CHAPTER 7

Charizard and the Blastoise faced each other. They stood like two titans poised for war, each gazing unflinchingly in the other's eyes. The air was thick with tension as the two powerhouses prepared to square off.

Ash decided to make the first move. "Flamethrower!" he called out.

"Water Gun," countered Cympelton immediately, still in a hypnotic daze. Charizard shot out a column of intense flame at its opponent, but the Blastoise, its left foot firmly planted, responded instantly with a powerful jet of water from one of its attached cannons. The water sizzled in mid-air as it met with the oncoming fire and vaporized into billowing clouds of steam.

Pikachu, his yellow head poking out of the burlap sack, witnessed the battle being waged in front of him and cursed at his own helplessness. He tried to move a paw. It moved, but stiffly. He would need a few more minutes before he recovered completely from Lickitung's paralytic attack.

Fire and water, each in an unrelenting stream, continued to collide with each other for several minutes, neither side gaining any ground. Slowly, however, Charizard's attack began to weaken, and the water began pushing the flame back towards the fire-type Pokémon. The Blastoise appeared completely untiring, and the current of water it produced was unremitting. Charizard took a step back and shot forth fire with all its might, but the merciless blast of water continued to advance until it forced the flame all the way back and began spraying into the fiery-orange lizard's mouth. Charizard shook its head to free itself from the liquid blast, coughing and spluttering huge clouds of vaporized steam.

Ash was astonished. He had never seen any Pokémon do that to his Charizard. And the Blastoise's Water Gun attack looked nearly as powerful as his own Squirtle's Hydro Pump. He had to take action quickly. "Charizard, use Dragon Rage!" he called out.

The air grew unbearably hot as an intense ball of fiery destruction began to form in front of the giant lizard. Charizard focused all of its might and energy into the inferno before it, and with a mighty roar, hurled the burning sphere full force at the Blastoise. As the fireball rushed towards the giant turtle, flaming sparks shot out of it in every direction, charring the walls and taking down a few more ceiling tiles.

"Blastoise, Hydro Pump," ordered Cympelton. The Blastoise planted its foot firmly and shot forth an astounding volume of water. It looked as if a tidal wave had suddenly appeared in the room. Charizard's fireball drove straight into the oncoming wall of water and exploded, sending clouds of steam and droplets of heated water everywhere. The remaining fragments of ceiling were blown straight off, and billows of steam rushed out through the hole in the roof. Everyone was drenched as warm water rained down on the whole interior of the nearly demolished building.

The Dragon Rage attack had scattered most of the Blastoise's Hydro Pump, but the remaining liquid continued sailing directly towards Ash's Charizard. The fiery orange lizard was soaked completely as torrents of water splashed over it, and it staggered painfully as the flame on its tail sputtered and smoked for a few seconds before igniting again.

This was serious. Cympelton's Blastoise was still fresh, and it didn't look to Ash as if Charizard could take another drenching like that. He could see now why the Blastoise had never been defeated. He had to think of something quickly or Charizard would lose for sure.

Tracey, meanwhile, was watching the battle intently to the side. He gasped with a sudden realization, and his eyes opened wide. Just at that moment, he observed something about the Blastoise that he had not seen before. A weakness that maybe Ash could exploit. He opened his mouth to speak, and then shut it again without saying anything. No, it's too obvious, the boy thought to himself. Surely another one of Cympelton's many opponents would have noticed something like this by now. My idea probably won't work after all.

A flash of light in the corner of Tracey's eye caught his attention, and he turned involuntarily to glance at it. The light was coming from Misty's Psyduck, which was glowing with psychic energy as it tried unsuccessfully to move Snorlax with its telekinetic power. He watched as the remaining droplets of water from the Hydro Pump attack came down on the duck Pokémon's body, only to bead up and roll off without wetting its skin. Like water off a Psyduck's back...

And suddenly it clicked. Maybe it was because of the visual cue of the Psyduck in front of him, he didn't know, but all of a sudden he understood what Nurse Joy had been trying to tell him the other night. He now realized, not just intellectually, but deep down, how much he had taken Cympelton's criticisms to heart, and believed them to the point where he no longer believed in himself. Maybe, just maybe, his idea had merit after all. It was risky, but it looked like Ash was going to lose for sure otherwise.

He ran over quickly and stood beside his friend. "Ash!" he exclaimed. "The Blastoise always plants its left foot in the ground before firing its water jet. It's dependent on that leg in order to withstand the recoil from its own water cannons. That's its weakness!"

Ash turned to the older boy with a surprised look. "Are you sure?" he asked.

Tracey paused for the briefest instant, and then with a look of certainty, he nodded in confirmation.

Ash whirled around, looking for a way to take advantage of this new information. He suddenly spied what he was looking for.

"Charizard!" he yelled. He pointed at the ice chest in the corner, still filled to the brim with drinks and moist ice cubes. "Throw this at the Blastoise's feet."

Charizard was puzzled, but did as its trainer commanded. It scooped up the chest with one sweep of its mighty reptilian wing and hurled it at the ground it front of the giant turtle. The chest split apart upon impact with the floor, sending the little ice cubes all over the place around the Blastoise's legs.

"Now," Ash ordered, "do a Seismic Toss."

Cassidy snickered as Charizard leapt forward at its opponent. With the Blastoise's quick reaction time, there was no way that the fire Pokémon would get to its opponent before getting another dousing.

Cympelton called out in a dazed voice, "Blastoise, Water Gun." The enormous turtle planted its left foot firmly and fired off another colossal volley of water.

But this time, things happened differently. Some half-melted ice cubes had gotten trapped under the Blastoise's ponderous foot, and the giant turtle unexpectedly found that it had insufficient traction on the smooth tiled floor. The water-type Pokémon slipped and fell over backwards from its own recoil, and the blast of water shot straight up into the air, missing Charizard completely.

Cassidy gasped in surprise as Charizard swooped down and picked up the giant turtle in one fluid motion. It flapped its wings with all the remaining strength it had as it struggled to clear the building through the gaping hole in the roof. It had performed a Seismic Toss on a Poliwrath once and once on a Magmar, but never before on anything this heavy. Straining and pulling against gravity, the fiery lizard finally got the required speed to loop around in a dizzying array of aerial barrel rolls. Finally, hurtling back towards earth like an oncoming missile, the fire-breathing dragon released its thoroughly disoriented opponent at the last instant before sailing back upwards into the sky.

The Blastoise slammed into the ground headfirst with the force of a bomb, and a huge cloud of dust and pebbles flew up into the air. The impact shook the earth itself, and the last remaining walls of the safe house collapsed to rubble while everyone grabbed on to something to keep balance. The dust finally cleared to reveal the Blastoise, sprawled on the ground and unconscious.

Ash was ready to jump for joy. Charizard flapped its wings and landed next to its trainer, letting forth a mighty roar before collapsing in exhaustion.

Butch cursed. The kid with the Pikachu had beaten them again. "Misty, let the old man go," he called. "We're getting out of here!"

Misty released Cympelton, who collapsed unconscious on the floor in an ungainly heap. She quickly recalled her Psyduck, and followed Cassidy and Butch, the latter still holding onto the Exeggcutes, as they took off and fled towards the wharf.

Ash took barely a moment to recall both Snorlax and Charizard to their pokéballs. Satisfied that the Magikarp was still safe in its tank, Ash turned to Tracey and yelled, "Get medical help for Mr. Simpleton. I'm going after them!"

Tracey started to protest, but the younger boy was already running to the wharf. Pikachu had finally recovered from the paralytic attack he had received earlier, and he crawled out of the sack and chased after Ash as fast as his four tiny legs would take him.

Ash arrived at the wharf just in time to see the speedboat zoom away from the water's edge. Not wasting an instant, he pulled out a pokéball and threw it into the water, calling, "I choose you ... Lapras!"

Lapras materialized in a flash of brilliance, and Ash and Pikachu jumped on. "Catch up to that speedboat!" Ash yelled. Lapras set off, gliding over the ocean waves at full speed.

Lapras was fast, but the speedboat was very powerful, and try as it might, the transport Pokémon was unable to gain ground. Slowly but surely, the vessel carrying the Team Rocket members got further and further away from Ash, and there didn't seem to be any way to catch up. He pressed Lapras to go even faster, and the aquatic creature pushed itself to the limit, cutting powerfully through the waves like a jet ski.

In his haste, Ash didn't notice the periscope, which had emerged from the Magikarp submarine hidden under the waves and had poked out of the surface of the sea a few yards behind him. A pair of intensely blue eyes watched him through the scope.

"Look, James," Jessie pointed out, turning her head from the periscope to face her team partner. "The twerp is chasing Butch and Cassidy, but can't catch up to them."

"Really?" asked James, as he stretched forward to take a look through the scope. "Maybe we'll have another chance to catch the Pikachu."

"Yes, but it's too bad that he won't be able to get that blonde pig-tailed cow first," Jessie remarked, referring to Cassidy. "I'd almost let the Pikachu go for now just for a chance to see the twerp get those two losers."

Upon hearing this, Meowth suddenly perked up. "I gotta idea on how we can do both at da same time," he declared proudly.

"You mean, we can both catch the Pikachu and crush Butch and Cassidy, all at once?" Jessie inquired hopefully. It sounded almost too good to be true.

"Dat's right!" the cat Pokémon confirmed, a self-satisfied smirk on his face.

"Is it risky?" James asked.

"Don't worry so much, James," Jessie chastised. "Meowth will provide the ideas and I will provide the determination."

James cringed.

Meowth began, "Here's da plan..."

*

Ash watched as the speedboat became a tiny dot disappearing over the horizon. He wanted to cry out in frustration. Butch and Cassidy were getting away, and they had Misty with them. He clenched his fists in anger, and then gave a start as a large, red, metal object emerged out of the water in front of him. It was the Magikarp sub.

"This is all I need," Ash muttered. He was about to command Pikachu to blast the sub away when the hatch on top opened and a waving white flag poked out.

The flag was pulled back into the sub compartment, to be replaced by the faces of Jessie and James, both with innocent smiles on their faces.

"Okay, twerp," Jessie said to him, "here's the deal. You're trying to stop the other Team Rocket and so are we."

"That's right," James added. "In case you haven't noticed, they're not exactly our friends either. I think we're in a position to help each other."

"Help each other?" Ash repeated suspiciously, as he stood up on Lapras' back to face the Team Rocket members. "How?"

*

"Okay, dat should do it," Meowth said a few seconds later, as he finished attaching the final wire to Pikachu's yellow body.

They were now all inside the Magikarp sub. Meowth took a step back and admired his handiwork. Pikachu was now electrically connected with nearly a hundred different wires to the submarine propulsion, in place of the now defunct battery attachment. "Now dat electric rodent o' yours can be da power source for da sub. Wit' Pikachu at full power, we should be able ta go faster than yer Lapras -- even faster dan dat speedboat o' deirs!" the talking cat announced proudly.

"Pi - ka?" said Pikachu, timidly. He was a little uncomfortable being all wired up in this way.

"Er," said Ash, looking at the dense tangle of wires confining his electric-type Pokémon. It looked more like an overgrown forest of Tangelas than a well-engineered electrical connection. "Are you sure that all those wires are necessary?"

"Yes, indeed," James reassured. "We need them to make sure that your Pikachu is held firmly in place and can't esca -- I mean, and makes a solid electrical connection."

Jessie took the steering controls for the sub, and gave a thumbs-up signal.

Ash was still a little skeptical, but he decided it was the only way to catch up to Butch and Cassidy. He turned to the entangled Pikachu, and commanded, "Okay, buddy, Thundershock."

Pikachu charged up his body up to the limit. "Pi - ka - chuuuuuu!" he shouted, as he channeled his electrical energy into the propulsion system. The Magikarp sub gave a rough jolt, and then took off through the water like an out-of-control torpedo. Ash was briefly plastered to the rear wall as the sub accelerated, going faster than it had ever gone before.

"Okay, okay, dat's enough!" Meowth shouted to the electric rodent as he watched a panel indicator closely. "Any more juice and ya'll overload da electrical system and blow us ta smithereens!" Pikachu carefully cut back the supply of electrical current as the sub continued to roar under the waves.

Jessie kept a steady hand on the controls as the submarine zoomed through the water. She gritted her teeth to show the depth of her resolve. As long as she possessed true determination, she thought, they could get that blonde cow and get away with the Pikachu, all without being blown away.

The boat carrying Butch, Cassidy, and Misty once more came into view as the sub caught up with it. Jessie, grinning like a madwoman, steered the sub on a direct collision course with the rear of the speedboat.

Butch stood in the back of the boat, scanning the horizon behind him. There was no sign of anyone, and they had crossed into international waters a few miles back. That meant that they were safely outside the jurisdiction of Officer Jenny. He was just about to relax when he suddenly saw a massive shape rise up out of the depths right behind them. "What the -- ?" he shouted.

There was a horrible crunching sound of metal against metal as the sub smashed straight into the aft of the speedboat. The Magikarp sub was crushed on one side, and an eye was missing, while the speedboat motor and rudder were totally demolished. The two vehicles were locked together and dead in the water.

Ash got up and shoved open the hatch. Without losing a second, he climbed out of the sub and jumped down on the speedboat to face his opponents. Pikachu tried to follow but found that he couldn't free himself from the tangle of wires enclosing him. "Pika!" he shouted to Ash. But the boy didn't hear.

Jessie faced the captive yellow Pokémon and leaned forward, her maliciously grinning face right in front of Pikachu's, and said, "Oh no, my little electric Pokémon. You're not going anywhere."