Pokémon Ash's and May's Hoenn Journey, Chapter 18 Poacher
Owned Pokémon
Ash- Pikachu and Taillow
May- Torchic and Azurill
Brock-Fortress
We join our heroes as they continue to navigate their way through Peatlburg Wood with Max's PokeNav, But Max's older sister was lagging behind. "Let's take a break," She said while lagging behind the group.
"But si-" Max was about to say.
"I agree with May; we should take a break," Ash interrupted Max.
Max was surprised to hear Ash say they should take a break. Brock was pretty surprised, as it was hard for him to take breaks, because he usually wanted to get to the gym as fast as possible. "Looks like someone is getting a crush" Brock thought to himself, smiling at the thought.
Suddenly taken down to the ground with a hug by May, she said, "Thank you so much, Ash."
Ash blushed "You're welcome, May, but please, can you get off of me?" Ash asked, even though he was enjoying the hug.
May blushed a bright pink. "Oh yeah, sorry, Ash," She said while embarrassed.
Brock watched the scene and lightly chuckled, while Max looked annoyed at the sight. May got off of Ash reluctantly, as she was enjoying hugging him and the feeling of him against her. "Well, there is a Pokémon center nearby," Max chimed in.
Brock is excited at the thought of seeing Nurse Joy and grabs May's hand and begins dragging her to the Pokémon center. Ash watched with a feeling in the pit of his stomach that he couldn't explain, but May pulled her hand away and fell back into the tree. "Ouch," She said as she hit the tree.
May examined the tree, and she saw that it was torn in many places."Guys, come and look at this tree," May said, grabbing everyone's attention.
The rest of the gang went over to the tree and also saw that the tree was torn in many places. "Wow, I wonder what happened?" Brock asked out loud.
"Maybe a Pokémon battle," Max suggested.
"I don't think it was; look, there's a net," Ash said.
The gang then arrived at the Pokémon Center and saw Nurse Joy at the counter. "Wow, Nurse Joy, how do you get here from Oldale Town?" May asked her.
"May you remember, the Pokemon center is ran by a family of identical-looking Nurse Joys" Max remained his sister.
Just then a Officer Jenny burst through the door. "Nurse Joy, have any Pokemon here been treated by a poacher named Rico?" Officer Jenny asked Nurse Joy.
"Officer Jenny, we found a tree that had been damaged in many places and also a net," May chimed in.
Officer Jenny looked at May "Where is it?" Officer Jenny asked about the net.
Ash handed the net over to Officer Jenny. "Now, where do you find this?" Officer Jenny asked them.
Meanwhile, Team Rocket is over a hill, overlooking at a Pokémon Center, As they plan to trap Ash and his friends when they return. "Guys, can't we be more creative?" Mewoth asked both James and Jesse.
While he was talking, Mewoth slipped and fell down a hill. At the bottom of the hill, Meowth finds a cage full of Ekans, and Mewoth quickly finds out that the Ekans were caught by poachers and abused by them. Mewoth tries to free them from the cage, but the cage is electrified. At this point, Jame and Jess, along with Weezing and Arbok, arrive, and they are soon outraged by the captured Ekans Jesse commands her Arbok to use Acid on the Ekans, to free them. "We can use them as an Ekans army," Jesse suggested.
"But, we can't free them all," Meowth replied.
"James, we'll have to cut back," Jesse replied.
After being reassured that the Ekans wouldn't be hurt, Arbok used Acid on the cage to melt it, but it was to no avail, Weezing used sludge to help, but before it could launch its attack, A Fearow appeared and attacked Weezing.
The Fearow's trainer appeared in a SUV, introducing himself as Rico "The Ekans are mine," Rico said.
"Who are you?" Rico asked them in a demanding tone.
Team Rocket introduced themselves with their motto, and Weezning also saw that Rico had captured Koffings as well. "Under my client's request, they want me to poach Poison-Type Pokémon, and they give me a bonus for every Poison-Type Pokémon that I evolve," Rico explained to the Team Rocket Trio.
"I'll leave you all alone if you hand over your Arbok and Weezing" Rico said in a threating tone.
Having gone through so much with Abrok and Weezing and motivated by the capture of the Ekans and Koffings, Both Jess and James refuse the deal. Both Arbok and Weezing defend themselves from Fearow with attacks, but the Fearow dodges the attacks and lands a Fury Attack on both of them. Fearow tries to finish off Abrok with a Drill Peck, but instead was caught in a wrap attack by Arbok. Rico withdraws Fearow and calls out his Pupitar and tells it to use sandstorm to send Team Rocket blasting off "Weezing and Arbok are too weak anyway," Rico told himself.
Ash and the gang all arrive at the place where they had found the net. Max discovered tracks, and Ash sent out his Tailow to search for Rico from the skies, Elswehre, with Team Rocket. "We have to free them, Ekans and Koffings," James said, vowing to free them.
Jesse nodded her head yes in agreement, vowing also to free the Ekans and Koffings. Suddenly a swarm of Kakuna and Beedrill appear, causing Team Rocket to run for cover. But a Cancea saves them from the Beedrill and Kakuna with a Pin Missle. After thanking the Cancea with Pokémon treats, "Rico must be gone" James commented.
Arbok, with its body lowered, senses that Rico is nearby, and they both say goodbye to the Cancea. Tailow soon locates Rico in the SUV and returns to Ash with the news. Unknown to them, Rico is ambushed by Arbok and Weezing, using Fearow to blow the smoke away, discovering that Mewoth had used Smokescreen to sneak in and pick the locks off of the cages, being able to withstand the electric cage from taking Pikachu's electricity all the time, When Fearow tried to attack Mewoth, Arbok intercepted it with a Headbutt into the cage, knocking it out. Mewoth is then able to free the Ekans and Koffings from the cage, While both Arbok and Weezing were able to knock the Poaching gun out of Rico's hands.
Angered, Rich sends out his Pupitar, who quickly evolves into a Tyranitar. James orders another Smokescreen, while Mewoth guides the Ekans and Koffigs to flee into the wilderness. But Tyranitar fires a Hyper Beam, a warning shot. Jesse quickly called out Wobbfuet and used counter. Yet Tyranitar quickly knocks out Wobbfuet with a Hyper Beam, with no other choice, Jesse and James tell Arbok and Weezing to leave, Though they were reluctant at first, Abrok and Weezing leave them with tears in their eyes.
Tyranitar tries to use a Hyber Beam on them before they left, but Mewoth uses Fury Swipes on its face, while Jess and James also use "Fury Swipes" attacks of their own to stall for time, although they were left battered, as Weezing and Abrok look on in horror as they witness their former trainers getting hurt, and then they tearfully leave. Eventually Rico and Tyranitar defeat the pair, and he leaves to look for the escaped Pokémon, Team Rocket tries to latch onto Rico's boots, but he quickly shakes them off, leaving them lying on the ground.
Afterwords, Rico is confronted by Ash and the gang along with Officer Jenny, but Rico's eyes were on someone, as he looked up and down May's body. "Damn, she looks fine," Rico said with lust in his eyes.
May was embarrassed and disgusted at his comments, shyly hiding her cleavage away from the pervert's wondering eyes. This angered Ash, as he put a protective arm around May and hid her behind him. "Don't you ever talk about her in that way," Ash growled with anger.
"My Hero" May thought to herself while blushing a bright shade of pink.
Officer Jenny then tried to arrest him, but Rico quickly sent out his Fearow to resist the arrest, but Fearow was knocked out by Pikachu's thunderbolt. Officer Jenny then tells her Growilthe to knock the gun and PokeBall away from Rico. Unable to avoid the arrest anymore, Officer Jenny commands him to release the poached Pokémon, but Rico tells her that they had already been freed from a couple of fools.
"With how many bad guys like Team Rocket are around, there are still some good guys left in the world," Ash commented, completely unaware that Team Rocket had been the ones to save them.
As James and Jesse were walking, the same Cancea from before came back with Cookies in its hand, not being able to open it, to which James grabbed the bag of cookies and opened it for the Pokemon. "Cancea would like to come with me?" James asked the Pokemon.
"Cancea," It replied, giving James a hug, accidentally poking James with its spikes as it hugged him.
Back with the gang While walking back to the Pokémon Center, Ash noticed that May was still blushing and shyly covering her cleavage. He backtracked and began walking more slowly, so he could talk to May in private. "Are you okay?" Ash asked in concern.
May looked at Ash and smiled, at how sweet he was. "Yeah...I'm fine; it happens all the time," May replied, not telling the truth.
Ash could tell that May was telling the whole truth. "May, I know we haven't known each other for very long, but you can talk to me," Ash told her.
May let out a sigh. "Well, I don't for some reason, but it really bothered me this time," she confessed to him.
Ash gave an empathic look. "I think it's because he was a criminal," Ash suggested to her.
"Yeah, you're probably right," May replied.
"Well, don't worry; I promise to protect you no matter what," Ash promised her.
May smiled sweetly at him. "Thanks, Ash," May said, giving him a peck on the cheek.
May ran in front of him, madly blushing, leaving Ash with his thoughts and also madly blushing.