Inner Strength part 5

Ash pulled his tail out of May’s grip, ran out of the Pokecenter, and darted towards the forest with May right behind him. Brock and Max where still with Misty II and Pichu in the Pokecenter.
Ash ran into a clearing right beside the Pokecenter, when Ray appeared right in front of him.
Ray waved away some of the blue smoke that was left behind from teleporting and looked at Ash. Ash looked at Ray and started to think to himself, This can not be happening.
“Hello, Ash,” said Ray.
Ash looked back at the forest and thought about Pikachu.
“I don’t have time for this!” shouted Ash and ran to the forest.
“Hey, wait! I have to br-,” started Ray, but Ash was already running into the forest and completely forgetting about him.
Ray stood there for a second, thinking that Ash was going to fight him willingly. Then started walking towards the forest that Ash had just ran into.
May saw Ray walking towards the forest and saw his Team Aqua uniform, so she knew that he was going to hurt Ash. So, she tried to stop him by running ahead of him and placing her body between Ray and the forest, showing him that she won’t let him through.
“What are you doing?” asked Ray.
“Stopping you from getting to my friend,” said May.
Ray laughed.
“How are you going to stop me?” asked Ray.
May grabbed one of her Pokeballs and pressed the white button that turns it to normal size.
Ray understood what she meant and popped a Pokeball out of his arm. May just noticed that his arm was metal and was shocked by the discovery.
“I see you like my arm,” said Ray.
“Why would someone cut off their arm just to replace with a robotic one?” asked May.
Ray’s face reddened with anger.
“I didn’t cut off my arm! Your yellow friend is the reason for this!” said Ray while holding up his metal arm and letting all the gears grind as loud as they can.
May wasn’t sure if he was telling the truth or not, but she didn’t have time to think because Ray was getting ready to call out his first Pokemon.
“ Go, Chikorita!” said Ray as he threw out his Pokeball and released the Pokemon inside of it.
<Chikorita is a grass type Pokemon, so it’s weak against fire. This is going to be easy,> thought May.
“Go, Combusken!” shouted May and threw out her Pokeball and released her Pokemon.
Ray looked at her fire type Pokemon, and did a small chuckle.
He walked over to his Chikorita and laid his robotic arm on it. His palm started to glow blue. The glowing blue light, then, turned transparent and crawled over Chikorita’s body.
Chikorita got a little nervus that all this stuff was crawling on her body, but she stood still with her master’s cold, metal hand on her.
Soon, all the transparent, blue stuff was on Chikorita’s entire body. Then, the blue stuff faded away.
Ray took his robotic hand off of his Pokemon and stepped away.
May wasn’t sure of what to think of what has just happened, but she didn’t want her enemy get a clear shot of her Combusken.
“Combusken, use flamethrower!” shouted May to her Pokemon.
Combusken inhaled deeply, then blew fire out of his mouth, aiming at Chikorita.
Chikorita stood there, waiting for her master to command her to do something, and watching the flames dancing over to her, but Ray didn’t say anything. He didn’t tell Chikorita to doge or anything, but just waited.
May, seeing this, thought, <Does he want me to hurt his Pokemon?>
The flames engulfed Chikorita and May thought that this match was already over. But, as the flames died down, she could see that Chikorita was unharmed and not burned.
“That’s impossible! Fire type attacks always hurts grass type Pokemon. Why did that attack not even affect her?” said May.
Ray laughed.
“Did you not see what I did before to battle even started?” said Ray.
May remembered that he did that weird thing with his robot arm to his Pokemon.
“I placed a shield around my Chikorita. Now, all attacks will be absorbed by it,” said Ray while smiling.
<Absorb?> Thought May.
“Chikorita, flamethrower!” commanded Ray.
Chikorita opened her mouth and blew out the same flames that came out of Cumbuskin’s, but just faster and harder.
The flames hit Combusken before May had time to tell him to doge.
Combusken stood his ground, for fire Pokemon don’t get hurt that bad when hit by fire. But, still . . . That hurt.
<Ash, please hurry! I don’t know how long I can take him,> thought May.
_____________________________________________________________________________

After running around for about five minuets, Ash knew that he has seen that tree before.
“I’m running around in circles,” said Ash to himself.
Ash stopped and tried to think of where to go.
<If I was Team Rocket, in a forest, were would I go?> Thought Ash.
Ash kept thinking and thinking and thinking and thinking. .  . and thinking, until he just couldn’t think of anywhere that Team Rocket would be.
Ash looked at the ground and saw some foot prints. One was a normal size for a male human, one was a little smaller, maybe a female’s, and one was a paw print.
Ash slapped himself on his head for not seeing this before and followed the foot prints.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Brock and Max were getting a little worried. . . not about Ash and May, but about Misty II getting mad for not being able to see her love, Ash. And the noises outside weren’t helping.
“Pika Pikachu!” said Misty II while still holding her baby Pichu.
“Misty II, you’re going to have to wait. We told you that we don’t know where Ash went,” said Max.
Misty II wasn’t going to take that for an answer. She got out of bed, still holding on to her baby Pichu, and walked to the door. Brock ran over to the door and stopped her by placing his body in front of the door.
“Misty, you still need rest. I’m sorry, but I can’t just let you go outside,” said Brock.
Misty II looked at Brock with eyes that said, I’m-going-to-kill-you-if-you-don’t-move-away-from-the-door.
Brock looked at those eyes and gulped, but didn’t move away from the door.
Now Misty II was mad, and the loud THUMP outside didn’t make her happy. She wanted to know if that was Ash out there who was making those noises, if not, then where is he? She was willing to hurt Brock just to see him, and that’s what she did.
Misty II’s body flooded with electricity as she charged up her attack at Brock (she so skilled at her attacks that she could completely avoid Pichu, who was cradled in her arms, and still do a thunder shock at someone else).
Brock didn’t even have time to doge her attack as she unleashed her thunder shock.
ZZAWAM! “Ouch,” said Brock.
Brock fell to the ground, all burnt from the attack, and Misty II looked at Max and pointed to the door, telling him to open it. Max did so, scared that he might get shocked, and opened the door for her.
_____________________________________________________________________________

May was getting a little bit worried too. . . about herself.
After her Cumbuskin got slammed to the wall of the Pokecenter (*hint* the loud THUMP *hint*) May wasn’t sure she will win this mach.
(I mean, her Cumbuskin just got knocked out by a grass type Pokemon! What more do you need?)
May was surprised at how powerful Ray’s Chikorita’s attacks where, it took only three hits for her Cumbuskin to get knocked out, and he was one of May’s strongest Pokemon.
May got out her Pokeball and returned Cumbuskin.
“Return!” said May as the red light came out of her Pokeball and towards Cumbuskin (you know how it works).
“You call that a battle?” said Ray, annoyingly.
May knew that she wasn’t doing very good at this battle, but as long as he is away from Ash, it will be all worth it.
“Come on! Bring out your next Pokemon so I can beat it!” said Ray.
May grabbed another Pokeball from her belt.
<Ash, you really need to pick up the paste,> thought May.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Ash knew he was getting closer, the foot prints were getting more and more fresh. Soon, he was close enough to hear voices.
“Just admit it, we’re lost!” said Meowth.
Ash could see them, but he stood at an ear shot away, so Team Rocket could not see him.
“No we’re not! It’s just around this clearing,” said Jessie.
“You said that three clearings ago,” said James, then Ash heard a loud slap.
“I know where we are going! Just follow me,” said Jessie.
“Pika Pikachu Pika,” said Pikachu.
Ash knew that was Pikachu’s voice, but it sounded rather, annoyed. Like, he was annoyed at hearing Team Rocket argue all the time. Ash didn’t blame him.
Ash hid in some tall grass and silently snuck up to Team Rocket.
“If you’re sure of were you are going, then where are we?” asked Meowth.
“Shut up, Meowth! I just need some time to think,” said Jessie.
Ash crawled silently in the grass and soon saw Pikachu in Jessie’s rubber gloved hands.
He didn’t know what to do. If only if he could talk to Pikachu. Then, Ash started to wonder if he could talk to Pikachu through his mind.
<Pikachu, can you hear me?> Thought Ash.
Pikachu look around, as if he heard someone say his name, but couldn’t see them. Pikachu kept looking around, and soon saw Ash in the grass.
Pikachu was about to say something, but Ash cut him off by talking through his mind so Pikachu wouldn’t alert Team Rocket.
<Pikachu, talk in your head so Team Rocket wont hear you,> thought Ash.
<I could swear that I hear my trainer talking, but I don’t see his lips moving,> said a voice in Ash’s head.
That must be Pikachu’s. (Wow, now he talks English!)
<Pikachu, it’s me, Ash! I’m talking to you through my mind,> said Ash.
“Pikachu pika!” said Pikachu.
<Shh! Team Rocket will hear you,> thought Ash.
Team Rocket were still arguing about which way to go and apparently didn’t notice Pikachu talk.
<Pikachu, this is possible. How else would I be talking to you without my mouth moving?> Said Ash.
<Prove it,> said Pikachu.
Ash didn’t really know how to prove it to Pikachu that he was really talking through his mind. Then, an idea popped up.
Ash slowly brought his head out of the grass (he didn’t really need to worry about Team Rocket, because they were still arguing with each other).
<Pikachu, look at my lips. I’m going to say Pokemon. Now, if I couldn’t talk through my mind, then I wouldn’t know that I should say Pokemon, right? Will that prove it to you?> said Ash in his head.
Ash whispered “Pokemon” and Pikachu started to smile.
<How are you able to do that?> Asked Pikachu through his head.
<No time to explain, right now I need you to listen to my plan to get you out of Team Rocket’s grasp,> said Ash.
<Before you do, I just have one thing to say,> said Pikachu
<What?>
<You have no idea how to hide yourself. You’re one of us, a Pikachu, and you’re yellow, which pops out in green grass.>
Ash didn’t think about that.
<Thanks for the tip, Pikachu. Now here’s the plan.>
Ash explained what they were to do.
_____________________________________________________________________________

May’s Squrtle fell to the ground, knocked out.
“Come on! Is this all you’ve got?” said Ray.
May got out her Pokeball and returned Squrtle. He was her last Pokemon. What should she do now?
“Where’s your next Pokemon?” asked Ray.
“I don’t have anymore. You’ve beaten them all,” said May.
Ray laughed.
“That’s it?” asked Ray.
“That’s it,” said May.
Ray laughed again.
“Well then, move along, sweet stuff. You said that I have to beat you to get to your yellow friend. So please, move aside,” said Ray.
May stood there, not moving. She wasn’t going to give up on her friend that easily.
“I never said that. I said that I was stopping you from getting to my friend, and I will keep on doing it,” said May.
Ray shrugged his shoulders.
“Fine by me,” he said.
May wondered what he meant by that.
“Chikorita, raiser leaf!” commanded Ray.
May doesn’t have any Pokemon on the field, what could he be attacking?
Then, the idea hit May. Ray was shooting at her!
The leaves shot right at her stomach, scratching and tarring cloth and skin, but May still stood.
“Chikorita, again!” commanded Ray.
More raiser, sharp leaves came at May, but now at her arms, chest, and some of her face. They tore more and dug into the skin of May’s face and arms.
“Please, s-stop!” asked May through a blood filled mouth.
“I’ll stop if you move,” said Ray.
“I can’t move, I wont move,” said May.
Ray shrugged his shoulders.
“Fine. Chikorita, vine whip,” said Ray.
Long vines came out of Chikorita’s body and ran over to May.
May held her ground and braced herself, because she knew this was going to hurt.
<Ash, I hope this was worth it,> thought May.
The vines came and wacked her on the head, like a rock falling on an egg. She fell to the ground, out cold.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Ash (still hiding in the tall grass) was getting ready to start his plan.
<Now?> Asked Pikachu, telepathically.
<Not yet,> said Ash.
“I’m telling you that it’s that way,” said James.
“Well, I’m telling you that it’s that way!” said Jessie.
“What is which way?” asked Meowth.
Jessie and James looked at each other, then at Meowth.
“We don’t know,” said both James and Jessie.
All this arguing really helped out in stalling for time for Ash and Pikachu.
<Now!> Thought Ash.
Pikachu started squirming in Jessie’s rubber gloved hands.
“Now what?” said Jessie.
Pikachu kept squirming more and more to the point where Jessie could barley hold on to him.
“What wrong with it?” asked James.
“I. . .don’t. . .know. . .uh!” said Jessie as she tried to hold on to the squirming Pikachu.
“Pika Pikachu!” shouted Pikachu as he tried to get free.
“He says, ‘let me go’,” translated Meowth.
“Thanks for that, Captain Obvious,” said James as he tried to help Jessie hold on to Pikachu.
Now that everyone’s attention was on Pikachu, Ash had the perfect chance to sneak up from behind.
Ash snuck up behind Jessie, while she was trying to hold on to Pikachu, and did a quick attack at her back. She fell down, screaming from surprise and pain, and dropped Pikachu.
Ash ran over to the dropped Pikachu and pulled him up to his feet and motioned him to run. Pikachu got up and started to run with Ash.
Team Rocket only had about three point two seconds to find out what happened to them. James went over to Jessie to see if she was okay. She got back up, not happy, and got out her Pokeball. James did the same.
“Go, Seviper! Catch both of those Pikachues,” said Jessie and threw out her Pokeball to release her Pokemon.
“Wait, why both?”asked James.
“Because, the more, the merrier,” said Jessie.
Meowth thought about that for a second.
“If we’re going by ‘the more, the merrier’, then why didn’t we get that girl Pikachu?’ asked Meowth.
“Because, all the twerps had their full attention on her and would’ve noticed that she was missing. Now stop asking questions and get those two!” said Jessie.
James got out his Kaknia (then was hugged by it) and ordered it to find a way to stop the two Pikachues.
Kaknia and Seviper both ran ahead of Ash and Pikachu and stopped them in their tracks.
“Pikachu pika pikachu,” said Pikachu as he saw that they where trapped.
“Looks like we’re going to have to fight,” said Ash to Pikachu.
“Pika,” said Pikachu to Ash.
“Don’t worry. We’ve beaten these guys plenty of times. One more time shouldn’t be too hard,” said Ash.
Ash was starting to notice that he could understand Pikachu a little more than he could before. He could tell when Pikachu said “yes” or “no” or when he was worried and other emotions by the sound of his voice, but he was never able to understand every word that Pikachu said.
Team Rocket overheard Ash talking to Pikachu and was surprised that he could talk. Meowth started to cry at the sight.
“Why are you crying, and what did that Pikachu with the hat mean about ‘we’ve beaten these guys plenty of times’?” asked James.
Meowth sniffed.
“It’s just. . .*sniff*. . . I thought that I was the only one. . . *sob*. . . who tried his hardest to learn English. . .*sniff*. . . and I kept thinking that it was for nothing. . .*tries to calm himself down*. . .but now, I see this Pikachu that has tried and succeeded at learning English. So now, I’m not the only one,” said Meowth.
Ash looked at the crying Meowth.
“Um, English was my first language, so I didn’t have to really learn as hard,” said Ash.
Meowth stopped crying.
“Fine then. Be that way,” said Meowth.
“Hey, what that thing on that Pikachu’s head?” asked James.
James had noticed the microchip on Ash’s head.
“I don’t care, I just want to get them! Seviper, poison tail,” commanded Jessie to her Pokemon.
Seviper’s tail started to brighten as he charged it up, then he swung it at Pikachu.
“Doge it!” said Ash.
Pikachu jumped to the side as Seviper’s tail nearly missed him.
“Now, iron tail, Pikachu,” said Ash.
Pikachu’s tail brightened up and he jumped into the air (eye level with Surviper) and swung his tail at Seviper’s head. Seviper fell down, but got back up.
James and Jessie were surprised that a Pokemon could command a Pokemon just like a trainer. In fact, that voice seemed familiar somehow.
“Were have I heard that voice before?” asked James to himself.
“It seems familiar to me too,” said Jessie.
“And that hat looks familiar too,” said Meowth.
Team Rocket looked hard at Ash, trying to find out were they heard his voice.
Ash cleared his throat and tried to make his voice deeper, so Team Rocket wouldn’t be able to recognize it.
“You’ve never seen me before, this is the first time we’ve met,” said Ash with a deep voice.
“Then why did you say ‘we’ve beaten these guys plenty of times’?” asked James.
Ash didn’t know what to say, so he just went and did a quick attack at Kaknia.
Kaknia fell down from the blow, but got back up, just like Seviper.
“So, you wont answer our questions, but you’ll fight. Fare enough. Seviper, poison sting,” said Jessie.
“Kaknia, you do a poison sting too,” said James.
Seviper opened his mouth while Kaknia pointed his arms and both did poison sting at Ash and Pikachu.
Ash told Pikachu to doge and did the same thing himself. Ash moved faster then he thought he could move to doge all the stings. Left, then right, then back, then forward, left, back, forward, right and finally the poison sting stopped.
Ash looked back at Pikachu to see if he was okay. He was.
“Pikachu, quick attack and follow it up with iron tail!” said Ash.
Both Pikachu and Ash ran up to their opponents and did a quick attack to both of them, then Pikachu did an iron tail to Seviper , who fell down unconscious.
Ash looked at Kaknia, who was hurt by his quick attack, but not knocked out. So, Ash ran up to it and jumped into the air. He focused everything on his tail and slammed it on top of Kaknia.
Kaknia fell down, knocked out, and Ash saw to his amassment that his tail was glowing. It was glowing just like Pikachu’s was.
He had learned iron tail.
Pikachu looked at his master and saw the glowing tail. Pikachu started jumping up and down at how happy he was to see that his master had learned a new move.
“No! Kaknia!” said James.
“Why does this seem so familiar too?” asked Meowth.
“Oh shut up, you!” said Jessie.
Ash looked at Pikachu and at Team Rocket.
“Pikachu, would you like to do the honors?” asked Ash.
Pikachu nodded his head. He looked at Team Rocket and did a thunder sock to “blast them off again”.
“Hey, I just remembered! We never did our lines!” said Meowth as he was flying into the sky.
“What lines?” asked James who was flying behind Meowth.
“You know, ‘prepare for trouble’ and ‘surrender now or prepare to fight’. Those lines,” said Meowth.
“Oh, yea,” said James.
“Shut up you two, and say your lines that you’re supposed to say right now,” said Jessie.
Everyone took a deep breath.
“Looks like Team Rocket’s blasting off again!” said everyone from Team Rocket and disappeared from view.
Ash gave Pikachu a high five and they both followed Team Rocket’s foot prints back to the Pokecenter.
_____________________________________________________________________________

After Misty II had simply pointed to the door of the Pokecenter, Max got up and opened it for her, scared that if he did something wrong, Misty II might thunder shock him.
Misty walked out of her room (still holding the baby Pichu) and started walking towards the front door.
Nurse Joy saw Misty II with Pichu walk out of their room and she tried to stop them.
“Now, now, little new mother. I can’t let you go just yet. You still need lots of rest,” said Nurse Joy.
Misty II didn’t even look at Nurse Joy, but just kept on walking.
“Where are you going?” asked Nurse Joy.
“She wants to see A-. . . I mean, her mate,” said Max, following behind Misty II.
“Oh. Okay then,” said Nurse Joy.
Max raised an eye brow.
“‘Okay then’? She wants to see if he’s outside,” said Max.
“Well, when a female Pikachu wants to see her mate, then she’ll stop at nothing just to see him. Besides, it wont hurt too much just to go outside,” said Nurse Joy.
“Have you not heard all the noise coming from outside?” asked Max.
“What noise?”
Then, there was a loud WACK (Chikorita’s vine whip on May’s head)and was soon followed by a soft THUD (May falling down, unconscious) from the outside.
“That noise!” said Max.
Nurse Joy then did seem very worried about Misty II and her baby.
“Well, you can’t stop her, but you can keep an eye on her in case there’s something wrong,” said Nurse Joy.
“What do I do if there is something wrong?” asked Max.
“Come back to me and we’ll call for help,” said Nurse Joy.
Max nodded his head and followed Misty II to the front door. . .where Ray is just around
the corner, waiting.


What will happen next? Will Ray see Misty II and Max? Will May be okay? Will Ash’s new move help them later in his journey? What about Misty? Will Ash see Misty soon? Will I get a cookie? Find out in the next chapter!