Spot Inspection

Chapter 14

-Ash-

Tray in hand, Ash stepped out of the elevator, walking down the hall of the hotel he and Jane were staying at. They were well ahead of schedule, so he'd insisted that they take a break to recover after that last Gym. Jane's family had been insistent on that too. So, they'd travelled around looking for relaxing or fun things to do. They hit the beach, went to amusement parks attended concerts, and for the last few days had just been relaxing.

"Breakfast in bed." Ash grinned as he stepped into the room, Jane starting to stir from the smell of hot food.

"Morning." Jane yawned, giving him a small smile as he sat the tray on her lap, "You know, a girl could get used to this kind of treatment."

"Of course," Ash chuckled, stealing a kiss "have to keep you around somehow."

"Hmmm, smart man." Jane chuckled as she squeezed his hand, "Any word from sis?" the second question was asked with some hesitance but nowhere near as bad as she'd been right after the Fuschia Gym incident.

"Yeah. Koga and his sister Aya have officially been tried and convicted." Ash nodded, Jane's sister having filled him in that morning. The Jenny family had gone out of their way to get Jane's statement and make sure she didn't have to see the two again, not wanting Jane to have to be in the same room during a trial "Aya was charged with assault and reckless endangerment while Koga was convicted as an accessory for what they did to you. The investigators are still looking for any 'skeletons in the closet'. Koga's daughter actually testified about the full range of the traps and her father refusing to tone them down. She's been named the new Gym leader for an interim period. With a minder of course."

"That's good at least." Jane gave a small shiver at the thought of her attackers before focusing on breakfast, "So, anything else you wanna do before we get back to work? Saffron city's our next stop."

"Actually, yeah." Ash grinned as he tossed her an add in the local paper he'd found while downstairs collecting food "Grandpa Canyon is in the middle of a fossil rush. They're welcoming anyone who wants to excavate and allowing people to keep some of the fossils they find." The group running the search did have first dibs after all.

"A fossil dig!" Jane damn near had sparkles surrounding her at that, his girlfriend having a love of rocks and fossils that she didn't tell most people about, "Hell yeah!"

"Then finish eating up and we can go." Ash chuckled, heading to go take a shower. His surprised yelp when Jane joined him shortly thereafter was swiftly drowned out by his girlfriend's cackling.

-Jane-

Unable to keep the grin from her face, Jane near bounced as she got off of the bus that took them to the dig at Grandpa Canyon. All around she could see amateur and professional archeologists both digging and exploring, each area with amateurs overseen by an expert. It all looked great…theeeeen she overheard something that she knew would piss her boyfriend off.

"Gary, Gary, he's our man! If he can't find 'em no one can!" a gaggle of cheerleaders in hot pink uniforms were surrounding the Grandson of the arrested professor. Given it wasn't illegal to be given a second starter or to be related to someone who did criminal activities Gary Oak hadn't been stopped on his journey. Didn't mean he wasn't still a prick though apparently. Before she could even try to slip back onto the bus to suggest to Ash that they come back some other day or find something else to do, he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry about it Jane." Ash gave her a gentle smile, pulling her into a warm hug, "I know how excited you are for this. I'm not going to let one idiot ruin that for you." Jane hugged him back hard at that. Ever since the Fuschia Gym incident she'd been isolating between latching onto Ash to the extreme and not giving him a moment to breath or forcing him away and not wanting anyone near her. She hated how weak her panic had made her feel, but he didn't get upset. He hugged her when she latched on and gave her the space she needed when she shoved him away. She'd have to be sure to find something to reward him with when she could.

"Oho?! Is that you Ashy-Boy!" the Oak in a tacky Indiana Jones cosplay smirked as he walked over, noticing her halfway over and gaping at the sight of her holding Ash close.

"Come on Jane," Ash didn't even turn towards Gary, ignoring the brunette completely "I'm pretty sure we still need to sign in with the people running the dig."

"Of course love." Jane decided to screw with that Gary prick a bit, pulling Ash into a short but intense kiss before pulling him along, noting a gaping Gary out of the corner of her eyes. A few forms later and they were being shown around the dig site to get settled in, a professor from a local university leading the way.

"Gary, Gary, he's the best! Found a fossil before all the rest! Gooooo Gary!" hearing the stupid cheerleaders and the grandstanding of that oak imbecile, Jane glance over to see them digging without any supervision.

"Let me see this." The professor escorting them paused to take the fossil out of Gary's hands to examine it.

"Pretty nice huh?" Gary smirked smugly, glancing over at them to send her a flirty wink that made her gag, "Found it on my first try. Pretty sure that's the fossilized brain of an extinct Pokémon!"

"This is…" the professor examined it closer while Gary got excited and Ash wrapped an arm around her waist, giving Gary a glare for the wink.

"A brain?!"

"Fossilized Pokémon Manure." The professor shrugged as Gary stumbled in place by the disappointing answer, "Wait a minute young man, where is your overseer?!"

"My what?" Gary blinked in confused as the Professor suddenly started looking angry.

"You've been digging without supervision?! Have you even signed the requisite forms?!" The elderly man was getting angrier.

"What forms?" Gary continued to dig his hole deeper, not realizing the mess he was making for himself.

"Absurd! You imbecilic hooligan!" The professor finally exploded, tearing Gary a new one even as the cheerleaders cried pitifully.

Calming himself for a moment, the Professor turned towards them "I'll be along shortly. Follow this path up there and wait for me by the sign." The man pointed "I, or one of my colleagues, will be along as soon as I'm done dealing with this fool!" with that said, the man turned his ire back onto the spoiled Oak.

"Come on Jane." Ash wrapped an arm around her waist as they walked, "Let's go." As they walked, Ash shook his head, "I still can't believe that idiot wore a fucking whip out here."

"At least my outfit is better. Right Ash?" Jane smirked as she bounced ahead to make sure Ash got another good view of her Lara Croft style outfit.

"Jane, you make any outfit you wear better." Ash chuckled but still admittedly let his eyes roam, much to her satisfaction. As they continued towards the upper levels of the canyon where they'd have a good view of the area, Jane noted a familiar looking Pokémon standing on a ledge. Grabbing Ash, she shoved him back against the wall of the canyon, listening in as they overheard a particularly idiotic Team Rocket group who'd attacked them several times but always managed to escape before being arrested. Gloating about their plan to blow up the canyon with dynamite to collect Pokémon fossils.

"Slaking, get em!" Ash sent out his stater, the absurdly powerful Pokémon roaring as it charged the idiotic team rocket.

Trusting Ash to handle those three, Jane pulled a radio from her pocket, knowing the channels her family used she found the one that her cousin overseeing the dig site was one "EVACUATE EVERYONE NOW!" Jane screamed into the radio.

"Holy! Jane?! What are you-?" Her cousin's staticky voice came out of the radio.

"Team Rocket have explosives placed! They're trying to blow up the canyon!" Jane shouted back. Her cousin clearly got the message as she heard emergency alarms blaring within seconds.

"Oh shit, we're caught!" the talking meowth panicked even as the criminal's Arbok and Wheezing dropped unconscious.

"But we've still already won, the fuse is lit!" the woman of the trio crowed as Jane noted the burned fuse.

"You idiot!" Jane threw a hard punch at the woman's face as she ran past them, bringing out Wartortle and holding him under her arm while Ash did the same with Horsea, the water types trying to put out the quick burning fuse.

"You won't stop our plan!" the male human of the criminal trio tried chasing them.

"You're just going to destroy the fossils you idiot!" Ash snapped back as the oaf tripped over his own feet.

"It'll whaaaaat?!" the criminal trio shouted in shock, having apparently not realized that dynamite would destroy the fossils along with the canyon and the diggers. Jane saw the criminal's hot air balloon soon fleeing the area while she and Ash continued to try and put out the burning fuse, it burning faster than she or Ash could catch up to it, or for their Pokémon to handle.

Rounding a corner, she saw the pile of dynamite waiting, the fuse dangerously close. She only had a moment to see that before Ash pulled her back, wrapping his arms around her and putting himself between her and the explosives. It was all she had time to process before the sound of an explosion ripped through the air, and she found herself falling into the darkness, held tight in her boyfriend's arms. The short fall was cut short with a horrible crack as Ash landed first, cushioning her so that she remained unharmed even while his leg bent at an unnatural angle, and the sound of a rockslide covered the hole they'd fallen into.

"Ash!" Jane scrambled off of her boyfriend, hastily trying to set the bone in his clearly broken leg. From well up above, she could hear the furious roars of Slaking who hadn't been able to keep up with them. Thankfully, that mean the powerful ape was working to clear away the rubble.

"Espeon, get out here!" Jane called out all of her and Ash's Pokémon, wanting the psychic type to float Ash away from the spot they'd fallen in from in case more stone fell down.

"Eon!" the psychic eeveelution didn't hesitate, the Pokémon all fretting over the injured Ash who was doing his best not to scream.

"Hang in there Ash." Jane tried not to cry from frustration at seeing her boyfriend in this much pain. He'd had to protect her yet again and she wasn't able to do anything but set the damned bone. She was shaken from her frustration when her starter, now a powerful Arcanine, growled at the darkness. Red eyes were glaring at them from the shadows, Pokémon that should have been long extinct stalking out.

But she didn't have time to panic or wonder how that was possible. "Everyone, keep us safe until Slaking can open a way out!" Jane shouted, even as she gripped Ash's hand tight, refusing to leave his side. Her started and Ash's Chameleon roared out steams of flame, making a shield wall between them and the ancient fossil Pokémon.

"Good…job…guys." Ash grit out, the fire types keeping the flames up even as Pikachu blasted lightning attacks whenever the fossils tried to douse the flame wall. It looked like the stalemate would hold, until she saw the fossil types all freeze, fear overtaking the rage and hunger in their eyes.

"Something's coming." Jane muttered as she saw the fossils all scatter deeper into the caves. Her observation was answered by the sound of flapping wings.

"Aero!" a massive Aerodactyl appeared, able to easily fly over the flame wall. It powered through the thunderbolt Pikachu managed to get off, claws outstretched to grab at her and Ash. Ash, despite his broken leg, shoved her away hard so he ended up being the only one grabbed by the Pokémon.

"NO!" Jane was done letting her boyfriend shoulder all this shit alone. Charging after the mon trying to escape with her Ash, Jane leaped up, grabbing onto the pokemon's tail even as the rest of their mon returned to their pokeballs to not get left behind.

Up above, she could hear the sound of the boulders shifting, a ray of light shining down to show there was now an exit. An exit Aerodactyl saw too.

"Aaaaaerooooo!" the ancient flying type shot upward, shotting out of the cave as Slaking, her cousin, and the other diggers who'd come towards the source of the explosion saw her and Ash in their current situation.

"No more you giant prick!" Jane snarled, climbing up the tail and back of the flying type, "Wartortle!" catching her mon as it came out of its ball, she gripped the flying type with her legs "WATER PULSE!" the super effective attack hit the back of the flying type's head, staggering it even as it dropped Ash from shock. She'd have panicked if she hadn't seen Slaking already leaping up to catch Ash, safely securing her boyfriend meaning she didn't need to hold back anymore.

"Aaeeero!" the flying type hit the ground, glaring at her as she and her water type leapt free. That glare turned to a look of shock as her Wartortle got enveloped by a shining white light as it grew.

"BLAST!" the now fully evolved water turtle glared back.

"All right." Jane glared, not planning to let this thing get away, "Finish this off with hydro pump!"

"Blastoise!" the massive water attack rocketed towards the caught off guard Aerodactyl, the creature probably not even sure what Blastoise was given how long it was likely trapped or hibernating in the cave. It also wouldn't have known what her pokeball she'd thrown behind the attack was, assuming it saw the sphere at all.

Either way, they did their job. And with a click, she'd caught the fourth member of her team. "You're going to be a pain to make behave, I just know it." She grumbled as she grabbed the pokeball and hurried back to Ash's side. Right now, her boyfriend was the one who needed her help.