Inner Strength part 12

Ash looked around. Darkness, the all too familiar darkness of Artemis’ mind.
“Welcome back, Ash.”
Ash turned around. There stood Artemis, still in his black, hooded cloak.
“It has been awhile since we have last met,” he said.
Ash didn’t like this. Going back into Artemis’ mind was never a good thing.
“What do you want now?” asked Ash.
“I want to apologize for before,” said Artemis.
“Apologize?” This is weird.
“Yes, apologize. I know that last time I did not control my emotions like I usually do. I am still not sure how that happened, so I apologize for what I did and hope that nothing bad became of it.”
Became of it? He was mad enough to kill Ash! And now he’s apologizing? Something’s going on here, Artemis wasn’t the kind to do something like this.
“Um . . . that’s fine . . . I guess, but why did you get so mad?” asked Ash, confused.
There was a small silence between them, then Artemis started walking up to Ash, but when he got close enough, he started talking while walking in circles around Ash.
“I got mad because you added an unwanted and unexpected variable to this experiment. I thought that everything was going smoothly and all according to my hypophysis, but then you messed everything up.”
Artemis stopped. He raised his hand and angrily clinched it into a fist. “All my hard work . . . all that waiting . . . gone to waist.” He threw his fist down and continued his pace around Ash.
“If that made you so mad before, why aren’t you mad now?” asked Ash.
Artemis walked to the front of Ash, facing him.
“After much pondering and consideration, I have seen what more and new information this could lead to. After all, when life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Maybe a longer period of your stage could bring new questions and answers.”
Artemis then started walking around Ash again.
“What questions and what answers are you looking for?” asked Ash.
Artemis chuckled. A short, low, soft chuckle.
“You have learned so much, yet do not know anything.”
Ash started to wonder at what Artemis meant by that, but before he could consider, Artemis began talking again.
“I am a scientist, and in being a scientist, I have many questions about many things. It’s only natural that I seek answers.”
“Answers through hurting both humans and Pokemon?” asked Ash.
Now Artemis was surprised and stopped his pace.
“I know more than you think. I know that you where once Professor Oak’s apprentice and hurt Pokemon, then when the Professor wanted to quit, you wanted to go on. You wanted to experiment on humans.” Ash was happy that he finally knew something to turn the tables. He now had the element of surprise instead of Artemis.
Artemis stood quietly for a few moments, maybe considering what to do next or how this is happening. It was hard to tell what was going on underneath that hood of his.
But then, Artemis started clapping his hands.
“Congratulations, Ash. I am impressed.”
Ash was shocked. Shouldn’t Artemis be the one surprised? Shouldn’t he be the one that’s shocked? And yet he’s clapping?
Artemis stopped clapping and continued walking.
“Yes, I was that professor of yours ‘apprentice’. We worked hard together for some time, but he decided to stop, to quit, right when we where close to a breakthrough.”
Artemis shook his head.
“So close, yet so far. His mind was filled with worry and concern, not on the information that we gathered, like it should have been.”
“He should have been concerned for those Pokemon you two hurt. How could you not feel that when you see something die or injured?”
Artemis paused again. “I have learned to control and contain my emotions. It helps me think clearly and keep focused on more important things. That’s why I apologized, I usually can control these things.” He continued walking.
“How could you be so heartless?” asked Ash.
“This is off the subject, is it not? At this rate, you won’t let me answer any of your questions. Chose one at a time.”
Ash sighed. Obviously, Artemis doesn’t want to talk about the professor or his emotions. Ash cleared his head and thought of his first question.
“Fine. What questions and what answers are you looking for?”
Artemis walked behind Ash and leaned over to his ear.
“To life,” he whispered.
Two words that mean so much. Two words that sent Ash’s head spinning with more questions. Two words that explain what everyone is looking for, not only Artemis.
“To life?” asked Ash.
“Yes, Ash. Life.”
Artemis started walking over to the front of Ash.
“For as long as I can remember, I have been looking for the answers of life. Some questions that I seek are the same that others ask themselves, other questions that I have are quite . . . different than most people’s.”
Ash was still confused. Artemis needed him to find the answers to life? How could this, any of this help answer any of those kind of questions?
“But Artemis, why me? How could I answer the questions of life?” asked Ash.
Artemis did another small chuckle.
“It seems that I will have to answer those questions another time,” he said.
“What? Why?” asked Ash.
Artemis pointed at Ash. Ash looked down at his body and saw that he was fading again. He was waking up?
“Next time, I will ask the questions and you answer them for me. But for now, I will see you later,” said Artemis.
Ash’s body disappeared and now his head was starting to go away.
“Wait!” screamed Ash, but it was too late.

Ash awoke with a start, sweating cold sweat and breathing heavily. He looked around him. He was at his old house, laying on the pallet he had made the night before.
His Pikachu ears twitched. Someone was crying.
Ash looked to his left and saw Xander, he was crying in his sleep. He must’ve been the reason why Ash woke up.
Ash sighed, got up, and walked over to his crying son.
“Sh, sh . . . it’s okay, Xan. I’m here, I’m here,” said Ash smoothly, trying to calm his son down.
But Xander wouldn’t stop. He kept on crying and crying, occasionally taking in a breath to get the next wail ready.
Ash sighed and looked around. It was still dark and everyone must still be asleep (or until Xan wakes them up). He has to keep Xan quite so that he doesn’t wake everyone up.
Ash picked up and cradled his son in his arms and walked out of the room and into the kitchen. When he got there, he looked at the clock that hung on one of the walls.
1:35 in the morning. Ash sighed again. How do you quiet a baby Pichu at 1:35 in the morning?
Ash tried rocking him in his arms. It quieted him a little, but he was still whimpering. <What to do? What to do?> Thought Ash.
Hungry? Ash walked over to the pantry and opened it. There was food, but all of the Pokemon food was stored at the very top of the pantry, out of Ash’s grasp. That’s a no.
Thirsty? Ash closed the pantry door and walked over to the fridge. When he opened the refrigerator door, he started to think: What does a baby Pichu drink? Milk? Water? Juice?
Another sigh. <This is harder than I thought.>
Xander started crying louder. Ash started rocking his arms again, trying his best to keep his son quiet, and reached for a bottle of water in the fridge.
“Are you thirsty, Xan?” asked Ash, quietly.
He opened the top and placed the bottle to Xander’s lips. The baby Pichu, with eyes still closed, opened his mouth and started sucking on the bottle, but after unsuccessfully getting anything out of the bottle, he started crying again.
“No, no, no! Sh, sh! Quiet! What’s wrong?” asked Ash, trying desperately to quiet down Xan.
But Xander didn’t say anything, he just continued to cry with his eyes closed.
Ash reached for a juice box, stabbed the straw in, and placed the straw to Xan’s lips. Again, this time not even trying to drink it, Xander refused the juice and continued crying.
Ash looked back into the fridge. The only thing left to drink was the milk, but it was in a large gallon container, much too heavy for his little body to carry while holding a baby.
Xander started crying louder and made Ash flinch. He had no choice. Ash reached for the milk and attempted to lift it up. Amazingly, the milk was much lighter than Ash expected, almost felt like he was lifting up an empty glass than a full gallon of milk.
Now that he thought about it, Ash has been noticing that his strength has gotten much stronger. Must be another ability that came with the potion.
Before Ash could think more about it, Xan started crying louder and made Ash move faster. <Now where are those glasses again?>
Ash looked up at the cabinets. That was where they were last time, but he couldn’t reach all the way up there. Ash looked around for any kind of container, glass, cup, anything that could hold milk.
Eventually, Ash found a glass half-way filled with water on the table. That will have to do. Ash placed the milk down on the floor, that way he would be able to get the glass with less difficulty.
Ash kept rocking Xander while he walked over to the table, climbed on top of one of the chairs, and grabbed the glass. Then, he got back down, drank the water in haste, and filled the glass with milk.
“Okay, is this what you want?” asked Ash as he held the milk filled glass to his son’s lips.
But, once again, Xander refused the drink and continued crying, but now started wailing. Ash didn’t know what to do. He tried everything, but Xan just doesn’t want anything, and he’s probably going to wake everyone up if he keeps crying like this.
“What is it that you want? Just please be quiet! Please!”
But Xander kept crying and crying and crying.
Ash still didn’t know what to do. He grabbed the gallon of milk and opened the refrigerator door to put it back. After that he closed the door and saw that his mom was standing right behind it. She startled him that he almost forgot that he was holding Xander.
“Having a little trouble?” she asked.
Ash looked down at his crying son and nodded.
“I don’t know what to do, Mom.”
“Here, give him to me,” she said with open arms.
Ash gave Xander to her and watched her cradle him. She started rocking him in her arms and then started humming. It was a soft, slow, relaxing hum, the kind that make people go to sleep. Maybe it was even a lullaby.
As she hummed, Xan’s crying got quieter and quieter. Soon, it was just him breathing with noise. Then, he stopped crying completely and went back to sleep. Ash was wide eyed.
“How did you do that?” he asked.
His mom smiled.
“He must’ve had a bad dream, that’s all. When stuff like this happen, just try to sit down and rock him back to sleep.”
She haded him back Xander. Ash took him and cradled him in his arms.
“Here, put him back in his bed and let him sleep.”
“Thanks, Mom, but how did you know?”
“Know what?”
“That he had a bad dream.”
She giggled. “It’s just a mother’s instinct.”
A mother’s instinct, probably something he will never get. Ash turned around and headed over to Xan’s room.
“Ash.”
“Yeah, Mom?”
Ash turned around. His mother was looking into space, as if remembering an old memory of something she treasured.
“Xander, your son . . . he acts just like you did when you were little.”
“What do you mean?” asked Ash.
His mom closed her eyes and shook her head.
“That’s exactly what you did to me at his age,” she said.
Ash looked down at his sleeping son one more time. <Exactly . . . what I did?>
“Okay, okay. Go on to bed with the both of you. You have a big day ahead of you.”
Ash looked up, nodded, and went back to his room while saying good night to his mother.

“Sir, permission to speak.”
“You may,” answered Giovanni.
In Giovanni’s room, at Team Rocket HQ, another member of the organization stood in front of the all powerful leader with a question.
“Just earlier you told fellow members Jessie and James to attack our enemies, why sir?”
“Because Team Aqua has been kidnaping our scientists and stealing our equipment, plus they are now considered a threat ever since that attack they tried on us,” said Giovanni with a frown.
“Not that, sir. Why did you pick them? Why not someone else that has actually done something to prove their worth to this organization?” asked the Team Rocket man.
Giovanni turned around in his chair to face the window. Persian walked up to him and nudged his hand, wanting Giovanni to pet him. Giovanni raised his hand away from the Pokemon, then started petting the cat, making him purr.
“I picked those two fools for two reasons,” started Giovanni, not looking at the man. “One, they were the only active group near Team Aqua, and two, I need a distraction.”
“A distraction?” asked the man, forgetting to say “sir”.
“Yes, a distraction.”
“For what?”
Giovanni eyed over his shoulder, sending shivers up the man’s back.
“For what . . . sir?” said the man, correcting himself.
Giovanni stopped eyeing him and looked out of his window. It was night time and the city was bright with lights. With each of those lights is a person. A normal person with a normal, everyday life. An everyday life that is as insignificant as any of the other lights in this city.
“Our own attack. We will make an offensive attack right under their noses. They won’t even know what hit them.” said Giovanni, thinking back to the subject.
“Offensive attack? Why was no one told this, sir?”
“I just told you, did I not?”
The man gulped and agreed. It was never smart to argue with the boss.
“But, sir, how are you so sure that Jessie and James will make a big enough distraction for such an attack?” asked the man.
Giovanni turned his chair to face the man. Persian walked over to face him too, while his master continued to pet him.
“They are idiots. They cannot and have not done anything right. They have never given me even one rare Pokemon to please me with. Whenever I tell them to do something, they go without strategy, without thinking ahead, and without any strength to back up their ‘attack’. If I tell them to attack a major organization, they will go at full speed and probably might end up in hurting themselves than the enemy, but that will take the enemy’s full attention to those fools, which will give us plenty of time to attack them right where it hurts them most. Then from there, we’ll get them from the inside, out.”
“But, sir, what if they do get hurt . . . or worse?” asked the man.
Giovanni laughed.
“Like I said, they are idiots. If they do get injured, than it’s not a problem to me. In fact, it will help me get rid of those fools. Save me money and supplies.”
“You mean . . . you don’t care if they’re . . .” the man didn’t want to say it.
Giovanni turned around his chair once again. He then answered with a low, deep, evil, “No.”
The man stood silent, thinking about what he had just heard.
“Are you still here?” asked Giovanni.
“Yes, sir.”
“Then maybe you would like to join those fools?”
“No, sir.”
“Then, GO! Tell the other real members to get everything ready for the attack. We attack tomorrow night.”
“Yes, sir. On my way now, sir.”
The man turned and walked out of the room. Giovanni folded his hands together with a smile. Persian looked up at his master’s face. Giovanni looked back down at his Pokemon.
“Soon, my friend, we will be rid of our dead-wight and of our enemies.”

Ash didn’t get any sleep after Xander woke him up. Well, in a way, that was a good thing because that meant that he didn’t have to enter Artemis’ mind again, but that also meant that his questions might not be answered any time soon.
On the other hand, not getting much sleep meant not having enough energy in the morning, which was exactly how Ash felt when morning came.
“Good morning, Ash,” said his mother with a smile when she saw him walking into the kitchen.
“Morning, Mom,” mumbled Ash while rubbing his eyes.
Ash could smell pancakes being cooked. That must be what his mother is making this morning for breakfast.
As Ash looked around in the kitchen, he saw that Brock and May where also awake. When they saw him, they waved and said good morning to him.
“Hey Ash, why do you look so tired?” asked Brock after seeing Ash’s tired face.
“Didn’t get much sleep last night,” answered Ash as he opened his mouth for a loud yon.
“Well, better eat something, that will give you at least a little bit of energy.”
Ash half nodded, mainly because he was too tired to do a full nod. He walked over to one of the chairs, climbed up on it, curled up, and tried to sleep. Brock shook his head.
“If Ash is this tired, than he won’t be able to train himself today for Team Aqua.”
“Ash, why didn’t you get any sleep last night?” asked May.
Ash mumbled something under his breath and turned over.
“What, Ash?”
“I said that Xan woke me up and I couldn’t go back to sleep,” said Ash, louder this time.
“Who’s Xan?” asked Brock.
“That what we’ve named Ash’s son. Xander, but sometimes we just say Xan for short,” explained Ash’s mom from in front of the oven.
“You named him?” asked May.
“We both did, last night.”
She gave another smile, then did a small head count.
“Hey, where is that other boy? That one with the glasses? Is he still asleep?”
May nodded her head, but then noticed that someone else was still missing.
“Has anybody seen Pikachu anywhere?” she asked.
“I told Mr. Mime to give him a bath, that Pikachu was very dirty. In fact, now that I think about it, Ash needs to take a bath himself,” said Ash’s mother.
She asked Brock if he could watch the pancakes for her, then walked over and picked up Ash off the chair.
“Hm?” said Ash, sleepily when he could feel himself being lifted.
His mom took him outside to where Mr. Mime was giving Pikachu a bath and told him to give Ash a bath as well. Mr. Mime nodded and went to grab another bucket of water. Pikachu stayed in the inflatable pool (which was his “bath tub”) and kept playing in the water.
When he saw that Ash was going to join him, he smiled and “Cha!”ed.
Ash’s mom placed Ash in the water of the bath and walked back into the house. After feeling the water bellow him, Ash woke up and looked around himself.
“How? What?” he asked himself.
Then he saw his happy Pikachu smiling at him.
“Pikachu? What are- Hey!”
Mr. Mime came back and poured a whole bucket of water on top of Ash’s head. Luckily, it was warm, but the sudden rush of water made Ash wide awake.
Pikachu laughed at seeing his trainer’s face when the water was poured. He even decided to add to it and start splashing water at Ash in a playful manner. Ash covered his face so that none of the water would get in his eyes and tried to splash Pikachu back.
While they played in the water, Mr. Mime got some soap and started washing the both of them.

“Find anything yet?” asked Jessie.
“Nope, nothing over here,” answered James, not removing his eyes from the binoculars.
“What about you, Meowth?”
“Still nothin’. All I see are houses and grass. I haven’t even seen any good Pokemon to catch,” replayed Meowth.
Jessie sighed. This is their only chance to get this promotion that they have been waiting for, for so long, and it seems that they keep messing it up!
First, Meowth had the great idea of putting rocket boosters on the hot-air balloon to try to get to Pallet Town in the shortest amount of time. Well, it did make them go fast and it did take them near Pallet Town, but the boosters short-circuited and blew up, blasting them off again, and sent them about ten miles off course. Jessie happily slapped James for pressing the button that said DO NOT PRESS on the rockets.
After that, they had to walk the rest of the way back on course while running away from an angry flock of Pidgeotto that they accidently landed on after they “basted off”.
Then, they met a couple of their old “friends” (“friends” as in people that they tried to steal Pokemon from). So, you could imagine how. . . “happy”, their friends where when they saw Team Rocket again.
Jessie rubbed the back of her head were a Hitmonchan punched her at. Man, those guys sure do know to hit where it hurts.
And now, they’re finally in Pallet Town, hidden in the tops of the trees, but can’t find anything. Not a hint of Team Aqua anywhere, there weren’t even very many battles going on.
“What about that radar that you had, Meowth?” asked Jessie.
Meowth pulled it out and turned it on. Immediately the radar started beeping as it scanned.
“Huh, that’s odd,” he said.
“What is?” asked Jessie.
“It’s not showing anything. I could’ve sworn that there was a big glob of dots near here, now there’s just the usual dot here and there.”
Then, the radar stopped beeping. It started shaking and shooting out sparks of small electricity, then it stopped and a black smoke came out of its top.
“Now, what?” said Jessie, annoyed at their bad luck already.
“I don’t know. When I tried to do a few adjustments, it started acting weird.”
Jessie sighed. “There is no way my luck is this bad.”
“Hey! I see something!” shouted James from his branch.
“What?” asked Jessie excitedly.
James adjusted the focus on his binoculars so that he could see what he was seeing better.
“I . . . I think I see the twerps,” he said, unsure.
“What do you mean ‘I think’?”
“Right now, I see a Pikachu that looks just like the twerps’ Pikachu, and I see that one Pikachu with the hat and could talk,” said James.
“Let me see,” demanded Jessie.
She shoved James over on his branch, nearly knocking him off balance, and looked through one lens while James regained his balance and looked through the other.
She saw two Pikachus taking a bath in a inflatable pool. One Pikachu did, in fact, look exactly like the one they have been trying to steal from the twerps and the other Pikachu did have a hat and did look like the one they met that could talk.
“Is it possible?” asked Jessie. It was next to impossible that they would go back to the other side of the world and meet their old nemesis again.
“Only one way to find out!” said Meowth, who was looking in the same direction as they were with his pair of binoculars.
“How?” asked both Jessie and James at the same time.
Meowth pulled out a big, thick remote. Where he got it and how he got it, no one knew, but Jessie and James stayed quiet with anticipation.
“We do it how we’ve always been doin’ it. Catch `em!”
“Woe, hold on, Meowth. Why should we be wasting our time trying to fight the twerps again? We need to stay on track and find Team Aqua,” said Jessie. James agreed.
“That’s true,” started Meowth. “ But we have no idea where they are at, and the last clue we got of where they could be at was near here. Coincidently, the twerps are right where we were headed, if they are the twerps.” Meowth pause to check if everyone was following. They were. “So, we catch them, bring them in and make them spill the beans! Simple!”
“But how are we going to catch them? All the other times that we’ve tried to catch their Pokemon, they always got them back and blasted us off,” said Jessie while hanging her head.
Were they such losers? Could they possibly be so pathetic?
What was even the point in trying? They would just end up losing again, just like all the other times.
“Well, I just might have the answer!” said Meowth triumphantly while holding up the remote.
“If it’s just another robot, forget it, Meowth. That includes giant hands, nets, costumes, or anything in-between,” said Jessie, not lifting her head.
Meowth’s triumph was slowly erased from his face and he put the remote down.
“You’re right, Jessie. We’re just failures. What’s the use.”
“Wait, gang! I got an idea!” shouted James.
Jessie and Meowth sightly lifted their head towards James.
“What if we don’t catch them or anything at all!”
“What are you talking about, James?” asked Jessie.
“Well, all our other attempts failed, right? So, instead of us trying to catch them, why don’t we let them catch us?” said James with a smile.
Jessie was already getting annoyed and was about to slap James again, but Meowth stopped her.
“Wait, James could be on to somethin’.”
Jessie looked close at Meowth’s face, then at James.
“All right, we’ll do it. So what’s the plan?”
James smiled and whispered it in to the two of them. When he was done, Jessie and Meowth’s eyes were wide with amassment.
“Wow, James. I never knew you where so smart,” said Jessie.
James looked away, annoyed, and looked through his binoculars again.
“Okay, when I give the signal, we go, got it?”
Everyone nodded.

“Sir?”
“Yes?”
“We have everything ready for the attack, sir.”
“Good.”
A man, hidden in the shadows of his office looked at the screens in front of him, away from the young man behind him.
“Permission to speak, sir.”
The man stayed quiet for a couple of seconds, then replied, “No.”
The young one stayed quiet, still wanting to ask his question, but didn’t dare to break any of the rules. The man turned around and faced the young one. After seeing the expression on his face, he continued, “Well, if you just have to say something, say it.”
“Sir, I just want to ask about the x-spy.” He talked with his back straight and arms down his side. He was always known for having perfect behavior and posture and because of it, most of the people here respect him.
“The ‘x-spy’?”
“That’s what me and the boys call the girl, sir. The girl named ‘May’.”
“And why do you call her that?”
“Because she’s just like a spy for us, sir, but she doesn’t know it.”
The man chuckled, making the young one shiver.
“I suppose that’s a fitting name for her. What about her?”
“Well, sir, after hearing that she was ordered to take out Team Aqua, I just started to wonder . . .”
“Wonder what? Come on, boy! If you have something to say, say it!” The man was starting to get tired.
The young one cleared his throat.
“I was wondering why, sir. Why did you send her to do something like that? She doesn’t know anything about Team Aqua’s base or even what’s in it. We might as well be sending her and her friends to their graveyard.”
The man started laughing. A harsh, evil laugh that made the hair on the back of the young one’s neck stick straight up.
“That’s a good one!” He laughed some more. “Send them to their graveyard! Oh, I’ve got to write that one down!” He kept laughing until it was just a chuckle, then stopped.
“You find it funny, sir?”
“Do I sense some worry in you? Are you worried about some girl and her friends?”
“Well, we have met them before, sir, and sometimes they actually helped us . . . a little.”
The man, still hidden in the shadows, scratched his chin, acting like he was considering it.
“And they have also done the exact opposite. Ruining our plans and our dignity, and now we have a chance of . . . hurting our enemies and while getting ride of those pests.” He scratched his chin some more. “I would say that is a good deal, wouldn’t you?”
The young Team Magma member stood still, watching his leader in disbelief.
“But, sir, surely you don’t want someone to-”
“When necessary, I do,” said the Team Magma leader, cutting him off.
He turned back around to face to screens again.
“That will be all. Now leave.”
The young member turned and left, pitying the girl named May and her friends. It seems like they don’t have a chance.
Unless they could possibly wait for the Team Magma attack.