THE CRIMSON POKÉBALL CAPER

by A. Jeung

Author's Note: This story fits in somewhere during the Johto journeys.

Need a disclaimer? OK. Pokémon and its characters are copyrighted by Nintendo and are used here without permission. The author is making no profit from this fanfiction.

PROLOGUE

The man sitting at the desk worked with a cold precision, calm but very focused.  The small lamp on the table was just enough to illuminate the desk surface and cut very little into the surrounding darkness.  Around him were dozens of dusty wooden crates, left long ago in this chilly, abandoned warehouse.  It was a perfect hideout for a thief.

The man seemed oblivious to the cold as he crossed off names from the list in front of him one at a time, considering each one carefully before proceeding.   The list contained the names of Pokémon experts the world over, each a giant in his or her field.   The man continued crossing off names until only one remained:

PROFESSOR OAK, PALLET TOWN

The man smiled, an evil grin coming over his devilish features. “Yes,” he said to himself.   “A good choice. Now all I need are the diamonds.”

CHAPTER 1

Officer Jenny was tired.  She had been doing nighttime stakeouts for the past three nights in a row now.

But she couldn’t sleep just yet.  The Mauve Town Museum, where she had been spending the last few nights, was currently housing the second of three Electric Diamonds.  The three priceless gems were part of a traveling exhibit that was passing through the area.  For security reasons, the diamonds had been separated, each one on display in a separate local museum for a week before passing on to the next town.

At least that was the way things were supposed to have happened.   The Electric Diamond #1 had been stolen earlier this week from the neighboring town, with no clues to its whereabouts.  Officer Jenny had been charged with making sure that the #2 would not suffer a similar fate while it was in Mauve Town.

Jenny suppressed a yawn, then passed the time by staring at the diamond in fascination.  The beautiful gem, about the size of a golf ball, sat and sparkled in its glass case.   Jenny wondered if the diamonds had the legendary electrical properties she had heard of.

Then she saw him.

He was dressed all in black, with a ninja-type mask covering his face.   He looked around furtively, then his eyes opened wide in surprise as he noticed Jenny looking straight at him.

Jenny, like all her relatives, was a well-trained officer, and her pokéball was in her hand instantly.  “Go, Arcanine!” she shouted, tossing her ball straight at the thief.   Her pokéball opened up in a flash of light as the Pokémon inside was released.  She smiled to herself as she noticed that the man was too far from any doorway to get away.   The Arcanine, growling and with teeth bared, backed the thief into a corner.

The man shrugged calmly.  How can he be so relaxed? Officer Jenny wondered.  What does he have up his sleeve?

He brought out his own pokéball.  Jenny thought it looked strange, and compared it to the one in her hand to be sure.  Sure enough, while the pokéball in the man’s hand was half silver and half red, just like hers, the red half was a deep, blood-colored crimson red, not the bright metallic color of her own ball, and it seemed to glow and pulsate like a thing alive.   The ball somehow seemed to emanate a malevolence all to its own, and Jenny could not help but shudder slightly at its appearance.  She wondered where he could have got such a thing and what kind of Pokémon would come out of it.

The man tossed the ball, but instead of releasing a Pokémon, it instead hit Jenny’s Arcanine on the forehead, opened, and swallowed the Arcanine up in a flash of light.  Jenny stared in wide-eyed disbelief as she saw her Pokémon disappear, its usually majestic growl turning into a yelp of surprise as it was absorbed inside the ball.   The pokéball beeped a few times and then lay still, indicating a successful capture. 

The man brought out a remote control device of some sort, about nine inches long with a thin antenna on the end.  Jenny noticed that the Electric Diamond #1 was implanted into the front panel of the device.  The diamond glowed brightly, as if power were pulsing through it.  The man pressed a button and the pokéball containing the Arcanine floated up by itself and retuned to the man’s hand.

Jenny turned to run.  She needed backup, she wasn’t prepared for anything like this.  How can he do that? she thought.  Arcanine was already my Pokémon.  How could he just capture it as if it had no owner and without having even to weaken it first?  She was so shocked by this turn of events that she didn’t see the floor mosaic in front of her until it was too late.

Officer Jenny tripped over the edge of the mosaic and fell right into it, spraining her ankle badly.  Unable to get up, she looked helplessly at the thief she had been intent on capturing just a moment before.

The thief snorted derisively, then threw out another crimson pokéball.   This one was headed straight at her.

This can’t be happening, thought Jenny, as the blood-red ball sailed closer and closer to her, struck her on the thigh, and opened up, bathing her in bright light.   The last thing she heard was her own scream.   Then she saw only darkness.

The crimson pokéball containing Officer Jenny returned to the thief’s gloved hand.  He put in away and then, undisturbed, proceeded to work on opening the glass case containing the Electric Diamond.

CHAPTER 2

Misty sighed in relief.

They had been traveling for a week now without stopping in a town.   Ash was eager to get to the next gym as soon as possible, and had insisted on passing several towns without stopping.   Finally, however, Brock declared that their supplies were low and that they needed to stop somewhere.   Misty was anxious to take a rest, and she knew all the Pokémon were as well.  She was sure that was why Psyduck had kept popping out of his pokéball by himself six times in the last two days.  Misty frowned slightly to herself just thinking about how annoying that little Pokémon had been lately.

Brock was studying the map carefully, with his typical attention to detail.   “Ochre City is coming up,” he declared.   “It’s less than a mile away.”

“Pi-ka!” shouted Pikachu happily.

It didn’t take long to get there.  Ochre City was bright and clean, but with an older-styled architecture that gave the city an antique flair.  Ash, Misty, Brock, Pikachu, and Togepi marveled at the many fancy buildings and sparkling walkways.

Misty saw the flyer first.  It had been stapled to a pole in two places, but the top staple had come off, and the flyer sagged over its single attachment point on the bottom, flapping a little occasionally in the soft breeze.  She lifted the end up and flattened the flyer against the pole so that she could read it:

COME SEE

THE AMAZING ELECTRIC DIAMOND #3

ON EXHIBIT THIS WEEK ONLY

OCHRE CITY MUSEUM

“Oh, a diamond exhibit!  Let’s go see it!” she exclaimed, as Togepi chirped in agreement.

Brock examined the small print on the flyer more carefully. “It says here that the Electric Diamonds are one-of-a-kind treasures,” he noted.  “They’re reputed to have amazing electrical properties.  Supposedly they can amplify any kind of electrical current.   It would be quite fascinating to see something like this.”

“I don’t know,” said Ash doubtfully.  He was eager to get moving.  “Seeing some dumb old diamond doesn’t sound like much fun.  Can’t we just get supplies?  I’m hungry.”

Misty was indignant.  “Well, the REST of us want to go, Ash,” she declared.  “Just because you’re too narrow-minded to think about anything else besides your stomach...”

That set off the argument right away. 

Ash shot back, “Who’s calling me narrow-minded?  At least I like more than one type of Pokémon...”, and the two of them proceeded simultaneously to yell at each other.

Brock had long ago mastered the art of tuning the two of them out, and he kept reading the fine print without stopping.  “It says here also that there will be an Electric-type Pokémon show on the last day of the exhibit, as part of the exhibit’s closing celebration.   Hey, that’s today!”

Ash was right in the middle of calling Misty a silly girl who was as bad-tempered as a Gyarados when Brock’s reading brought him back to attention.   “An Electric Pokémon show?   Now that’s different.   What are we waiting for?” Ash said, and ran off excitedly in the direction of the museum.  Brock and Pikachu followed.

Misty was right in the middle of calling Ash a wanna-be trainer whom she had wasted her time following halfway across the world just to get a bicycle back when she suddenly realized that there was no one around to argue with anymore.   “Hey, wait up, guys!” she called as she ran after them, Togepi still in her arms.

They arrived at the museum to find it cordoned off by the police.   There was a large crowd in front, and Officer Jenny was in the midst of announcing to the crowd that the museum would be closed today.

Jenny suddenly felt a presence next to her, and she turned to find herself face to face with an eager and very lovesick Brock.  “Officer Jenny,” he declared breathlessly, “my name is Brock.

“And I want you to know that this law-abiding citizen,” he continued, pointing at himself,  “will do anything is his power to assist you in whatever investigation is taking place here.   I have full confidence in your ability to wrap up this matter by this evening, at which time I would like to take the opportunity to treat you to a lovely dinner...OWWW!”   Brock waved his arms wildly in pain as Misty dragged him off by the ear.

Ash turned to look blankly at his two friends for an instant before turning back to Officer Jenny.  “Officer,” he inquired, “what’s going on here?  We came to see the electric Pokémon show.”

“I’m afraid I’ve had to close the museum down,” Jenny replied.   “The Electric Diamonds #1 and #2 have both been stolen.  My cousin in Mauve Town has disappeared with the second one without a trace. The #3 in this museum is the only diamond left, and so for security reasons, I’ve had to shut the whole exhibit down.”

Just then, a fat, balding man came running out of the front door of the museum and came up behind Officer Jenny.  “Officer, you got to help me,” he cried.  “The electric Pokémon, they’re all gone!”

“Gone?!” she gasped in surprise.

“Yes,” said the man.  “My Raichus, my Voltorbs, my Mareep, even the Electabuzz, all vanished without a trace!”

Brock and Misty had returned by this time, and they and Ash stared open-mouthed at the news.  “How terrible,” Misty declared.  “Who would do such a thing?”

She had barely finished the sentence when a powerful explosion rocked the area.  The crowd scattered in panic as bits of rubble fell everywhere.

Brock looked up, and saw that the explosion had come from inside the museum and had blown out the roof.  Jenny rushed into the museum, with Ash, Misty and Brock following close behind.   The electric Pokémon trainer stood still in shock for an instant, and then called out, “Please find my Pokémon, Officer Jenny!  I’m counting on you!”

CHAPTER 3

The inside of the museum was filled with dust and rubble from the explosion.   Jenny and the others made their way through the blinding dust quickly but very carefully, trying hard not to disturb any of the museum’s many priceless displays.

Eventually, they made it to the main exhibit hall in the museum.   It was a wide, roughly circular room, about a hundred feet across.  The dome roof had been blown through completely, and sunlight was streaming through the ceiling and illuminating the clouds of dust still floating in the air.  The Electric Diamond #3 sparkled brightly in the sunlight beaming down through its transparent glass case in the center of the hall.

The dust cleared slightly in one area, and Ash thought he could see some figures in the midst of the cloud.  He squinted his eyes a little to see better.  He could just barely make out their silhouettes.  There were two laughing humans...and a Meowth.

“Prepare for trouble, it’s our best caper yet!” rang out a familiar female voice.

“And make it double, because we’re on the ’Net!” came the accented rejoinder.

“To protect the world from devastation!”

“To unite all peoples within our nation!”

“To denounce the evils of truth and love!”

“To extend our reach to the stars above!”

“Jessie!”

“James!”

“Team Rocket blasts off with the speed of light!”

“Surrender now, or prepare to fight fight fight!”

“Wob – buffet!” Wobbuffet called, before being smashed over the head by Meowth.   “I told ya before to get your own line!” the talking Pokémon yelled.  Jessie recalled Wobbuffet to its pokéball quickly, sparing it any further injury at the hands of Meowth.

“Meowth, that’s right!” Meowth finished the motto triumphantly.

“Team Rocket!  You three are in big trouble,” snapped Officer Jenny.

“You’d better give up now, if you know what’s good for you,” Ash added angrily, readying some of his pokéballs in preparation for the anticipated battle.   “And give back the other two diamonds you already stole.”

Jessie, still elegantly statuelike in her Team Rocket motto pose, broke out of her pose to stare at Ash in surprise.  “Other two?” she asked, blinking.  “What are you talking about, twerp?” she demanded.

James was caught off guard as well.  “But we haven’t stolen any other diamonds yet.  We were planning to start with the #3,” he admitted.

“Yeah,” Meowth agreed.  “We was going to steal ’em in reverse order.  But it sounds like someone else got to ’em first.”

Officer Jenny and Misty looked at each other.  “But if Team Rocket didn’t steal the first two diamonds, then who did?” Misty wondered out loud.

“Look, over there!” Brock shouted.  Everyone turned in the direction he was pointing.

The dust had cleared enough by this time to reveal the man.   He was dressed all in black, with a ninja-type mask covering his face.  He seemed surprised and extremely annoyed to find all these people already in the museum with him.  A remote control hung from his belt, the two previously stolen Electric Diamonds embedded in it.

Meowth was on him first.  Scratching and clawing at the man’s face, he cried, “Oh no, ya don’t!   We’re gonna be the only thieves here!   You have no right to take away what is rightfully ours to steal!”

The man clutched at his face instinctively to protect it, then kicked Meowth away.  The Pokémon’s attack had ripped away the mask on his face to tatters, revealing his devilish features underneath.  Cursing, he wiped away a small drop of blood from his cheek where Meowth’s attack had broken skin.

At seeing the man’s face, Jessie, James, and Meowth suddenly stopped short, their eyes wide in recognition.  “It’s YOU!” they exclaimed in unison.

The man snarled in anger, then released three pokéballs.   Each glowed a deep, blood-colored crimson red and pulsated like a thing alive.

Meowth, being the closest, was absorbed by the first instantly.   James stood blankly still, completely helpless as the second ball hit him in the chest and sucked him inside.

Jessie screamed and ran, the third ball sailing after her in close pursuit.   She had made it almost to the end of the exhibit hall when the ball touched the tip of her red hair   -- just barely – and opened up to capture her.  Ash thought it looked very strange.  It appeared almost as if Jessie, kicking and screaming, were being pulled into the pokéball by her own hair.

The man pressed a button on the remote control with his left hand, recalling the three crimson pokéballs, while simultaneously throwing a fourth at Officer Jenny.

Jenny was in the act of throwing a pokéball of her own when the crimson ball hit her on the forehead.  She gasped in surprise as the crimson ball opened and bathed her in bright light.   She disappeared, her own pokéball never leaving her hand.

Ash looked around.  The only people left in the exhibit hall were himself, Misty, and the man in black.   Where’s Brock? he wondered for just an instant, then snapped himself back to attention.   He decided it was going to have to be up to him to stop this thief.

He turned to Pikachu.  “Pikachu, Thundershock!” he commanded.

Pikachu leapt up as his body charged up.  “PI – KA - ...”

Pikachu never made it to the last syllable before a crimson pokéball struck him on his jagged tail.  Bathed in light, he managed only to get a small, ineffective electric charge out before being swallowed inside.

As the crimson pokéball containing Pikachu sailed under remote control back to the man in black, Ash started to charge at him, full tilt.   “GIVE ME BACK MY PIKACHU!” he shouted in enraged fury.  Misty just stood there transfixed and helpless.  She didn’t know what to do, there was nothing to do.  Everyone and everything seemed helpless against those evil crimson things.

As the final two crimson pokéballs flew towards them, Misty ran up to Ash and hugged him tight, burying her face in his chest.   She couldn’t bear to think of what was going to happen next.   The two balls struck the two of them and opened.

Ash thought it was a very odd experience.  It seemed to him as if the crimson pokéball suddenly became very large, bigger then a Snorlax, and then opened up like a giant maw to eat him up whole.   As the maw closed on him and the whole world became dark, he could just barely hear the faint dying echoes of Misty’s muffled scream.

CHAPTER 4

Brock had never been so scared in his whole life.

When the first few crimson pokéballs had come out and captured the Team Rocket members, Brock wasn’t really sure if he had really seen what he thought he’d seen.   But when Officer Jenny had been absorbed the same way, he knew with a deadly certainty.  Someone had built a pokéball capable of capturing a human being.

And that was the most terrifying concept that he could conceive of.   He didn’t know why, but the whole idea of personally being placed inside a pokéball was completely repulsive to him.

So he had run away, terrified, abandoning his friends.   Part of Brock was thoroughly ashamed at having done that.

But the rest of him was just too frightened.

He was outside the museum now, alone.  The crowds that had been there earlier had completely run away and dispersed, scared off by the explosion.

Brock stopped to try to take a breath, then gasped suddenly as a crimson pokéball floated out of the museum door to follow him.

Brock ran as fast as he could, mostly on adrenaline, as the crimson ball flew closer and closer to him.  He could hear the pulsating hum of the ball louder and louder at his left ear.   He was just about in a complete panic when he noticed some bushes on his right side.  He dove into them quickly, head first.

A surprised wild Rattata leapt out of the bushes where it had been hiding, woken from sound sleep by Brock’s disturbance.  It poked its head back in the bush where Brock was hiding and bared its teeth fiercely, then squealed in surprise as something struck its tail.   The crimson pokéball meant for Brock had hit it from behind, and the Rattata disappeared in a flash of light.   The ball floated peacefully back into the museum, presumably to reunite with its owner.

Still shaky, Brock finally exhaled the breath he had been holding since running from the museum.  He closed his eyes, and before him flashed the memory of Jenny being sucked into that ball – that horrible pokéball -- and the very recollection made Brock start retching miserably.  He was too weak even to move when he saw the man in black exit the front of the museum.   Without noticing Brock, the man tossed out an ordinary red and silver pokéball to produce a giant Fearow.   Before lapsing into unconsciousness from terror and exhaustion, Brock was just dimly aware of the man in black departing into the distance on the back of the enormous bird.

*

Darkness.

Ash couldn’t see anything or hear anything.  He didn’t feel like he was able to move his body.   He didn’t feel like he had a body.

Just darkness.

After a long time, he became aware of a faint murmuring.   It wasn’t something he heard, for he had no ears to hear with.  It was something he felt, somehow.  Ash wasn’t sure how to describe the sensation, but he was sure it was there.

The murmuring grew louder and clearer, and it eventually coalesced into a voice.  Not a physical voice exactly, and not something that Ash could hear, but somehow he could make out intelligible words.

“Ash,” the voice said.  “We have to find a way out of here.”

“Here?” asked Ash.  “Where is here?”

“Don’t you know?” the voice replied.  “You’re inside a pokéball.”

Ash tried to digest that information and he couldn’t.   How could he be in a pokéball?  Bewildered, he asked, “Who are you?”

Ash suddenly became aware of a presence, a presence that went along with the voice he was hearing in his mind, and suddenly an image flashed in front of him, an image of two large, thoughtful eyes with a tuft of feathers above and a tiny beak below.

“You’re my Noctowl!” Ash exclaimed.

“Yes,” said Noctowl.  “That’s right.”

“W-w-w- how come you can talk?” Ash stammered.

“Well, I can’t exactly,” Noctowl replied thoughtfully.   “But we’re trapped in a pokéball together, and I think it’s giving us some kind of psychic connection.  You are understanding my thoughts and interpreting them in your mind as if I could speak.  I’m not really sure how it works exactly, myself.  I’ve never shared a pokéball with anyone before, after all.”

“Are you in the pokéball with me?” Ash asked.

“Yes,” was the reply.  “Strictly speaking, I’m in a pokéball that was in your pocket when you were caught in a second pokéball.   So we are sharing the outer one.   We’re not exactly corporeal, in this state, and that’s probably why our thoughts can intermingle so easily.”

Ash was about to ask what “corporeal” meant when he felt Noctowl suddenly shift its attention elsewhere.  He could almost imagine the wise bird twisting its head all the way around in the opposite direction to look.

“Ash,” said Noctowl, returning his attention to the boy, “let’s talk to the others.  We’re going to have to put our heads together to get out of this.”

“The others?  What others?”

“I know you’ve never been in a pokéball before,” Noctowl said patiently.   “So you are not used to sensing the outside world from within as we Pokémon are.  Here, let me help you get started.  Try reaching out with your mind and feeling the contours of the ball that you’re in.”

Ash reached out with his mind as he was told.  Slowly, he became aware that this featureless darkness that surrounded him had some structure after all.  He became aware of other presences: grumpy Bulbasaur, playful Totodile, shy Cyndaquil, and eager Chikorita.  He found that he could merge with their thoughts and personalities in a way he had never before imagined.  As he reached out further, he could feel the metallic, smooth, round inside of the pokéball all around him.

“Keep going,” Noctowl encouraged.

Ash pushed his consciousness out even further, outside of the crimson ball.   He could feel his awareness stretching out, reaching beyond the physical borders of where the disassembled molecules of his physical body were confined.  He was surprised to find another smooth, metallic surface.   Another pokéball was touching his.

Many balls, in fact.  He could sense several pokéballs in his immediate vicinity of the one he was in.   There seemed to be six total, including his own.

Ash dove his consciousness into the pokéball next to him and felt his way inside.  He immediately ran into yet another presence.

It was Misty’s Goldeen, swimming about elegantly in its ethereal state as easily as if had been in real water.  This must be the ball Misty is in, Ash thought.  He pushed the Goldeen aside to go look for her.

“Misty!” Ash called out, searching everywhere for her with his mind inside her pokéball.  “Misty!   Are you there?”

“Ash?” replied a surprised voice.  It was Misty!

“Misty,” said Ash.  “I don’t know how it happened, but we’re trapped inside pokéballs and we have to find a way out!”

“I know how it happened,” said a new voice.

“Jessie, is that you?” Misty asked.

“Yes,” came the reply.  “I’m trapped here in my own ball, as are James and two Officer Jennies.”

James added, “It looks like we can all talk to one another even though we’re trapped in separate pokéballs.”

“Do you two know that man in black?” the Ochre City Officer Jenny asked.

“Yes, we do,” replied Jessie.  “His name is Dmitri, and he used to work with the boss.  They were partners.”

“Dmitri was working on new pokéball technology that would allow you to trap a human being inside a pokéball,” James continued.  “He concluded that it was possible but that the amount of energy you needed made it impractical.  While a person might be able to climb into one voluntarily, to use the thing as a capturing device would take an enormous power supply.   He said you would need something like the electric power of several cities to power even one of these things.”

Jessie went on.  “The boss was enraged when he heard the news,” she said.  “He had invested billions of dollars on this technology that turned out to be little more than a curiosity.  The two of them had a big argument and Dmitri ended up walking out of Team Rocket.   He operates on his own now.”

At this point, the Mauve Town Jenny pitched in.  “But if the Electric Diamonds have the amplifying power they are supposed to have, then he might be able to power the crimson pokéballs using an ordinary power source!”

Ochre City Jenny asked, “When you tried to stop him in Mauve Town, how many pokéballs did he throw out at once?”

“Just one at a time,” her twin replied.

“By time he got to us, he had two diamonds instead of one, and he was able to handle multiple pokéballs at a time with them,” the first Jenny mused.   “With all three diamonds, he might have enough power to send out dozens at once...maybe even hundreds!”

“What do you suppose he is going to do with them?” Misty wondered.

“Probably the same thing we would do,” James replied.  “Steal as many Pokémon as possible.”

Jessie agreed.  “He’s probably already taken Meowth and the twerp’s Pikachu, that’s why they’re not with us.”

“He must have left us behind in the museum and forgot that we’re carrying Pokémon in our own balls,” added James, and then he suddenly vanished out of the conversation.  He reappeared a moment later.  “Sorry about that,” he said ruefully.  “My Victreebel is roaming around in my pokéball with me, and it’s trying to slurp me up.”

“We’ve GOT to stop Dmitri,” Ash cried.  “But how?”

“The first step,” Noctowl interjected, “is to escape.   We need a Pokémon who is good at escaping out of a pokéball.”

“Too bad Pikachu isn’t here,” Ash mused.  “He hates being in a pokéball.”

“Hates isn’t sufficient, Ash,” said Noctowl.  “We need a Pokémon who has a knack for escaping, the kind that pops out of its ball all the time unheeded.  Does anyone have such a Pokémon?”

“Well,” replied Misty, “my Psyduck escapes all the time.”

“So does my Wobbuffet,” added Jessie.

“A Psyduck and a Wobbuffet?” Noctowl groaned despairingly.   “This is going to be even more difficult than I thought.”

CHAPTER 5

Psyduck was very confused.

That red-haired girl had given it lots of training and attention over the years – well, at least more so than any other human it had met.   It had gotten to the point where it could remember and follow commands of two, maybe three words.

But the Noctowl had given it a whole list of instructions.   Psyduck had managed to accomplish the first one: get out of the pokéball.  But now that Psyduck was outside of that funny-looking dark ball and couldn’t communicate with the Noctowl anymore, it just couldn’t recall what it was supposed to be doing.

“Psy – psy – psy – psy,” the Pokémon quacked in confusion.

Psyduck looked over at the Wobbuffet – the only other living thing in the vicinity – for assistance, but it stood motionless like a statue and didn’t offer any suggestions.

Psyduck remembered one thing that the Noctowl had said, and that was to go back in the pokéball if it forgot the instructions.  This would be the third time now it had done that.   Psyduck started to go back in the ball when suddenly it remembered Noctowl’s directive: Throw one of the funny pokéballs and try to open it.

Psyduck picked up a crimson pokéball, one of six left in a pile on the Ochre City Museum’s dusty floor.  Although not heavy, the smooth, shiny surface was difficult for the creature’s small, webbed hands to handle.  Psyduck tossed the ball as hard as it could.  The ball, propelled only a short distance by the feeble toss, bounced on the floor a few times and then lay still, unopened.

The feebleminded duck backed away in confusion.  Now what should it do?  It didn’t even notice the pedestal, holding an exquisite ceramic figurine depicting a Dragonite, as it backed right into it.  The priceless figurine, one of the few items left intact after the explosion, dropped from the pedestal top and smashed into a thousand fragments on top of Psyduck’s head.

The Pokémon’s eyes glowed a deep blue, and it felt a funny power within, as it often had before when its headache became very bad like this.   It suddenly knew exactly what to do.   It looked at one of the crimson pokéballs and directed the funny power at it.

Psyduck’s Confusion attack sent the crimson sphere spinning into the air at high speed.  Crashing through a glass case, it shot like a cannonball towards the museum wall.   The ball opened as it struck the wall, and out tumbled a surprised and jumbled-up Ash.

“Good job, Psyduck,” said Ash, picking himself up and dusting his pants off.   “Now let’s get the others free.”

“Psy!” replied the duck mildly.

Ash took a few tries to get the hang of opening the other balls.   The feel was a little different.   You had to throw them fast and hard, like a fastball.  At his first successful attempt, he managed to get Misty to tumble out, Togepi still in her arms.   Then came James and then Jessie, and then the Ochre City Officer Jenny, her own pokéball still in hand, and then the Mauve Town Jenny.  The latter winced upon rematerializing, the pain in her sprained ankle suddenly returning as she was restored to physical form.

“Where did Dmitri go?” asked the Ochre City Jenny.

“And where’s Brock?” wondered Misty out loud.

Mauve Town Jenny couldn’t walk, and so after resting her comfortably on a bench, the other five split up and went out of the museum in different directions, trying to find their companion and any clue that would reveal Dmitri’s whereabouts.

Ash came upon Brock first.  His back towards Ash, he was sitting on a rock by himself behind the museum.

“Brock!   Where have you been?   Come on, you’ve got to help us, Dmitri’s got Pikachu and we’ve got to find him!” Ash called.   Brock didn’t even turn around.

“Brock!   What’s the matter with you?   Didn’t you hear me?” Ash shouted.

Brock replied, still not looking his friend in the face.   “I – I can’t come with you,” he replied, voice quavering.

“What are you talking about?” asked Ash, bewildered.

Brock turned to face his friend for the first time, his eyes full of tears.   “I can’t come, don’t you understand?   I don’t know why, but for some reason I’m terribly, terribly afraid of those crimson pokéballs.”   Brock grew pale just at the mention of them.  “I’ll be useless trying to stop that guy.  It’ll be better if you go on without me.”

Ash sagged his body in defeat.  How could Brock just abandon them like that?  How could he abandon Pikachu?  “I do understand,” said Ash, quietly, his voice brimming with disappointment.   “I understand that you’ve become a coward.” 

Ash surprised himself a little at his own words and how harsh he had been to his friend.  He almost hoped that Brock would protest so maybe they could argue about it and have an opportunity to make up.  But several seconds passed in which Brock didn’t reply or move, and eventually Ash began to feel uncomfortable staying around.  Without another word, he turned around slowly and went back inside the museum.  

Inside, Ash met with Ochre City Officer Jenny again.  A Nurse Joy was with her.

“I ran into Nurse Joy outside,” Jenny told Ash.

Joy nodded.  “I heard about the explosion and rushed over the museum to see if any Pokémon had been injured.   But it looks like no one is seriously hurt.”

“Did you find your friend?” Jenny inquired.

Although Ash was still disappointed in Brock’s behavior, he told Jenny nothing except that Brock was physically okay but unable to come along.   As he finished, Misty came in excitedly, with James and Jessie following behind. 

“Look at this,” she said.  Misty had found a slip of paper, apparently something that the thief had dropped, in front of the museum.

Jenny looked at the paper closely.  On it was a list containing the names of Pokémon experts the world over, each a giant in his or her field.  All the names had been crossed out except for one: PROFESSOR OAK, PALLET TOWN.

“Maybe that’s where he’s going!” Ash exclaimed.

It didn’t take long to find a videophone.  Ash dialed the number nervously.  After what seemed like an eternity, the line was picked up on the other side.

It was Tracey.

“Heck of a time for you to call, Ash!” Tracey yelled, trying to make himself heard over the din in the background at the Oak laboratory.   “The laboratory is under attack!”

“Let me guess,” said Officer Jenny.  “A guy with super-powerful crimson pokéballs?”

“Yes,” replied Tracey, his eyes wide in surprise that they all knew.   “But it’s not just a guy, it’s a guy in a tank!”

Everyone crowded around the videophone as Tracey excitedly continued.   “Some guy dressed in black is on top of a tank.  He’s driven it halfway through the Oak grounds.  But it doesn’t fire shells, it fires these funny dark-red pokéballs that suck up anything they touch.  Hundreds of Professor Oak’s Pokémon have already been captured.  And here’s the weirdest part of all: one of the balls has captured Professor Oak, too!

“So far, I’m safe because I’m still in the lab.  But the tank is heading straight for the building.  I’ve put in a call to Pallet Town’s Officer Jenny but they said she’s almost half an hour away.”

“Half an hour!” exclaimed Ash.  “All the Pokémon will be captured by then!  We’ve got to do something!”

“But Ash, what can we do?” asked Misty, helplessly.  “Pallet Town is many days’ travel away.  We’ll never get there in time.”

“Yes, we can,” insisted Ash, turning to his friend.  “We can if we transfer ourselves inside the pokéballs!”

Ochre City Officer Jenny smiled.  “That’s a great idea, Ash.  We can put ourselves inside the pokéballs and use the phone ball transporter to take us over there instantly.”

Jenny turned to the others.  “Normally, this would be strictly police business,” she declared, “but in this case I’m going to need all the help I can get.  Is there anyone who would be willing to come help me stop Dmitri?”

“I’m in,” Ash said firmly.

“Me too,” added Misty, a look of fierce determination in her pretty blue eyes.

Mauve Town Officer Jenny was out, with her ankle still sprained, and Nurse Joy decided to stay behind, too.  “I’m certainly not suited for crime-fighting, “ she said, “and besides, somebody has to stay behind and load the balls into the transporter.”   Ochre City Jenny agreed.

“Count us in too,” added James.  Jessie, at his side, nodded in agreement.

Everyone looked at them.

“You’re going to help us?” Ash asked suspiciously.

“Not for you, twerp,” snapped Jessie impatiently.  “But ever since the boss and Dmitri parted ways, the boss has instructed any Team Rocket members to try to foil any plan that Dmitri has going, just out of spite.”

“Yeah,” agreed James enthusiastically. “We could get a big fat bonus just for getting in Dmitri’s way!”

“Should have guessed it was something like that,” Misty muttered.

“The reason doesn’t matter,” said Jenny.  “As I said, I still need all the help I can get.  All right, you two are in.  Let’s see, that makes five of us, and there are six crimson pokéballs...”

“Count me in too,” said a voice behind them.  Everyone turned.

In the doorway stood Brock, still pale and shaky but with a determined look on his face.  “What you said before Ash ... outside ... it was true.  I was being a coward.

“I’m still afraid of those balls,” he continued, “but Pikachu and the other Pokémon need us -- all of us -- and I can’t let fear stop me from doing what needs to be done.”

Ash turned back to the videophone, a huge grin on his face.   “Tracey,” he yelled joyfully, “get ready, because we’re all coming to help you out right now!”

CHAPTER 6

“Come on!” yelled Tracey, as he opened the last of the six crimson pokéballs, freeing a slightly tousled-up James.  “You can see everything from this window!”

Brock, panting on his hands and knees, worked on calming himself from the emotional ordeal of being inside a pokéball.  Everyone else ran up to the large bay window overlooking the Oak grounds.  Their eyes opened wide as saucers in amazement and terror.

It looked like it was raining pokéballs.  Literally thousands of the blood-red crimson objects flew around, filling up the sky.

And every second that passed, tens of Pokémon were being captured inside the balls, which would then float back to their owner on the tank.

Dmitri stood on top of the tank triumphantly.  He had planned this moment for months, and everything was going just as he had expected.

The tank had been built to his exact specifications.   It was designed to be fire-proof, waterproof, dent-proof, shock-proof – basically everything that was needed to undertake an all-out assault on an army of Pokémon.  It had a single turret with four mounted steel gun barrels, pointing in the four compass directions.  Each gun could fire two or three crimson pokéballs per second.  As the pokéballs made captures and were recalled, they automatically placed themselves in a large, locked steel wire-mesh cage attached to the back of the tank.  Dmitri’s specifications were so thorough that he even had included amenities that would allow him to enjoy his victory more fully.  If he wanted, he could sit inside the cabin and look out through the impenetrable windows at his many captures, or even gaze through the reinforced glass set in the top hatch.

But he preferred to stand on top of the tank, wind in his hair, and view the work of his thousands of crimson spheres out in the open.   It was more exciting to see the action directly, and he was safe from accidentally being captured by one of his own pokéballs, as the top of the tank was the one place that the four guns couldn’t reach.   The remote control in his hand glowed brilliantly as billions of watts of power flowed through the three Electric Diamonds implanted in the circuitry.  Dmitri checked the power readings briefly, then grinned evilly as he saw that the control signal to the many pokéballs remained stable.   The balls were obediently gobbling up Pokémon on the ground, grabbing flying Pokémon in the air, diving into nearby ponds to catch water Pokémon, even burrowing into the ground to capture the Diglett and Dugtrio close by.

Everything was going as planned.

The tank had suffered even less damage than he had planned for.   With the exception of a burn mark on one side, where an Electrode had exploded under the treads, and a tiny dent on the other where a Tauros had rammed it full force, the tank was completely unscathed.  None of the other Pokémon had been even able to get close enough to do any damage before being absorbed in one of those crimson spheres.

Oddly enough, the Pokémon that had been closest to stopping him was a small Farfetch’d, which had tried to attack Dmitri from the air.   It had gotten to within twenty feet of striking the thief before a crimson pokéball caught up to it and swallowed it up, its tiny stick falling to the ground at Dmitri’s feet.

Dmitri laughed to himself as he thought of the futile stubbornness of these creatures.  He glanced up for a moment at the Oak laboratory to gauge his distance.  Probably seventy or so yards to the building, he thought.

As Dmitri glanced up, he gave a sudden start of surprise.   Looking at him through a large bay window were those annoying kids he had captured and left behind in Ochre City, and an Officer Jenny, and Team Rocket!  Dmitri snarled in frustration.  How did they escape? he wondered.  And how did they get here so quickly?

Ash was ready to head out into the field of raining pokéballs when he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder.  It was Brock.

“You’re never going to avoid all those balls by yourself,” Brock said.   “I’ll go with you and help watch your back.  With two of us, we might be able to make it to the tank!”

“Are you sure you can do this?” Ash asked, noticing that his friend was still pale.

“I WILL do it,” Brock replied, “for the Pokémon.”

Officer Jenny surveyed the situation.  “I’ll try to head off the tank from another direction,” she declared.   “Misty, will you watch my back?”

Misty nodded her agreement, and left Togepi with Tracey.

They started off.  Ash and Brock headed straight for the tank, while Misty and Jenny took a more roundabout route that would hopefully give them a better chance to avoid the flying pokéballs.

Professor Oak’s Pokémon were scattered everywhere, fleeing every which way attempting to escape capture, while the air resounded with the pulsating hum of thousands of the blood-red orbs.  It was even harder to avoid them than it looked.  After just a few seconds, Ash was very grateful to have Brock along.   With two pairs of eyes, it was just possible to watch for the flying crimson objects and stay away from them.

Fifty yards to the tank.

Ash was eyeing a crimson ball behind him, which looked like it was going for him but at the last moment turned and struck a passing Butterfree instead, when he ran into something chest-high and with a VERY hard shell.

It was his Heracross.

Ash had sent his Heracross back to Professor Oak months ago, and now the poor creature was running around bewildered, not knowing what to do with all these pokéballs flying around.  The giant bug took one look at Ash and opened its mouth in a big grin.   “Heracross!” the creature said happily.

The three of them kept running.

Forty yards to the tank.

Ash looked over at where Misty was, about fifty yards to his right.   Officer Jenny had been already captured by a pokéball again, and Misty was dodging the blood-red spheres by herself as best she could.  She wasn’t being captured, but she wasn’t making any progress towards the tank either.   Ash fought off an urge to veer off and try to save her.  It would be better if he made it to the tank and stopped Dmitri instead.   He bent down and kept running.

Thirty yards to the tank.

“Look out!” shouted Brock, as a crimson pokéball locked onto Ash and started trailing after him.

Ash, Brock, and Heracross sprinted faster and faster, but the ball kept gaining on them.

Nearly out of breath, Brock turned to Ash and said, “Ash, make sure you take care of this Dmitri guy,” and then suddenly broke with the other two.

Ash couldn’t even react.  “Where are you going?” he shouted, as Brock turned to face the pursuing ball, arms outstretched.  Ash saw Brock scream as the crimson pokéball meant for him struck Brock instead, swallowing him up in a flash of light.

Ash turned back towards the tank, grabbed his Heracross and continued running.

Fifteen yards to the tank.

Ash gasped as another crimson ball started heading straight for him.   He was so out of breath from running that he knew he couldn’t avoid it.  Resigning himself to being captured, he futilely tried to shield his face with his arms.   I’ve failed, he thought.

Ash suddenly felt himself being lifted into the air.   He looked, and saw his Heracross lifting him up on his strong horn.  Heracross hurled Ash up into the air just as the crimson sphere came down, striking the big bug instead.

Heracross was captured.  But Ash had made it.

Through the air he flew, ten yards, five ... the air rushed in his face as hurtled towards his destination.  So unexpected was his sudden flight that no crimson pokéball was able to alter its course in time to intercept him.

With a crash, Ash landed hard on the tank’s top.  He was bruised and out of breath, but he had made it to the one location where the crimson pokéballs from the tank couldn’t reach him.  

Dmitri snarled, then jumped on Ash, grabbing the boy’s neck.   The thief was an adult and much stronger, and Ash struggled helplessly under the man’s iron grasp, choking and struggling to get a breath of air.  Ash felt something under his hand – a stick of some sort – and in a last gasp of desperation he picked up the object and thrust it into Dmitri’s face.

Dmitri gave a howl of pain and went reeling, losing his grip on the boy.   Ash looked down at the object he had grabbed.  It was a Farfetch’d stick.  A primitive weapon, but it had given Ash the opening he needed.  He tossed the stick away and released all of his Pokémon at once.

And none too soon, for Dmitri had recovered quickly.   The thief brought out a pokéball of his own, crimson colored and pulsating.  This kid may be safe from the pokéballs from the tank, he mused, but I can still catch him with my personal pokéballs.  He tossed the ball directly at Ash, expecting the familiar flash of light as the ball struck him.

Instead of capturing the boy, however, the crimson globe passed right through Ash’s body, as if he weren’t even there, and bounced harmlessly off the turret to the ground below.  Dmitri gave a howl of surprise and rage, and then heard the boy’s voice behind him: “Good job, Noctowl.”

Noctowl had done his job perfectly, using his Hypnosis attack to confuse Dmitri as to Ash’s actual position.  Dmitri shook his head for a moment to clear it.  He had a very focused mind, and he would not be fooled by suck a trick again.

Ash sensed this and changed tactics.  “Totodile, use Water Gun!” he called.  The tiny lizard opened its mouth and immediately shot out a powerful spray of water at Dmitri’s legs, knocking the man over.

Ash was in his element now.  “Chikorita, grab the diamonds; Bulbasaur, use Razor Leaf on that cage!”   he yelled.  Ash heard a loud snap as Bulbasaur’s knife-edged leaves broke open the lock on the steel cage holding the filled crimson pokéballs.   As the cage door swung open, thousands of the metal spheres came rolling out and bouncing onto the ground behind the tank.

Things were happening faster than Dmitri could react to, now, and he was only able to grab helplessly in the air in a vain effort to take back the two Electric Diamonds that Chikorita picked up, one in each of its slender vines.   The remote control groaned and sparked as its power source was suddenly cut off.

Reacting to the sudden loss of their control signal, the thousands of pokéballs flying through the air dropped straight to the ground, their crimson glow fading away to darkness.  And every last one of them, all at once, opened.

It was a chaotic scene behind the tank as thousands of Pokémon were freed at once.  Growlithes were tangled up with Magikarp, Beedrils were crushed under Snorlax, Metapods were stuck between the rocky scales of an Onix.  A suddenly freed Brock happily found himself all tangled up with Officer Jenny, and Professor Oak crawled out from underneath a Golem, nearly crushed to death.  Meowth tumbled out of his ball, only to land on something familiar and yellow.  He looked up and saw Pikachu.  Happy to be free, the two old enemies grinned at each other as if they were old familiar friends.

Ash noticed that Chikorita had only gotten two of the Electric Diamonds, the last still in the remote control.  He decided to press his advantage against the thief.  “Cyndaquil, use Flamethrower!” he called.   The fiery porcupine let loose a blast of heat at the remote, instantly melting it.  Dmitri cried out in pain, letting the remote loose from his singed hand.   Now no more than a ball of molten metal, the remote dropped into the cabin of the tank, the sparkly diamond unharmed and still embedded in it.

Dmitri, furious at this turn of events, recovered himself quickly.   Enraged, he launched himself at Ash, knocking the boy off the tank.  Ash’s Pokémon, now without leadership, scattered in different directions.

Scowling, Dmitri climbed down into the tank cabin, securely locking the hatch behind him.  He would have to change his plan completely, and all because of that meddling boy and his Pokémon.   But no matter.   He still had one Electric Diamond, and a spare remote tucked away in the tank.  He could drive the tank right into the Oak laboratory and hide inside, using it as a base from which to capture all the humans again.  With only one diamond, he would have to deploy only one crimson pokéball at a time, but he would still get them all.  The Pokémon wouldn’t know what to do without human leadership.   He could then get the diamonds back from that annoying Chikorita and start the process again.   And this time, those kids wouldn’t get in the way.   He would watch their balls personally and kill them if they escaped again.

With new resolve, he went to the controls for the tank, kicked it up into full throttle, and proceeded full speed at the Oak laboratory.

Until he got stuck in the mud.

Misty had found a spot of soft earth right in the tank’s pathway.   She had gotten Staryu and Poliwhirl to add just the right amount of water to the ground to turn it into sticky mud.   She stood before the helpless tank now, waving to Dmitri and smiling infuriatingly at him.

Dmitri cursed as the tank treads groaned and spun, trying to find traction.   Finally, the treads found something at the bottom of the mud pool to grab on to, and the tank slowly and painfully pulled itself out of its trap.  Misty and her Pokémon dashed off to one side in order to avoid being run over by the tank.  She had gained her side only a small delay.

But enough of a delay for Team Rocket to climb up on top.

Jessie and James had hung out in the background until the crimson pokéballs had stopped flying.  Now reunited with Meowth, they were determined cause their own mayhem at Dmitri’s expense.

The black-garbed thief saw the trio through the reinforced glass window in the hatch.  Fine, he sneered.   They’ll never be able to get me in here.   His sneer suddenly disappeared as poison gas started spewing through the vent.

James had discovered the inlet vent for the tank, and had instructed his Weezing to blast its toxic fumes into there.  Coughing, Dmitri tried in vain to break open the hatch to get fresh air, and howled in rage upon discovering that Jessie’s Arbok was clamped down on the hatch, preventing it from opening.

Dmitri had a gas mask stored in a compartment in the tank, and he went to get it.   This would just be another short delay.

Jessie saw him going after the mask through the hatch window.   She called out, “If any of you twerps has another attack in mind, I suggest you use it now!”

Ash struggled to his feet.  Before him were his Chikorita, still holding two of the diamonds, and Pikachu.   They had run up to see if he was okay.  He suddenly had an idea.

“Chikorita, give Pikachu one of the diamonds,” Ash ordered.   Chikorita obeyed.

Bruised and exhausted, Ash had a look of fierce determination as he gave his final command.  “PIKACHU, THUNDERBOLT ATTACK!”

Holding the diamond, the little yellow Pokémon charged his body.   “PI – KA – CHUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!”

Pikachu’s Thunderbolt was impressive by itself normally.  But through the Electric Diamond, the Pokémon’s attack was amplified a thousandfold.  Ash felt as if the air itself were being torn apart by the powerful electric current.   The ground between Pikachu and the tank was ripped into shreds under the force of the mighty beam passing above.   A thousand Electrodes could not have produced an electric attack this powerful.

The tank was designed to be electric-proof, but nothing could withstand an attack such as this.  The tank body shone brilliantly for an instant before blowing apart in a million twisted metal fragments.

Oddly, the top of the tank, the very area where James, Jessie, and Meowth were standing on, blew straight off in one piece.  It flew off in the distance with the three of them and their Pokémon still on it.  It was a familiar sight, and yet somehow different, for the three of them had big grins on their faces.

“It’s happened again,” Jessie said, gleefully.

“Yeah, Jess, but this time, we’re going to get bonuses for it,” James replied.   He wanted to dance for joy.

“Yeah,” said Meowth happily, “for once, we’re getting paid for what we do best.”

“WE’RE BLASTING OFF AGAINNNNNNNNnnnnnn....”  Ash heard, faintly, before the three of them vanished in a sparkle in the distance.

Somehow, miraculously, Dmitri had survived the blast.  Battered, burned, and choked, he staggered out of the smoking ruins of his tank.  He was defeated, he knew it, and his only remaining course of action was to escape.   He brought out his one ordinary pokéball and released his Fearow.

The giant bird stretched out its mighty wings, then fell flat to the ground as a ton of hurtling rock landed directly on its back.

“Good job, Onix,” Brock called out, no longer pale and very much in command of himself.  Ash smiled to see that his friend was his old self again.  “That’s enough, now,” Brock called to the giant rock creature.   Onix lifted its ponderous weight off of the now unconscious bird.

Now completely bewildered, Dmitri didn’t even know how to react when a pile of roaring, sticky, smelly, gray goo suddenly appeared from nowhere.   Ash’s Muk had often tackled the professor playfully.  But now, enraged by having been captured in a crimson pokéball, Muk smothered his former captor mercilessly.  The toxic Pokémon covered Dmitri’s eyes and ears, plugged up his nose with vile fumes, and filled his mouth with its sickly slime.  Dmitri nearly choked to death, and Muk freed his face just enough so that he could catch a glimpse of Officer Jenny running up to them, handcuffs in hand.

“Officer,” the tortured thief pleaded in a hoarse voice, “I’d like to be arrested now.”

*

Tracey spent the rest of the afternoon taking inventory of the Pokémon to make sure none were missing.

They were all there.  In fact, in addition to Mauve Town Officer Jenny’s Arcanine and the Electric-type Pokémon from Ochre City, there was also an additional Rattata that he couldn’t account for.   He told Professor Oak about the additional Pokémon, and the professor had replied, as Tracey had expected, that the new-found Rattata was of course welcome to stay.

The authorities from Pallet Town had finished gathering up all the crimson pokéballs.  Officer Jenny watched as the last of them was being locked away in a truck for impounding.

“What’s going to happen to all of those balls?” Ash inquired.

“It’s up to a judge,” Jenny replied, “but I’ll bet that they’ll all be destroyed.”

“I certainly hope so,” Professor Oak declared.  “They are terribly evil things.”

Everyone looked to him as he continued.  “When a Pokémon is captured by an ordinary red and silver pokéball, there is an agreement between trainer and Pokémon, a covenant if you will.   The Pokémon agrees to be loyal to the trainer, and the trainer agrees to take care of the Pokémon.   The pokéball is not just a convenient storage device; it acts as a symbol of that covenant.

“The crimson pokéball thwarts that original purpose.   It doesn’t ask for loyalty, it doesn’t make any agreement between the captor and the one captured.  That’s why it can capture humans.  But without the agreement, it’s just a capturing device, and in its own way no better than a cage to store victims in.”

Ash was about to ask what “covenant” meant when Misty interjected with her own thoughts.  “It’s too bad though.   It’ll be a long trip just to get back to Ochre City where we left off.  It would have been nice to take the ball transporter.”

“Actually,” said Officer Jenny with a smile, “my counterpart in Pallet Town and I were just talking about that.  It seems that we owe you a great deal of gratitude for what you did here today, and so we thought we could afford to do you a small favor in return.”   She opened her hand to reveal five of the crimson pokéballs, now dark and without power.  “My counterpart and I agreed that I could keep these, just long enough to take myself and the three of you back.  Four of you if you include your Pikachu.”

Ash jumped for joy.  They would be on their way to the next gym in no time.

Pikachu, however, seemed thoroughly dissatisfied by the idea and sat angrily with his back turned to the rest of them.

“What’s the matter, Pikachu,” Ash asked.  “Don’t tell me that you refuse to go into a crimson pokéball!”

Pikachu turned around, squeaking out, “Pi – ka!” in an unhappy confirmation.

“Sphereatophobia,” Professor Oak noted.  “Fear of being in a pokéball.  I’ve seen this condition before in Pokémon.”

“And in humans, too,” added Brock, quietly.  He crouched down near the little yellow creature.

“I know you don’t like being in a pokéball,” Brock told Pikachu.   “But this is so that Ash can be sure of making it to the Johto League in time.  For something important enough, for someone important enough...don’t you think you could do it this once?”

Pikachu thought, then nodded his head in consent.  “Pi – ka – chu.”

“It’s settled then,” the professor concluded.  “Ash, I’ll send your regards to your mother.”

“Thanks, Professor,” said Ash, as he was climbing into one of the crimson spheres.   “I’ll contact you again soon.”

The Professor smiled to himself as Tracey loaded the five balls into the transporter to return to Nurse Joy in Ochre City.   Ash Ketchum, he thought to himself, you will be a great Pokémon master indeed.

EPILOGUE

The maitre-d’ of the most exclusive and expensive restaurant in Viridian City breathed a sigh of relief.

When those two crass, obnoxious humans and one Meowth came in and ordered the most obscenely ostentatious feast possible, he was sure that they were disgusting freeloaders trying to get the best out of a meal they had no ability to pay for.  The maitre-d’ was just about to dial for Officer Jenny when he was surprised to hear from one of the waiters that the threesome had paid their enormous bill – in cash – and had paid for another round of drinks to boot.

Giovanni had indeed been good to his word, paying them their bonuses as soon as his information network had confirmed that, in fact, the three of them had been an important part of foiling Dmitri’s plan.

Jessie, James, and Meowth left the restaurant, happy and with stomachs full.   It had been the most profitable week of their entire careers.