struggled to overpower the other.
"gloom use stun spore!" Jessie ordered knowing that beedrill would move to avoid it on its own. This would have worked if not for one thing, both Jessie and James had completely ignored Ash and Pikachu.
"Pikachu stop it with quick attack!" the command caught Jessie by surprise, and Gloom was sent flying back and landed a few feet away.
"damn" she swore lightly, as she realized she had to take care of the electric mouse to help beedrill "gloom use acid on Pikachu!" the weed Pokémon complied and spat a thick purple ooze at the mouse, which the mouse immediately dodged by jumping to the left. Causing the ooze to hit a tree and start eating away at it.
'I don't want to get hit by that' Pikachu thought as he answered by firing a thundershock at the Pokémon. The attack had little effect due to gloom's obvious grass typing, so it shrugged off the electric attack with little trouble.
'We need to get some kind of edge' Ash thought as he saw the ineffective electric attack 'but what can I do? They are clearly more experienced then I am' having a sudden idea "Pikachu hit beedrill and gloom with thunderwave!" he called out, hoping it would work.
Pikachu released a charge of electricity that made its way to both of the poison Pokémon, "Beedrill/Gloom dodge it!" both James and Jessie ordered, knowing that getting hit by the attack would cripple them.
"Gabite, grab beedrill!" Cynthia ordered, with the dragon complying, releasing metal claw as beedrill attempted to fly away from her, and promptly grabbed the bee-like Pokémon and held on as the thunderwave approached.
Before James could give an order to Beedrill, the electric attack hit both Gabite and beedrill, due to gabite being part ground type, the thunderwave had no effect. The same could not be said for beedrill as it was left in a heap as electricity sparked off of it, showing that beedrill was clearly paralyzed.
"Now gabite, toss beedrill into gloom!" Cynthia ordered seeing an opening she happily capitalized on. Lifting the poison type over her head, gabite threw the Pokémon towards gloom with a growl.
"Gloom move out of the way" Jessie ordered hastily, gloom jumped back in order to dodge, but then came face to face with Gabite.
"Gabite, hit it with flamethrower!" Cynthia called out the attack that ended any chance that Jessie had to react, Gabite took a breath and with a cry, spat out a jet of flame that covered gloom from sight.
Gloom hit the ground with a thud covered in burns and clearly unconscious. Gritting her teeth, Jessie pointed Glooms pokéball and said "gloom return" returning the Pokémon to its pokéball via a jet of red light. James repeated this process, knowing that they had lost this round and that they had to get away, after all these two needed to be reported to the boss if they were this good at such a young age.
"Now we're turning you into the police" Cynthia said seeing the clear sign that they had won. Her declaration was followed by a blast in between the two teams, which kicked up a smoke screen. After the smoke cleared, she looked around noticing that Jessie and James were gone "Gabite!" at her Pokémon's cry she looked up and saw what looked like a balloon that was shaped like a Meowth head rising up a little ways away.
"What took you so long?" James snapped at Meowth, who was already sitting in the basket.
"well I had to fill up the damn thing since we deflated it when we landed, you could be a little more grateful for me coming to get you at all" Meowth responded, much to Cynthia's surprise.
As the balloon flew off, Ash and Cynthia knew that they wouldn't be catching the trio now, so they decided to start on their way after Cynthia returned Gabite. Before long they had made it to the edge of the forest and were about 20 minutes away from viridian city.
Meanwhile
Jessie, James, and Meowth all stood in front of a monitor in the safe house that they were currently at, with beedrill and Gloom resting in a stolen recovery machine from a Pokémon center (I don't know what they are actually called). The screen suddenly turned on, with a man in an expensive brown suit sat looking back at them. "This had better be important" He spoke in a voice that meant to get right to the point and left no room for misinterpretation.
Sighing, James stepped forward, as he had agreed to make the report, "sir, the operation at the viridian city Pokémon center was a failure." He said evenly, knowing how much the boss hated when someone showed fear in front of him.
"I gave you a simple job" the boss began calmly, all three flinched knowing that he was anything but, "you were supposed to get in and steal all the Pokémon being held there, and you come to me with NOTHING!?" at this the boss smashed a fist onto the desk in front of him.
"There was an unexpected interference" James started before he was interrupted by the boss.
"The viridian Pokémon center is for rookie trainers and the injured, what could have possibly been able to stand in your way?!" the boss said, still furious with the trio.
"Sir we were forced to deal with a red headed girl, who held us off until the police arrive, she called herself misty waterflower" Jessie said slightly surprising the boss.
"Waterflower? Interesting, it certainly explains your failure if one of the waterflower children was there" he thought back to the interference by the waterflowers years ago. They were almost as much of an inconvenience as Ketchum had been prior to his death.
"Very well, I will overlook your failure in light of this new information, but I do expect a reason for the lateness of your report." The boss was a man who valued punctuality above almost anything else so the trio knew that they needed a good reason or they would be worse off than before.
"Well sir…" James began "while we were waiting in the nearby woods for an opening to make our way to the safe house, we were stumbled upon by a young trainer" at this the boss seemed slightly interested by their choice to mention such a thing.
"we attempted to capture him so he wouldn't reveal our location to the police when a friend of his, a blond girl with a gabite, showed up to help him" at the mention of a gabite, the trio noticed the surprise on the boss' face, which was understandable, as the entire family gabite belonged too were extremely rare in sinnoh, let alone Kanto.
"Continue"
"After her arrival, we were drawn into a battle with the two, which unfortunately we lost." Jessie said
"And you saw fit to report this to me why?" the boss looked like he was starting to lose his temper again.
"we felt that such young people being capable of commanding Pokémon so well would be good to know about for future reference, so as to avoid them interfering with our operations" James spoke.
At this the boss was surprised that it actually made sense. After all in their line of work, all threats should be known so as to prepare for future confrontation. He'd learned the hard way from Ketchum. He'd brushed him off as a mere nuisance, which ultimately led to him losing many operations from his interference until he finally took him seriously as a threat.
"The girl's name was never mentioned, but the boy's name was Ash" James said
"I see, and what exactly did they look like?" the two humans looked thoughtful for a moment before Meowth spoke up.
"I managed to get a picture of the two of dem boss" he said as he held up a photo he had taken when he had disappeared during the battle.
The boss looked at the girl first, noticing that she was about 12 or 13 and wore all black travelling clothes. He figured she had been travelling for a couple years, and had already been training her Pokémon, so she wasn't that much of a threat if dealt with correctly. Upon looking at the boy though, he froze. To the normal eye the kid didn't look like much, just another rookie trainer starting out, his clothes spoke of this by the tears that obviously came from a mishap due to inexperience. What caught his attention though was the boy's face, he had seen those same eyes before, and the birthmarks on his cheeks only drove the point further home, since while not the same, the birthmarks bore a resemblance to his most hated enemy. Hell even the kid's hair looked the same.
"Ketchum" He growled out as he looked at the picture of Ash. His previous encounters with Alexander Ketchum coming to the front of his mind, all of them raising his temper. Because of Ketchum, he'd been forced to fall back years on more than half of his plans just to get rid of the irritating man. He held no illusions that the boy, who was clearly his son, would be any less of a problem for him. He wished he could simply eliminate the boy, but he was no doubt being watched by the league and the rangers. He needed to play this smart.
"I have a mission for you three" at this, Jessie, James, and Meowth all snapped to attention. "I want you three two capture these two and bring them to me" at their confused looks he decided to add "I have a personal score to settle with the boy if he is who I think he is" at this the trio nodded and asked no more.
With that the screen turned off and left the two humans and Pokémon alone in the safe house. As they contemplated their new assignment, the recovery machine beeped, signaling that their Pokémon were healed and ready for their next battle.
That's all for chapter 3
A/N sorry if this wasn't something you liked, I haven't had any practice with fight scenes so I don't know how well I did on this one.
I've just thought of this but I am now going to look for a beta since stories with a beta I've always noticed turn out better. So if anyone has any suggestions please pm me to tell me.
Please review and offer any suggestions that you can think of to improve the quality of this story. If you are going to flame me please just explain what you are flaming me for, cause I will just ignore it if I can't understand what your complaining about.
Thanks for reading,
Akkeiton