Time continued fairly peacefully as the group continued their recovery. The therapists they'd been seeing helped work through the bad memories and nightmares their experiences had left them. Even then they all knew it would probably take time to fully heal from their ordeal. Even so, it wasn't long before they were well enough to leave observation, and in that time a few things happened. The group spent their time enjoying a peaceful Lavender, including visiting the Pokemon that were involved in the incident along with them.
During the time, Duskull and Lampent had taken a shine to the group, Ash in particular, as they'd both decided they wanted to join his team, and Ash definitely wasn't going to say no to getting a pair of Ghost-types. However, the two ghosts weren't the only ones they'd befriended during the time. Cubone was also another Pokemon they'd gotten close to. The little Pokemon had gotten quite comfortable with the group, yet his young age and his timidness made him uncertain what he wanted to do, something the group respected enough to leave him be. It wasn't until the group had been told to come to Saffron City that Cubone ultimately made a choice, the little Pokemon having chased after them before they'd managed to leave Lavender Town.
It was a surprise, but a welcome one all the same.
XXXX
"So…what do you think they want to see us for?" Ash asked, as the group was now in Saffron City again.
"I think that would be pretty obvious," Gary snorted. "I mean, we did play a pretty big part in stopping what could have been a catastrophe."
"He's not wrong," Brock mused. "What we did definitely would be considered a great service."
"But we were just doing what was right," Ash blinked.
"You're a real bleeding heart huh?" Misty said in amusement.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ash said a bit dryly.
"It means just shut up and accept whatever they give us," Gary snorted as the group made their way to Saffron City Gym.
Approaching the Gym they were greeted by a few Tauros Pokemorphs, all dressed in suits which made it clear they were government officials. The group was quickly ushered into the Gym, and before long they were at a room they hadn't been to before, though judging by the decor, this was the Gym's Office room, with Sabrina already there. "Welcome back, everyone," she said with a tired smile. Clearly while the crisis itself was averted, there were things she had to deal with.
"Glad to be back," Brock was the first to speak up, but he quickly became concerned. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," Sabrina said, though the tired smile said that that wasn't fully honest even if she appreciated the sentiment. "More importantly…" she said as one of the Government Officials came over with a pillow, which on it had 4 Medals. "Ash Ketchum, Gary Oak, Brock Slate, and Misty Waterflower, the four of you have gone above the call of duty and rendered a great service to all of Kanto," she said as the medals were brought closer to them and she soon stood before them. "In recognition of your deeds, the Government of Kanto has awarded you with these medals of honor," she said, as the medals were pinned to their chests.
"Um, wow." Ash said with wide eyes as he accepted the medal "Thanks a lot."
"We're glad we could help," Brock smiled.
"Kanto's our home too after all," Misty chuckled.
Sabrina nodded a bit at that, before her attention was on Ash and Gary. "Additionally, in light of what you have accomplished," she said as she looked to the desk in the room, before her ears unfolded and a pair of objects floated out of the desk and landed in her hands, before she presented the objects to the two. "You have both proven yourselves more than worthy of owning these Marsh Badges," she said, showing them the circular yellow Badges.
"Even though I hadn't even challenged the gym yet?" Gary said.
"You helped save Lavender Town. It's Saffron's sister town in a way, so consider this a thank you for that. Besides, battles are not the only way to earn badges." Sabrina said with a smile.
"Then we'll gladly accept these," Ash smiled as the two of them took the Badges, Gary quickly pinning it to his badge case, while Ash added it to the badges pinned in his jacket.
"Once again, thank you all of you, and may your journey be successful," Sabrina smiled.
XXXX
A short while later saw Ash, Misty, and Brock leaving Saffron City. Gary had already said his goodbyes and went on his own way. As such the three were back to continuing the journey, their next destination: Celadon City, the capital of commerce in Kanto, and more importantly, only a day's walk from there. Of course…
"A day's walk means Gary's probably already there," Ash grumbled a bit.
"Well, we could probably get there faster if we used some Moves, though are you planning on running all the way there?" Misty teased a bit.
"If I did that I'll probably be too tired to even face the Gym Leader," Ash said dryly.
"Well, at least you won't need to fight yourself," Brock mused. "Erika's not much of a fighter."
"Oh yeah, that's true. That means you'll only have to beat her in a Pokemon Battle to get the Badge, or at least clear the Challenge and do well enough in the Battle to get the Badge," Misty nodded.
"I guess that helps," Ash mused.
"Well, let's not worry about that just yet," Brock said, before taking out a pack of rice balls from his backpack. "How about a snack before we go straight for Celadon? I have freshly made rice balls, pickled plum filling."
"Sounds good to me," Misty grinned as she took one, Pikachu gladly helping himself to one too, the electric mouse quickly finding the sour taste to his liking.
Ash blinked before chuckling. "Sure, why not. In fact…" he said before releasing the rest of his team on hand, as Duskull, Lampent, Cubone, Charmander, and Pidgeotto. Knowing that the Celadon Gym was a Grass-type Gym, he'd set his team with that in mind…as well as to break in his new Pokemon. "Why don't we all join in?"
Brock and Misty chuckled at that. "Not a problem, I have plenty," Brock said, taking out more rice balls that were soon being shared by the Pokemon before he and Misty released their Pokemon too to let everyone have a share.
Ash chuckled a bit at the sight of the Pokemon all going for the rice balls, before going to get one for himself, Brock was about to grab one more, but what he found was…a whole lot of nothing.
"Huh? I was sure I had one more in this bunch," he blinked.
"I think our uninvited guest helped itself," Misty said, pointing. Everyone turned to where she was pointing, just in time to see a Girafarig who had the rice ball in its mouth, before it happily ate it whole, the look on its face making it clear it enjoyed it greatly.
"Guess your rice balls are really popular," Ash chuckled, not particularly miffed about the Pokemon eating his share considering how happy it looked. In fact…he could have sworn he'd seen this one before.
"Well, it is my own special recipe," Brock sweat dropped a bit as the Girafarig finished up its little meal, before walking into the group, going straight for Ash, before licking him on the cheek, much to everyone else's confusion.
"Huh, seems like this one likes you," Misty blinked, Pikachu cocking his head to the side in confusion.
"Wait a second…I know you," Ash said, realizing why the Girafarig seemed familiar, and right as he said that.
"Jeffrey, where'd you go?!" came a shout as someone came out of the nearby tall grass. They were a male Jolteon Pokemorph, about 17 years old with short ashen brown hair on his head and light blue eyes. He was lean with some muscle, giving something of a runner build and dressed in a simple shirt and pants with a coat on top, though the shirt was worn in a way that allowed the sharp fur around his neck to stick out, all of which looked a bit dirty, showing someone who'd been out in the field for a while.
"So it was you, Jeffrey," Ash chuckled, patting the Pokemon before turning to the Jolteon. "Hey Cedric, been a long time," he grinned as the Jolteon noticed him.
The Jolteon's ears perked up at that as he turned to the group and saw the Riolu. "Ash?" he blinked before grinning and running over to him, the two boys grabbing each other's right hands in greeting while putting their left arm over each other's shoulder. "It's been too long!" the Jolteon, Cedric, grinned.
"That's my line. I'm not the one going all over the world," Ash snorted good naturedly.
"Not to break up this touching reunion, but you two know each other?" Brock coughed politely, reminding the two that they weren't the only ones there.
Both boys seemed a bit sheepish at that, breaking away from each other a bit awkwardly. "Sorry," both of them said.
"Oh it's fine, though we're still waiting for an introduction," Misty said in amusement, while the Pokemon also showed varying degrees of amusement at the little display.
"Right," Ash said, scratching the back of his head. "Everyone, this is my old friend, Cedric Hale," he introduced.
"Who you calling old?" Cedric said with an amused look. "But yes, we've been friends for a long time. Our families have been friends for years so it just kind of happened," he chuckled. "We've known each other since…" he trailed off, thinking about it. Ash was doing the same and quickly supplemented.
"Since I was 5, so it's been 9 years," Ash said.
"Oh yeah, it's been that long, huh?" Cedric mused.
"Guess time flies a lot when you're literally going all over the world," Ash snorted. "Last time I saw this guy was almost a year ago, what with him playing Indiana Jones all the time," he chuckled, pointing his thumb at Cedric.
"Oh yeah, like you're gonna be any better now that you're on your Pokemon Journey," Cedric shot back good naturedly.
"Well, you two definitely seem close," Brock chuckled as he and the other had slight sweat drops.
"Though, I'm guessing you're an archeologist then?" Misty asked. The Indiana Jones bit was a big hint.
"Sort of. It's more my Dad, but I help find artifacts and the like too…and yes, sometimes I DO end up having to reenact those movies, and let me tell you it's NOT as glamorous as Hollywood makes it seem…and thankfully a lot less destructive. I do NOT condone the destruction of historical ruins," Cedric winced a bit at the last bit, right before Jeffrey came up and nuzzled him a bit insistently. "Of course, having Jeffrey here makes the job a lot easier," he said, Jeffrey looking proud before Cedric had a mischievous look. "My ever reliable side kick," he said with a shit eating grin, and Jeffrey playfully headbutted him on the shoulder.
"Wait a second… Hale… now I remember!" Brock said "Your father is Spencer Hale isn't he? I've heard about him before, he's apparently studying the Sinjoh Ruins up north, isn't he?"
"That and the Ruins of Alph in southern Johto. He's not home as often as he'd like to be, especially since mom… well, since we lost her a while ago." Cedric said with a slight frown, before he smiled "But he tries his best to be there, mostly for my little sister, Molly."
"...we're sorry for your loss…" Misty said sympathetically.
Cedric sighed but shook his head. "It's…alright," he said. "We're…adjusting…" he said.
A heavy atmosphere descended on the group, Ash putting a hand on his shoulder.
"...so, would you like to join us? I still have more rice balls," Brock said, taking out another pack. He was clearly trying to change the subject to something lighter after what his realization had accidentally brought up.
Cedric was about to say something, probably a respectful decline…until Jeffrey got behind him and pushed him forward…before leaning over and helping himself to another one. "Okay okay, we can join them you big glutton," he snorted in amusement at his Pokemon's antics.
The group soon enjoyed their break, Brock having packed enough for all of them. The mood was definitely a lot lighter, especially as Cedric was complimenting Brock's cooking quite a bit. As they ate however, there was a rustling in the nearby bushes, one that Cubone noticed and quickly pointed out.
The group's attention was immediately on the bush, which shook more until the one causing it stepped out, revealing…
"A Mankey?" Ash blinked, taking out his Pokedex and scanning the Pokemon. "Mankey, the Pig Monkey Pokemon. Mankey is a Fighting-type Pokemon native to the Kanto Region. Mankey are agile Pokemon that boast superior footwork. Though they may often seem calm, they are in fact quick to anger and thus should be treated with caution."
"Well…that doesn't seem accurate for this Mankey," Cedric frowned as the Mankey emerged. True enough, the Mankey seemed beat up, and looked a bit cautious of them.
"It's hurt," Brock frowned, and got up with the intent to help the Mankey, but the moment he did, it shied away.
"I don't think its going to let us get close like this…" Misty frowned, as when Brock sat back down, only then did the Mankey seem to regain some of its courage.
Ash frowned at the sight, looking at the Mankey then to his rice ball, and then at Pikachu who was happily finishing off his current one. He also noticed the Mankey eyeing the rice balls. "I think I have an idea," he said, looking at Pikachu who blinked.
A few moments later, Pikachu was walking over to the Mankey, a rice ball in hand. Once again Mankey seemed cautious, but decidedly a little less so with the smaller Pokemon approaching it. Pikachu continued walking towards the Mankey with a friendly look, quite liking this idea. When he sensed that Mankey was becoming more cautious but there was enough distance between him and the Trainers, he quickly stopped, put the rice ball on the ground and retreated back to the group.
With that done, the Mankey cautiously walked over to the rice ball, sniffed it a few times, before picking it up and eating happily.
The group smiled a bit as they watched Mankey continue to eat. "Wonder how it got those injuries…" Cedric frowned a bit.
"Maybe it got in a fight," Misty said, looking at the Mankey quickly finishing up the rice ball.
Ash didn't say anything but without missing a beat, he gave Pikachu another rice ball, and Pikachu didn't even need prompting to go over to Mankey and give it the rice ball, this time Mankey not shying away from Pikachu, and gratefully accepted the rice ball.
By the third time, Ash slowly approached the Mankey, and while the Pokemon still seemed a bit cautious, but Ash took it slowly, crouching down a bit so as to seem less threatening, offering another rice ball, and while the Mankey was still cautious, it ultimately accepted the offered food.
"Good to know you still have a good appetite," Ash chuckled a bit as he watched Mankey dig in.
Pikachu watched Mankey eat as well, before going a bit closer and speaking up. He was as curious as the others were about how Mankey ended up injured. When he asked though, Mankey sighed sadly, finishing up his rice ball before explaining. Pikachu listened intently, and when Mankey finished explaining, he quickly relayed it back to Ash.
Ash frowned as he listened, using his Aura to help with a few bits, but eventually he got the story and frowned deeply. "That's awful…"
"What happened to Mankey?" Brock asked.
"Pikachu says he was kicked out of his home, and he's worried the rest of his Troop will be the same too," Ash frowned.
"Why would they be in danger of being kicked out?" Cedric frowned.
Mankey spoke up at that to which Pikachu quickly relayed. "Aipom and Ambipom?" Ash blinked. "So Mankey's troop is having a dispute with a troop of Aipom and Ambipom, and I guess it's not going too well for them," Ash frowned.
"I thought Aipom and Ambipom were supposed to be friendly," Misty frowned.
"They usually are, but like all Pokemon they've got survival instincts, and when it comes to territory disputes…well…even the more docile Pokemon can get vicious," Cedric mused. "Ideally these disputes are settled peacefully, but when they aren't…it doesn't usually end too well for the losing side."
"Though the fact that Aipom and Ambipom of all things are being trouble for a Mankey troop is pretty surprising." Brock frowned "The only way they'd have an advantage is with a Flying Type move, and the only ones they can learn are Aerial Ace and Bounce, not to mention that most Mankey troops have a Primeape at the head, maybe even an Annihilape sometimes."
Mankey spoke up again, with Pikachu quickly translating to Ash, who winced at the information "They don't have one, just Mankey, and the Ambipom leading the rival troop was able to jump really high, so I'm guessing it has Bounce."
"That's really not good then." Misty frowned "Maybe we should help them out?"
The group paused at that. Sure they wanted to help, but if they just helped without thinking, they'd be simply switching the problem to the Aipom and Ambipom, which wasn't exactly better. Eventually Ash spoke up. "Would your troop be willing to settle things peacefully with the Aipom and Ambipom if possible?"
Mankey paused at that, before slowly nodding.
The group seemed…half convinced by Mankey's response. Oh sure, they wanted to help and were inclined to believe him…but as always one should remember that Pokemon were a lot like people at times, that meant that sometimes there were…less than trustworthy individuals. Either way, they soon asked Mankey to lead the way (right after Brock applied some Potion to help Mankey's injuries).
Getting off the main road, the group was soon led to a nearby forested area. Mankey led the way for them as they walked through, noting the various Pokemon that lived in the forest as well, mostly minding their own business. Eventually though they came upon a small clearing, one that had a number of other Mankey in it, a few looking similarly beat up.
Mankey immediately went over to his troop, all of which were glad to see him okay. The group smiled a bit as they watched Mankey reunite with his troop, before they eventually stopped, Mankey explaining the situation and that they were here to help. His troop were unsurprisingly happy to hear that, as with the way things were going they probably needed all the help they could get, which led to the troop clamoring around the group of trainers.
"Okay okay, we know you're eager but take it easy," Cedric chuckled a bit.
"We should help them with their injuries first though," Misty said with a slight smile, earning nods of agreement as the group started applying some of the medicine they had on hold, Pikachu even helping out as he carried a first aid box…one that held a deceptive number of restoration Berries in it.
Eventually they finished treating the Mankey troop, and from there it was time to make a plan. Granted they didn't go for anything too complicated. Their plan was basically to get both troops to sit down and talk things out, maybe find a peaceful compromise, and if needs be…twist the arm a little.
Hey, Pokemon could be stubborn too. As long as nobody took anything too far it would still be okay.
With that plan in mind, Mankey was once again leading the group, this time to a different section of the forest, the troop following not far behind. They soon found another clearing, but where the one they found the Mankeys in was sparse, this clearing had a river going through it, with a few fruit trees growing along the river. All in all it was clear this was a choice spot, and judging by the Aipom swinging around, they clearly thought the same.
Seeing the Pokemon swinging around, particularly the single Ambipom who was clearly the leader of the troop, Ash couldn't help but take out his Pokedex and scan the Pokemon available. "Aipom, the Long Tail Pokemon. Aipom is a Normal-Type Pokemon native to the Johto Region. Aipom live atop trees and use their tails to help them both move about quickly as well as grab on to objects," Dexter said before the image on the screen shifted to Ambipom. "Ambipom, the Long Tail Pokemon. Ambipom is a Normal-Type Pokemon first discovered in the Sinnoh Region, and is the evolved form of Aipom. Ambipom make extensive use of their two tails, with some Ambipom even forgoing the use of their arms altogether."
The Aipom troop noticed their presence, and while most of the Aipom kept their distance, a few approached curiously, with Ambipom in the lead, especially when they noticed the Mankey. Seeing that, Brock was the first to make a move, quickly putting up his arms disarmingly. "Sorry to intrude, but we're aware there's a little…dispute going on," he said. "We were hoping we could help settle things peacefully. No need for things to get ugly, right?"
Some of the Aipom seemed to think about that, but others gave them…wow, the looks some of them were giving them suddenly made them feel like they were a bunch of cheesy salesmen trying to sell them some questionable product.
Ambipom dropped down to ground level, and started trilling its name a few times, pointing at the Mankeys in a way that…made it clear it wasn't very happy. The Mankeys sure didn't like that, as the Mankey that was the leader of the troop came forward and started shooting back. What followed was a bit of shouting, and some fist waving, and well…
"Do we want to know what they're saying?" Misty asked with a huge sweat drop, while Jeffrey and Pikachu both had blushes, and not the good kind either, to which Jeffrey leaned over to Cedric and whispered something into his ear, to which Cedric developed a twitchy eyebrow.
"Let me guess…if Mom heard this she'd have washed both their mouths out with soap?" Ash guessed dryly.
"Ooooh yeah…" Cedric nodded dryly. "I think diplomacy might have just gone out the window," he said…right before he and Jeffrey narrowly avoided a Swift that had missed its intended target and went their way. "Never mind, it just did!"
At that point the Aipoms and the Mankeys who were clearly more inclined to fight had joined in and it soon became a ball of violence despite the Pokemorphs and other Pokemon trying to stop this.
"We need to get them to stop!" Brock gasped.
"Preferably in a way that won't make things worse," Cedric added, thinking what best to do. "Jeffrey, can you grab them?"
Jeffrey looked at the ball of violence…and shook his head. No way was he going to be able to get a hold of them with how many of them there were…not to mention they were all moving a lot.
"Okay, that's it! You all need to cool off!" Misty shouted as she fired a Water Gun at the ball of violence, stopping it abruptly as the now drenched Mankeys, Aipoms, and Ambipom blinked owlishly from the abrupt dousing, which was the opening Jeffrey needed to grab the two sides and pull them away from each other.
"Well…that's one way to stop a fight," Ash chuckled awkwardly while Pikachu sweat dropped. Either way, with the fighting halted for now, Ash and Pikachu went up to them. "I don't know what happened for things to end up like this, but can you tell us what's wrong? Maybe we can work something out," he said, and when the Pokemon at least seemed willing to talk, he had hope that they could resolve this peacefully.
XXXX
Ash was feeling pretty hopeless now. What seemed like a chance for a peaceful solution…well…it wasn't that the Pokemon weren't willing to consider it, but every time they made some headway it felt like some small, honestly petty thing came up, which somehow always caused the situation to devolve into an argument. At the rate things were going, they weren't likely to find a peaceful solution. If nothing else it hadn't escalated again, and right now the two sides were basically in a 'I'm not talking to you' position.
"This is going nowhere…" Cedric groaned, massaging the side of his head.
"And its not like they CAN'T get along…but they're letting all these little things get in the way of that. I mean, sure little things add up, but…" Misty groaned as well.
"If only they'd put their differences aside…" Brock sighed.
"Question is how are we gonna get them to do that?" Ash sighed tiredly, Pikachu and Jeffrey letting out a tired sigh of their own as well. However, right as the group was thinking how to try and broker peace next, the ground shook as something just fell from the sky and smashed into a bit of the forest nearby.
"The heck was that?!" Cedric said, grabbing onto a tree as he almost fell from the sudden shaking.
"Whatever it is, it sure was big." Misty said, coughing at the dirt that got kicked up by whatever that was, and when it settled, they saw it was a…
"Is… is that a giant banana?" Ash said slowly, looking at the very literal giant banana.
"And it's made of metal…" Brock added almost numbly, just staring in shock at the overgrown metal fruit.
The many simian Pokemon looked at the giant banana oddly, able to tell this was clearly fake, but approached it nonetheless, mostly for curiosity's sake.
"Either something was flying past, or this is a trap," Brock frowned, before he, Ash, and Misty gasped. "You don't think-?!"
"You got an idea where that Banana came from?" Cedric blinked.
"We might," Ash frowned as Pikachu already looked ready to fight. True enough, as the Mankey and Aipom looked closer, the Banana had hatches opening up and revealing arms which immediately started scooping up the Pokemon and pulling them in till all but two of the wild Pokemon in the immediate area had been captured, the Pokemon soon finding themselves in a a containment unit that was revealed from another opening on the banana as they struggled to get out but couldn't escape.
"Nice try, but you're not gettin out of that!" came a familiar voice.
"I knew it," Ash groaned. "Its Team Rocket again!"
"Huh…somehow for a crime organization I imagined they'd be less…goofy," Cedric sweat dropped because a giant metal banana…he honestly wasn't sure if he'd consider this clever or just plain weird.
"These guys have tried every other tactic so far, they were bound to do a silly one eventually." Misty said, annoyed at the rocket trio coming out of nowhere like this.
"Hey, who are you calling silly?!" came the annoyed voice of Jessie as a piece of the mecha banana slid down, revealing a glass window, and inside was…
"Are you sure you guys aren't a bunch of peas in a pod rather than a banana?" Ash said in deadpan when he saw the three rockets stacked up on each other's shoulders like a totem pole as they controlled the mech from the inside, with James at the bottom, Jessie in the middle, and Meowth on her shoulders.
"Hey, I'm not too crazy about this plan either, but we were on a budget!" James shot back, looking a bit red in the face, clearly from exertion rather than anything else. Roserades weren't known for their physical strength after all.
"But it was worth it!" Jessie chuckled.
"Yeah, Mankey and Aipoms might not be much, but this many will definitely make the Boss happy, especially with an Ambipom thrown into the mix," Meowth laughed.
Said Ambipom who was among the Pokemon that hadn't been captured clearly took offense at that, as he was quickly trilling, demanding his troop's release. He was soon joined by the Mankey that had also managed to evade capture, namely the same one that Ash and Co. had helped.
"Translation?" Jessie and James asked.
"These two actually think we'll give their friends back if they tell us to," Meowth chuckled, right before Ambipom shouted something at him, waving his arm angrily. "Hey watch it, just cause we're bad guys doesn't mean you can use that kind of language on us! And especially not when there might be kids watching!"
Nobody questioned what he meant by that, especially since they had more important things to worry about. "Maybe you won't let those Pokemon go, but don't think you're gonna get away with this!" Misty glared.
"You really think it will be that easy?" Jessie smirked. "We may not have planned for you twerps, but we were planning for a fight all the same!" she laughed, right before the totem pole shook a bit.
"Great, can we please close the hatch, I think I'm losing balance like this!" James shouted, his legs buckling a bit, to which Meowth quickly threw a switch that closed the hatch again.
"Activating Battle Mode!" Meowth declared through the speaker, before the banana sprouted legs, which added with its arms, meant it was now standing upright, and just to top it off, a section on the top opened up…revealing a robotic face.
"Okay, this just got a bit weird," Ash said dryly, because that had to be one of the strangest machines he'd ever seen…and it was already strange to begin with.
"It may look weird, but this Bananarobo is a lot stronger than it looks!" Meowth said gleefully from the controls. Right after saying that, the mech moved forward, reeling back its arm before punching forward and said appendage extended for a punch, forcing everyone to get out of the way. However, where the punch made an impact, the mech shifted, pulling the extended limb with it, and managed to knock Brock who had been the closest to it away.
"If that's how you want to play, then so be it!" Cedric growled before letting loose a Thunderbolt.
"Help him out, Pikachu!" Ash shouted, Pikachu not even hesitating to let loose his own Thunderbolt, both attacks hitting the robot, which reeled back a bit but after a few moments, seemed perfectly okay.
"Nice try, but we already made this robot insulated, so electricity won't be a problem!" Jessie smirked. "After several times getting electrocuted, you think we wouldn't plan for that at least?"
"Somehow I thought they wouldn't," Misty sweat dropped, right before they were forced to dodge again, Ash and Misty firing Dark Pulse and Water Gun respectively, but the hull of the robot seemed to hold.
The Pokemorphs weren't the only one fighting, as Ambipom and Mankey had taken advantage of Team Rocket's focus on the party to quickly get on the robot and start hitting it, hoping to free their friends, but all their strikes weren't doing anything.
"Nice try, we knew what we were up against, so this robot's been reinforced," James chuckled as the robot reached over and flicked both of them off.
"Reinforce this!" came Brock's annoyed voice as he'd recovered from being knocked aside, allowing him to charge at them, his horn spinning in a Horn Drill as he rammed into the robot. The machine shook and the metal creaked as the horn tried to break through, but before it could make any real progress, the limbs came down, grabbing him and instead of trying to push him back, lifted him up, killing any momentum he had.
"Nice try, but that's not gonna work!" Meowth laughed before Brock was tossed aside, landing on the ground with a groan.
"You okay, Brock?!" Ash gasped.
"I'll live, but if we don't do something quick, they're gonna get away!" Brock said, pushing himself back up.
"Nothing we're throwing at it is working though," Cedric frowned, as next to him Jeffrey was panting, the Girafarig having tried to see if he could lift the robot or something. Too heavy.
"Change of plans then," Ash frowned as he grabbed one of his Pokeballs. "Lampent, I choose you!" he called out, as Lampent was soon floating in the air.
"Wait, since when did the twerp get a Shiny Pokemon?" Jessie blinked in surprise.
"No idea, but no way we're letting THIS slip by!" James said, as the robot tried to grab Lampent, but Lampent was faster, able to evade the attempts to grab her.
"Lampent, use Fire Spin!" Ash ordered, and Lampent was happy to oblige, firing a blast of flames that started circling the robot.
The flames quickly grew, seemingly stopping the robot's movements, but right as they thought this might work, one of the limbs shot out and managed to grab Lampent. Unfortunately, Lampent was one of the Ghost-types that had a solid body meaning she couldn't just phase through the hand grabbing her.
"That didn't work either?!" Misty gasped.
"How durable did they make that thing?!" Cedric growled.
"We came here hunting Fighting-types, of course we made it durable!" Team Rocket laughed, as while the robot certainly looked a bit singed, it wasn't about to go down anytime soon. However, as they were laughing, Ash noticed something.
"Hey, look over there," he said, pointing at a particular spot, specifically where Brock had managed to hit it with his Horn Drill. It wasn't a lot of damage…but there was a small dent in it. "Its not much, but its a weak spot now."
"Hey you're right, nice work Brock," Misty chuckled.
"Personally I'd hoped I could have made it bigger, but I'll take it," Brock chuckled.
"True, but there's a slight problem," Cedric frowned. "How are we gonna get close enough to do enough damage?"
That caused the group to pause…right before the sound of something being hit came up again, as once again Mankey and Ambipom were attacking the mech. Unlike last time the two were actually working together, having apparently realized that they weren't getting anywhere alone, but even so they were still attacking, trying to save their friends…and actually now that the mech was busy with Lampent in one hand (she was also shooting fire to try and get the mech to let her go), they were actually able to evade the strikes from the mech.
At that point Ash got an idea, and immediately ran forward.
"Ash, what are you doing?!" Misty gasped.
"I got an idea!" Ash shouted back as he ran forward, Pikachu quickly chasing after him. Ash saw his friend come with him and decided to roll with it. "When we get close, Iron Tail on the dent Brock made!" he said as his own arm glowed as he prepared a Force Palm. Pikachu nodded quickly as his tail started to glow as well. The two soon managed to reach the mech as Team Rocket were preoccupied with both keeping a hold on Lampent and trying to shake off Mankey and Ambipom.
"Hey, try here!" Ash shouted, right as he and Pikachu struck the dent, causing the dent to start to cave in further, showing that yes it was very much a vulnerability.
Mankey and Ambipom saw what happened, and immediately got the idea. However, Team Rocket also realized the problem. "Don't think it's going to be that easy!" Meowth growled as they tried to swat the group away, but while Ash was forced to back away, Mankey, Ambipom, and Pikachu were able to maintain their position having dodged the limb and started striking at the dent.
"This is bad, they're too fast for one arm, and if this keeps up, that dent won't be a 'small' problem for long," James frowned.
"But what do we do? We got our hands full!" Meowth gasped.
Jessie growled but made a choice. "We can find a Shiny Pokemon some other time! What we can't easily find is a haul like this!" she shouted, before with a shift of the controls, Lampent found herself tossed aside, as now both limbs were being used to go after the Pokemon attacking the dent, knocking them aside.
Ash moved quickly and caught Pikachu, while Ambipom hit a tree, falling to the ground, knocked out from the impact. Mankey however stubbornly refused to stay down, charging forward and punching the dent a few times only to be swatted away again and again.
"Nice try, but we already thought about a Mankey's strength!" Meowth laughed as while Mankey WAS able to land hits…he wasn't denting it fast enough before he was knocked aside. Even so he kept trying and each time he was swatted away harder and harder, until one swipe that sent him flying back…only for his flight to be stopped with a grunt as the group had gotten behind him, and stopped his impromptu flight.
"Don't give up Mankey, we can beat them!" Ash encouraged.
"Yeah, we won't let them get away with this!" Brock agreed, Misty and Cedric nodding as well. In Cedric's case while he had no real experience with Team Rocket, he wasn't about to let a bunch of criminals get away so easily.
Mankey seemed touched by their words, and quickly gained a determined look, before he quickly charged forward again. "Okay this is starting to get annoying," Jessie sighed.
"Let's deal with this one and get out of here," James said right as Meowth aimed the mech to strike at Mankey, the two limbs coming down, however, right as they were about to crush him, Mankey held up his arms…and stopped the incoming limbs. He grunted, but he quickly pushed back, eyes burning with determination, before his entire body started glowing brightly.
"Is that-?!" Misty gasped, as Mankey began to change, his body growing larger while his tail disappeared, before the light faded, leaving in his place a large Primeape… one who glared at the robot in rage.
"He evolved!" the party gasped as Ash quickly took out his Pokedex and scanned the new Pokemon. "Primeape, the Pig Monkey Pokemon. Primeape is a Fighting-type Pokemon native to the Kanto Region, and is the evolved form of Mankey. They are aggressive and tenacious Pokemon, and those who truly anger them will find themselves being chased to the ends of an entire Region."
"Well…sounds like Team Rocket are screwed," Misty sweat dropped.
Back with Primeape, he roared angrily before with a burst of rage induced strength, he managed to lift the entire robot and smash it into the ground, rattling the whole thing, but the robot's hull held up. For now.
"Make that royally screwed," Brock added, as Primeape started punching at kicking the robot in various spots, causing more dents to start to form, but the hull still held up.
"Uh…Primeape?" Ash ventured, causing Primeape to pause and look at him, before he pointed at the original dent which had already gotten bigger from the earlier punishment. "Smash," he reminded.
Primeape was all too eager to be reminded of the target, as he went straight for the original dent. The flurry of punches and kicks was quite scary to be near to, but Primeape was going bananas on the mech, and once he'd dealt enough damage, he held up his arm, which glowed in preparation as he Karate Chopped the mech so hard, the whole thing shook…before the mech fell apart, freeing the Mankey and Aipom, the latter of which soon went over to Ambipom and helped their leader. Team Rocket also tumbled out of the destroyed mech, looking quite dazed, before they regained their bearings…just in time to see they were surrounded by two troops of VERY angry monkeys.
"Maybe we should have gotten out of here after we caught most of them…" James groaned.
"Gee, ya think?" Meowth said sarcastically as the Pokemon bore down on them.
One epic beat down and subsequently being upper cut into LEO at the end of said beat down, Team Rocket were out of the picture, a few Flying-types squawking in surprise as the now black and blue trio flew right past them.
With them gone, peace soon returned to the forested area, with a little bonus. Ambipom shook paws with the Mankey that was the leader of the troop. The experience had made the two troops realize if not for the willingness to work together, they wouldn't be free right now, and with that, it wasn't hard to broker peace between the two troops.
"All's well and ends well," Cedric chuckled.
"Yeahp. It was a bit of a detour, but I don't regret it one bit," Ash chuckled as the group prepared to head for Celadon City once more. Waving their goodbyes they soon left the forest and continued on their way. However…
"Pi?" Pikachu blinked as he heard something, before turning around and… "Pika pika!" he said, catching everyone's attention.
"What is it, Pikachu?" Ash asked, to which Pikachu pointed and they saw… "Primeape? What are you doing here?" Ash said in surprise as Primeape stepped out of the bushes, walking over to them.
Primeape spoke up a bit, and Pikachu quickly translated. "You want to come with us?" Ash said in surprise, earning a nod from Primeape.
"Guess we made quite an impression," Brock chuckled.
"Well, we did help his troop out quite a bit," Misty mused.
"No issues on my end if he wants to follow, though…who's gonna be his Trainer?" Cedric asked, and in response, Primeape went over to Ash and held out his fist in an obvious invitation.
"You want me to be your Trainer?" Ash blinked, to which Primeape nodded firmly. "Alright then," Ash chuckled a bit before fist bumping Primeape. "Welcome to the team."
XXXX
And done, here we have a modified version of the Mankey/Primeape episode, as well as introducing a new character in Cedric Hale. He'll be sticking around for a while so hope you like him.
And on top of that, here's another Retold File.
File No. 12: Medicine
Due to the culture of the world that has a large emphasis on combat in one shape or form, medicine has become an integral part of the system on top of treating illnesses and injuries sustained outside of regulated battles. At the base, Pokemorphs naturally have a strong resilience making lower tier medicines minor to redundant, and as such most minor treatments work around temporarily improving or boosting a Pokemorph and/or Pokemon's natural healing abilities be it via energy emitted from certain machines or natural remedies that cause the same effect.
However, while strong the natural healing factors do have a limit. As such, when suffering from an illness or injury that is beyond the natural healing factor's ability to handle, medicine quickly resembles our world's equivalent, with medications be they herbal or chemical aiming to treat illnesses as well as operations and procedures to treat injuries such as broken bones or even internal bleeding.
Additionally there are quality of life medications and supplements that are available, and mixed with the first two result in the average Pokemorph and trained Pokemon living fairly long lives.
