With Ross the Samurai's help Ash finally found his way out of Viridian Forest, thus concluding a rather hectic yet exciting chapter of his so far very short story as a Pokemon Trainer.
In Ash's opinion, Pewter City was much too gray compared to Pallet Town. Why would he compare Pallet Town and Pewter City, you may ask? Because to the boy the size of the two places was approximately the same. Small place with only a few houses. But Pewter City pulled ahead in having two exciting places compared to Pallet Town's one. Where Pallet Town only had Professor Oak's Laboratory, Pewter City had the Pewter Museum and the Pewter Gym.
Ash chose to go to the latter before the former, but not right away. No, he still needed to come up with a viable strategy against the Pewter Gym Leader and his Rock Types. Ash didn't know who the Gym Leader was or what they were like since the guide only explained what type the Gyms were, so he wasn't sure how to approach the battle. Would he have a rigid battle style? Or would he be more freeform, adapting to the battle situation? Professor Oak had told Ash that a good trainer always knew how to adapt to the situation, but also had a certain style about their battles. For someone like Ash who was still developing as a Pokemon Trainer, he didn't quite understand how one person could embody such contrasting traits.
"Spearow, Butterfree, and Pidgeotto are at a disadvantage being flying types… but Butterfree's Sleep Powder might come in handy" Ash muttered, looking over the moves of his Pokemon on his Pokedex. To him, his only hope of winning the Gym Battle was banking on Pikachu, who too was at a disadvantage since Electric Type moves were ineffective against Rock and Ground Type Pokemon.
With a frustrated sigh, Ash called his Pokemon back. The four had been engrossed in a mock battle, Pikachu and Pidgeotto on one team while Spearow and Butterfree on the other. The four stopped and came over to their trainer, all of them fully aware of how frustrated Ash was.
"We need to come up with a strategy to fight the Gym, but pushing ourselves won't do any good" the trainer spoke, his eyes scanning over his panting but still willing to push on Pokemon. "We're calling it for today. Tomorrow we're going to sit and think of a strategy."
There was no way he was going to jump in and blindly challenge the Gym and have his Pokemon end up in bad condition. No, he had to be smart at this.
His four Pokemon, while looking a little disappointed, nodded to the plan. Ash called three of them back in his Pokeball while Pikachu jumped onto his shoulder.
"Smacking your head into a rock hurts," Ash told Pikachu as they made their way to the Pokemon Center from the old run-down Power Plant shack they were training near. He was about to say something more when a blur slammed into his face and knocked him out.
When he came back to, he was surrounded by people. Pikachu was standing on his chest, looking down at him with worry.
"Who threw that rock at me?" Ash groaned.
Pikachu was the only one who laughed or rather made a noise that sounded like a laugh.
"Nobody threw a rock," a man with a red cap and a beard said, throwing a disturbed look at Pikachu. "You got hit in the face by a Mankey."
"A… Mankey?" Ash asked.
"Yeah. They've been living in the meadows close to Mt. Moon but suddenly they've moved here and have been causing trouble since."
Ash frowned a bit, before pulling out his Pokedex.
Mankey, the Pig Monkey Pokemon. Light and agile on its feet, and ferocious in temperament. When angered, it flies into an uncontrollable frenzy.
The sound of hooting and hollering had Ash look up before he could think further about the Mankeys.
The stall not far from them was being vandalized by the Mankeys.
The people screamed in outrage.
Ash sent out Pidgeotto, Butterfree, and Spearow. Mankey was a Fighting Type Pokemon, good against Rock Types. If he was able to catch one of those Pokemon, he'd have an advantage.
Pikachu's Thundershock broke the Mankey squad away from the stall before Pidgeotto's Razor Wind spread them apart. Four of Ash's Pokemon against a Mankey each. It wasn't a tough fight, three out of four Pokemon had an advantage while the fourth one was simply faster. The Maney squad seeing no victory began to run away. Ash, his Pokemon and the crowd of people who were shouting close behind him. They cornered the Mankey in an alley.
And Ash immediately felt like there was something wrong, a feeling he couldn't shake. This was not just mischief on the Pokemon's part.
The boy took a step forward and put himself in between the mob and the Mankey.
"Wait," he said to them, before turning to the Mankey. They were on guard, an obvious thing. Ash raised his hands and walked closer. At a respectable distance, he knelt, keeping his eyes on the Mankey and only on them, his Pokemon calm behind him.
"What's wrong?"
-x-
Men and women in black could be seen going in and out of Mt. Moon from where Ash, a few people from Pewter, and the Mankey squad squatted behind a bush. Ahs knew those uniforms all too well. He may have run into them once, but the memory was quite new, and the events that led to him seeing them were quite raw. A whole Pokemon Center worth of Pokemon stolen in one night…
"We should call the police" Ash whispered to the group gathered.
One of the women nodded, slowly parting from the group and carefully making her way back to Pewter to get in touch with the police.
"Over there" a man this time hissed.
Caged behind iron bars were Pokemon, and not just one or two of them but a lot, close to the entrance of Mt. Moon. The men and women in black walked in front of them, stopping from time to time before walking again.
"That is just cruel" Ash whispered.
"We trap Pokemon in Pokeballs, we're not in any place to judge that" a boy his age whispered.
"The Pokeballs are designed to be comfortable so the Pokemon captured are not in any danger and are comfortable in there" Ash argued.
The boy only scoffed.
"We need to free them" a man whispered.
Just then two Rocket members dragged a man in a lab coat out of Mt. Moon, ropes binding his arms to his body. The man struggled, but one of the Rockets slammed a stick across his face and knocked him out. He threw the man aside in a cage with the Pokemon.
Ash stiffened at the sight.
"We need to save the man too" Ash whispered.
"Team Rocket will have Pokemon with them, and only you have Pokemon amongst us" the man muttered.
"Not if we free the Pokemon in the cages" the boy from before pointed out.
"If we can create a distraction, the Mankey can go and free them" Ash whispered, looking at the four Mankey.
The four nodded in unison.
"Okay" Ash called out his other Pokemon discretely and the four of them set out. Immediately there was uproar as Pidgeotto, Pikachu, Butterfree and Spearow began harrassing the Team Rocket members. The Mankey squad snuck forward, using Karate Chop to break the Pokemon free. The captured Pokemon joined in and began attacking Tea mRocket, while the four Mankey carried the lab coat wearing man back to the group.
"We need to get him some help," a man said, all of them watching the lab coat-wearing man breathe shallowly while bleeding from his forehead.
A sudden explosion rocked the ground.
Ash turned and saw Spearow get knocked out of the air. He dashed out of the bush, shouting for the rest to take the man to get some help, and dived to catch his Pokemon before he crashed into the ground.
"What do we have here, James?" a woman said.
"A twerp I see, Jessie," said a man.
Ash looked up, cradling Spearow close to him.
A woman with red hair and a man with blue hair stood before him, their black uniforms a contrast to the bright day.
"We don't take kindly to twerps do we, James?"
"We certainly do not, Jessie."
A Pokemon burst out from under the ground and another seemed to drop from the sky.
Arbok, the Cobra Pokemon. The pattern on its belly appears to be a frightening face. Weak foes will flee just at the sight of the pattern.
Weezing, the Poison Gas Pokemon. Where two kinds of poison gases meet, two Koffing can fuse into a Weezing over many years.
"Arbok, Posion Sting!"
"Weezing, Sludge!"
The two Pokemon attacked in unison, their individual moves combining into a single powerful one.
Pikachu and Pidgeotto combined their Thundershock and Razor Wind to negate the Poison Sting and Sludge combo.
The four mankey slammed into the Arbok and Weezing to send them back, before standing protectively in between Ash and the enemy.
"How cute, they think they can beat us" Jessie cooed, the edge of mockery in her tone.
"So adorable" James cooed as well with the same edge of mockery.
Then both their faces morphed into a dark and serious one.
"Hyper Beam!" they both said in unison.
Arbok and Weezing fired Hyper Beam at the seam time, the two beams merging into one large mega beam.
That move was too powerful, his Pokemon would not be able to handle them. On instinct he called his Pokemon back into their Pokeball, Pikachu included, while also throwing four more Pokeball to capture the four surprised Mankey. Inside the Pokeball, they would be safe.
But he wasn't.
He screwed his eyes shut and waited for the inevitable.
The ground shook, the earth burst open in front of him, and the move never reached him. He opened his eyes to see a pillar of stone in front of him.
"You did good, kid" a voice spoke from the top of the pillar… no, not a pillar. It was a Pokemon and on top of it stood a man.
Onix, the Rock Snake Pokemon. There is a magnet in its brain that prevents an Onix from losing direction while tunneling at 50 miles per hour. As it grows older, its body becomes steadily rounder and smoother.
"Tch, so you came" James sneered.
"I will not allow you to get away with this Team Rocket" The man jumped off of his Pokemon and stood beside it, arms folded over his bare chest.
"You're too late, Gym Leader Brock! We're already done!" Jessie laughed.
Another explosion rocked the earth and the entrance to Mt. Moon collapsed.
"Good luck saving the people stuck inside" James grinned.
"You're not getting away with this" Brock called for his Onix to subdue them.
Weezing got in between and used Smokescreen.
Dark smog enveloped the entire meadow and Ash covered his mouth and eyes so he didn't inhale it or hurt his eyes. When the smog cleared, Team Rocket was nowhere to be found.
"Damnit" Brock swore under his breath. He ran straight for the entrance of Mt. Moon, commanding his Onix to start digging. Ash rushed after him, sending his Pokemon out to help.
Immediately Pikachu blasted him with Thundershock.
"What was that for?!" Ash snapped.
Pikachu was not happy.
Nor were the other three Pokemon.
Not even the Mankey squad looked happy.
They all glared at Ash and Ash glared back. But the trainer was the first to step away. They were, after all, angry because Ash put them in their Pokeballs and was ready to sacrifice himself to keep them safe.
"Kid, a little help" Brock muttered.
-x-
Hours had gone into digging. Onix was assisted by the Mankey squad and the wild Pokemon, while Ash's Pokemon helped with clearing the way of loose stones that fell after the digging had ben done. The people trapped were saved and the one grunt who couldn't get away was taken into custody by the police.
"I'm sorry I had to capture you back there" Ash said to the Mankey squad, he'd already apologised to his Pokemon for putting himself in danger. "You guys can go now. It's safe."
Three Mankeys walked away after happily thanking him, one remained looking up at him with admiration. The other three only looked back once before continuing to move away.
"You… want to stay?" Ash asked.
The Mankey nodded.