Team Rocket had been watching Ash and his friends eat their meal enviously and reacquaint with each other. They had been ready to give up on catching any Pokémon that day when Ho-oh had flown over head and caught Ash's attention. They had followed the "twerp" as he rushed off after Ho-oh and quickly overtook him. They had climbed up to the roof of the next building. In fact they were the reason that Ho-oh fired a beam of energy at the building partially destroying the roof. Team Rocket had realised that they weren't going to be able to get anywhere near Ho-oh unless it was distracted. They had watched Officer Jenny usher Ash away from the building and had felt that their chance to catch a rare Pokémon would eventually come. They had continued to watch from the building next door as Ash eventually climbed up to the top of the building and edged closer to Ho-oh. They would never admit it to anyone but they were impressed with the "twerp", however they realised the moment the aura sphere appeared that that was their chance. They had made their way over to the same building and began to creep as close to the aura sphere as possible. Once they were satisfied that Ho-oh and Ash weren't going to see them, they confidently strolled right up to the sphere and contemplated how to break Ho-oh out of it.
"Meowth, try fury swipes. At least we can get an idea how strong that thing is," Jessie suggested. Meowth grinned and pushed his claws out of his paws and scratched the aura sphere furiously. Over the years Meowth had perfected his fury swipes. However the scratches on the aura sphere faded quickly. Meowth stopped and shook his head. "I'm not getting anywhere," Meowth concluded gruffly and turned to his team members. They both looked thoughtful. "What if we use all our Pokémon and see where that gets us?" James suggested. Jessie nodded and called out her Gourgeist and James called out his Inkay. They ordered for the Pokémon to use dark pulse and psybeam respectively. The attacks were deflected off of the aura sphere but there was a shadow of a grimace of pain on Ash's face.
Jessie and James stood back and thought for a little longer. Then Jessie snapped her fingers. "I know, we'll use that new cutting device the boss sent to us while our Pokémon and Meowth attack that thing. No way could that barrier thing stand up to that much," Jessie suggested digging a cube out of her pocket. James nodded and pulled out a similar cube. They both pushed a button and a knife of white energy appeared and began to move in a drill-like motion. They pushed their devices against the aura sphere and Inkay and Gourgeist used psybeam and dark pulse again and Meowth repeated his fury swipes attack. Ash once again looked like he was in pain however it was Ho-oh to first take notice of Team Rocket. It turned away from Ash and glared furiously at the group. The moment Ho-oh turned away from Ash the aura sphere flickered and vanished and Ash collapsed. Ho-oh powered up an attack and fired another beam of energy at Team Rocket causing them to fly off in to the sky. "Looks like we're blasting off again!" they recited as they disappeared. However Ho-oh was once again livid. With a single stroke of its wings, it took to the air and started to fly over the city and fire off random attacks.
The moment the group in the tent saw Team Rocket, they were furious. However the fact that Ash was so close to Ho-oh meant that if they tried to interfere the people in the tent might end up making everything worse. They had to hope that the aura would hold. However when they saw Ash's discomfort at the dark pulse and psybeam attack combination, they were immediately worried. But this also confirmed that what they were seeing was Ash's aura and not Ho-oh's. When Ash was clearly in pain with the full on assault on the aura, the group wanted to run up and help Ash. But they didn't, simply because they didn't know what they could do. Pikachu found watching his trainer in pain unbearable but the moment Ash collapsed, Pikachu couldn't take it any longer. Ash was always doing reckless stunts but he could usually stand them. However Pikachu knew it had to get to Ash and protect him once Ash fell unconscious. No one was quick enough to stop the Pokémon. They watched as Ho-oh attacked Team Rocket and then fly off in a blind rage.
So, that's Team Rocket. Always able to make a bad situation worse.
Until the next chapter.