Chapter 4

Now we are at Route 104, and May asks, "Is there any chance that we stop for lunch soon?"

"But I haven't even seen a Pokemon yet!" Max says.

The siblings start to bicker about what to do next, one pulling me and the other pulling Alice in two directions.

"Stop it, you two!" Alice yells as they stop. "We will take a quick lunch break and then decide which way to go."

"Good idea." I say. "I'll make some Rice Balls."

When I'm making the rice balls, I can hear the siblings arguing. Max says, "While we're waiting..."

May asks, "Hey, what did you have there?"

Then he takes out a pack of chocolate cookies out of the backpack, and says, "Only one. Sorry, it's my emergency stash."

"So if we split it, we'll each get one bite." Well, since it takes some time to cook the rice balls, but I think I'm quite done and besides, what can go wrong with just a cookie?

Just then, we hear yelling, "I finally found a Pokemon!" "It stole our chocolate!"

"Guys, what is going on?" I stop making rice balls and notice that Max and May are chasing after a Taillow. Alice says, "A Taillow."

"Give back that chocolate!" May yells.

"Careful May! When there's a Taillow, there is always a flock of them!" Alice yells.

We chase after the Taillow and we find it perches in a tree and happily scoffs down the chocolate. Alice says, "Looks like the Taillow is really hungry."

"I wonder if my chocolate just filled it up." Max says.

"Guys! Check it out!" I hear Pikachu saying as we notice the fruits on the tree.

"Wow, I mean, our rice balls can have some garnish." I say. "Pikachu, help us knock the fruits down from the trees!"

As Pikachu does so, numerous Taillow appear and snatch it up before it hits the ground. Then more Taillow appear and surround the group, looking angry.

"This is bad... I think they're angry." I say.

"I think they're upset because we might be in their territory." Alice says.

Then we see the Taillow trying to attack us, and I have Pikachu use Thunderbolt, but when the Taillow are knocked down, they just recover quickly. Alice says, "How come they recover so quickly?"

"Taillow are fierce and they won't back down no matter how strong are the opponents." I say.

Pikachu keeps shocking and hits one with the chocolate beak. "You know, I think that one is the leader." May says.

"Well, the chocolate at its beak means that it is he who started this." Max adds and he continues to fight the Taillow. The Taillow shrugs off Pikachu's attack and leads the others in a mass attack on the group.

"Nothing seems to work on them!" Alice yells.

Then as the Taillow are attacking again, I hear a voice, "Lunatone! Use Explosion!"

Much to our surprise, a Lunatone appears in front of us and uses Explosion, sending the Taillow away from us. I can't believe it. In front of us are my siblings, Mark and Minami.

"Mark!" "Minami!" Alice and I gasped in delight. The two of them turn around and we share a hug.

I say, "I can't believe you guys are here!"

"We were trying to meet you at Rustoboro City until we saw a Thunderbolt." Mark says.

"It is so nice to see you again, Pikachu!" Minami says as Pikachu waves his little paws.

Mark says, "Looks like you just hurt a little bit, huh." Then he sprays a potion, and Pikachu winces in pain.

I say, "Let me introduce you to our new friends. This is May and her brother Max. And these two here are my younger siblings, Mark and Minami." I say.

May says, "Hi there." Max says, "Nice to meet you, wow, does that mean you two are Pokemon as well?"

I can see Mark and Minami flinch, they look at me with a strange glare and I say, "He figured it out on his own, it's not my fault... Besides, their father is the gym leader of Petalburg City, so it is okay to trust them."

Minami says, "I bet you guys are going to become gym leaders too."

"I don't know about that." "I don't even have my first Pokemon yet."

"Don't worry, Max." Mark kneels and puts his hands on his shoulder, he says. "That takes time. It'll happen before you know it."

Minami says, "We also have some Pokemon back home, I only have Lunatone, Delcatty, and Mawile with me."

Mark says, "As for me, I have Blaziken, Hariyama, and Ludicolo."

"Your Lunatone's Explosion attack is awesome!" Max says.

"Hey, thanks." Minami says.

Alice says, "Ash... I just realized... our belongings..."

"Oh no! I forgot that I was making lunch!" I gasp as we rush back to the campsite that we set up. "They're gone! There were 4 rice balls that I finished making!"

"Is it possible that you ate it already?" Mark asks.

"No, when I finished them May and Max were yelling at Taillow eating their chocolate." I say.

"So they disappeared during the battle." Alice says.

"Then the other Taillow must have eaten them... I'm so hungry..." May groans.

"If that's the case..." Mark says. "Brother, why don't we make some stew, the one that Mom made for us?"

"That sounds nice." I say.

Minami says, "I'll give the Pokemon food to Pikachu." Pikachu is also cheering.

As we are preparing the stew, we hear a voice, and the same Taillow that ate the chocolate has come. Alice says, "It's that same Taillow!"

"What does it want now?" May asks.

Then we hear him having a battle challenge. Max asks, "Can you tell what they're saying?"

Minami says, "That Taillow is here to fight, he just issued a battle challenge."

Mark says, "Brother, you go battle the Pokemon, leave the stew to me."

"Okay." Then I stand beside Alice and the others and I say, "Pikachu and I accept your challenge."

"But why? What's the point?" May asks.

"I guess Taillow wants to prove that he is the best Pokemon. A strong opponent always makes Taillow want to battle, I guess it wants to decide the clear winner when battling against Pikachu." Mark says.

Then we battle over a stream, and I have Pikachu use Thunderbolt, but Taillow refuses to back down after being hit by that move a lot of times.

"It still wants to battle?" Alice asks.

"Brother, you have to put an end to this battle before it takes any more damage." Minami says to me.

"Ended? But how?" I ask.

Minami says, "I think you'll have to catch it." Minami says.

I nod as I prepare a Pokeball, and then I throw it at Taillow, eventually capturing it. After sending it back out, I try to calm the Pokemon, and then Minami spritzes it with medicine and I wipe the chocolate off its beak with a handkerchief.

"So Taillow, how do you feel now that you're joining our group?" I ask, and the Taillow is happy as he hops onto my shoulder.

Taillow: The Tiny Swallow Pokemon: Normal and Flying Type. Taillow courageously stands its ground against foes, however strong they may be. This gutsy Pokémon will remain defiant even after a loss. On the other hand, it cries loudly if it becomes hungry.

Just then, the flock of Taillow are now approaching us. And Alice gasps, "Woah, don't tell me they all want to battle Pikachu."

"It is a possibility." Mark says.

When my new Taillow are trying to convince them, we hear a familiar sound. "You won't talk them out of it, Taillow."

"Those bad guys again!" Max gasps.

"Seriously?" Alice groans a little. "Team Rocket..."

Minami says, "So they're the ones who followed you about 493 times since you started your journey?"

"Something just never changes..." I mutter, "And by the way, now it is 494th time."

Then they revealed that they were the ones who stole my rice balls and ate them. Mark says, "Hold on, you mean they're the ones who stole the rice balls that you made?"

"Well, look what we have here. It seems that there are two more people looking like the twerp!"

"Did the twerp have more siblings?" James asks.

"Of course we are siblings." Minami says. "And how dare you steal our brother and his friends' lunch!"

"Yeah, we're starving!" May yells back.

"If you want them so bad then you shouldn't have put them out in the open!" Jessie yells as Meowth orders Taillow to attack.

"Oh no you don't! Go! Torchic!" May sends out the Pokemon, but it keeps running forward.

"Wait, Torchic! I still haven't told you what to do!" May panics.

"Brother, what's the deal?" Minami asks.

"She just got Torchic from Professor Birch and she still can't do anything yet." I say.

Torchic is too enthusiastic and walks straight into a boulder. "Return!" May yells as she sends back the Pokemon. "I've never been so humiliated..."

As the Rocket trio orders the Taillow to attack, it is then Mark's cooking alarm goes off.

"The stew is ready." Mark says.

"And I'm ready to eat it!" May says.

As the group looks at the stew, Alice says, "Smells good."

"Looks good." Max says.

"And since our Mom taught us this recipe, it is going to taste good." I say.

The Taillow decide to stop their attacks and I ask, "Hey, would you like to join us for some lunch?"

The Taillow nods and the Team Rocket mourns the failure of their plan. "Wait, Pikachu hasn't eaten!" Jessie says.

"We'll attack when he's weak with hunger!" James adds.

"Another dirty trick!" Meowth says.

"Pikachu! Thunderbolt!" I yell, and then the trio flinch as they are all sent flying. "Sorry about that, Team Rocket, but this time you're the ones who're too late. Pikachu already ate Minami's Pokemon food."

Then hearing their words when sending flying, we continued to have lunch. May says, "You weren't kidding, that was a great stew, guys."

"Yeah, and looks like the two of you also have the same appetite as us." Mark says. "Which makes cooking even more fun."

Then we see the Taillow leaving, so my own Taillow flies off and says goodbye to them.

When we see May and Max arguing about getting lost in the Petalburg Forest, we notice a lot of Treecko running around. Max yells, "It's a Treecko!"

"So this is where they live!" Alice says.

"Good, I really wanted to get a Treecko ever since I saw it at Professor Birch's lab." Then I chase after the Treecko before they run away, and the one catching up my speed is Alice and Pikachu, but when Alice falls off the cliff, Pikachu stops and I decide to grab her hand, only to fall with her.

"Alice, are you alright?" I ask.

"I'm fine." Alice says. But we're in awe at the sight of the giant tree in front of us. It doesn't have any leaves, and it also looks magical... only that it is dying... It is then a twig is shot at us, and Alice asks, "What's that?"

We look up to see a Treecko holding a twig. We are surprised to see how fast the Treecko is and how it slams Pikachu into the tree with a Pound attack. Pikachu's Quick Attack are not great against him.

Then we notice we're surrounded by a bunch of Treecko, one of the Treecko, who seems to be the elder, is trying to persuade the Treecko to leave the dying tree, but the Treecko is angry and wants to protect the tree.

I say, "This is a little awkward..."

Alice says, "Yeah, but I wonder what the view is like on top of the tree."

When the Treecko is away, we climb up the tree and watch the few. It is already sunset and we're worried about Mark and the others. Then I decide to have Taillow find the others and bring them here while we're waiting for Treecko.

We find that he's carefully pouring the water at the roots and really trying hard to revive the tree. And he's doing all night long. So we decided to help him out. He thought we were here to destroy the tree, but after explaining that we also wanted to revive the tree, Treecko decided to trust us and continue working.

Just then, we feel the ground shaking just when we're getting some water, and we rush to find a bulldozer destroying trees and capturing the Treeckos. Noticing the giant R and the familiar motto, I don't need to guess who are the ones causing this.

We try to attack them, but it seems that their machines are now electrical-proof, and Pikachu is also captured by them. Then they send out Cacnea to battle the Treecko. I say, "I still wonder what happened to their Arbok and Weezing..."

But the Treecko is really smart, he jumps into the balloon and pushes Jessie at the release button, and now all the Treecko are fleeing. Then he taunts Cacnea into using Pin Missile at the balloon, which causes it to break and they're sent flying.

"Thanks, guys!" After getting Pikachu back, we thank the Treecko. The other Treeckos then decide to help us out, but then we notice that after the commotion, the giant tree is now splitting into two.

Alice says, "I have a rope!" But just before we can do anything, we see that after the tree splits into two, a giant tree emerges from it.

"Look at that..." I gasp.

And there are more trees growing beside the tree because of the seeds falling to the ground. But everything is just imagination, back to reality, the tree falls down dead, and a seed just lands in front of Treecko.

I frown, "Hey, Treecko. I think the tree is trying to say thank you to him."

Then the Treecko wants to battle us, and it is then Mark and the others arrive. I yell, "Pikachu! Thunderbolt!"

Treecko keeps dodging the attacks with ease, and Alice says, "We have to try something else, this isn't over yet."

Then I have Pikachu use Quick Attack to get close and then hit Treecko with the Thunderbolt. Then Treecko falls to the ground and I throw a Pokeball, capturing the Treecko.

Treecko: The Wood Gecko Pokemon: Grass Type. Treecko is cool, calm, and collected - it never panics under any situation. If a bigger foe were to glare at this Pokémon, it would glare right back without conceding an inch of ground.

After sending the Treecko out, the elder gives giving Treecko the seed, so that he can plant it where the tree used to belong. Then we all bid farewell to the Treeckos and continue our journey.

Then we're having lunch until May's Torchic is being ambushed by a Seviper. Treecko manages to save him, but he gets injured in the process. We take him to the Pokemon Center, but after healing him, he just runs off. We see him Pound near the waterfall, but Pikachu is once again captured by Team Rocket. They also catch the same Seviper who hurts Treecko. Treecko decides to get his revenge as he defeats the Seviper and sends the Team Rocket Trio flying.

Here is a new chapter, and in this chapter, Ash gets the two Pokemon that you all know about. I hope you like this chapter and the next chapter will be the Petalburg Forest meeting the evil team of the Hoenn Region.

Ash + Alice's Pokemon:

Butterfree x2 (One Pink), Pikachu, Lapras, Meganium, Espeon, Steelix (Crystal), Mantine, Treecko, Torchic, Poochyena, Zigzagoon, Wurmple x2, Lotad, Seedot, Taillow, Wingull, Ralts x2 (One Shiny), Surskit

May's Pokemon:

Torchic, Wurmple

Mark's Pokemon:

Blaziken, Ludicolo, Hariyama

Minami's Pokemon:

Delcatty, Mawile, Lunatone