o-----------------------o | | | Double Trouble | | for | | Ash and Pikachu | | | o-----------------------o by Chris ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter IV: 'Mom...?' Ash says. 'Mom come here...' 'Ash...?' she responds. 'Where are you...?' she asks while looking around. 'Mom... Please... Come here...' Ash calls her. She looks around and finally spots Pikachu. 'Mom...' "Ash!" Ms. Ketchum yelled as she woke up, back in the house. She looked around and saw Misty, Brock, Pikachu, and Professor Oak right next to her. Misty, in particular, had a very worried look on her face. "Ms. Ketchum, it's okay," Prof. Oak told her. "Your son is right here, in one form or another." "Mom?" Ash said in a quiet voice, slowly walking up to her. "Oh, Ash," she said as tears started coming down her face. She couldn't do anything other than pick him up and hug him. "Mom, I'm so sorry," Ash said as he, too, started crying. "My baby," she finally said. "It'll be okay. Everything will be alright," she said, trying to reassure him along with herself. "Yes it will," Prof. Oak said, drawing everyone's attention. "Before I called, I wanted to figure out why Pikachu is acting the way he is, while Ash isn't really, um... acting at all. That's when it occurred to me that Pikachu seems to be behaving quite a bit like Ash. After running some tests, I was able to confirm that Ash is, in fact, in Pikachu's body." "What about Pikachu?" Misty asked, trying to get her mind off of Ash. "He's here," Ash responded. "I can tell that he's in me, thinking along side of me." "Really? How interesting," Prof. Oak stated. "What's he thinking?" "It's hard to tell," he answered. "It's kinda like he's thinking the same things I am." "You said that things would be okay," Ms. Ketchum said, getting the subject back on her son. "Can it be reversed?" "Yes it can," he answered to everyone's relief. "Unfortunately, we would have to get back to where this happened and use the machine again." "I'm not sure if it'll still work," Misty stated. "The building was in pretty bad shape." "Misty," Brock said turning to her. "It has to." Back at Team Rocket's destroyed base, Jessie, James, and Meowth walked up behind Giovanni, as slowly as they could trying not to alarm him. "Well?" he asked, turning around. "Uhh, well, ummm..." Jessie said trying to find the words to say. "You didn't get them?!" he growled, obviously displeased. "Tell me, did anything about them seem odd too you?" "Well, yeah," James responded. "The pikachu didn't put up a fight." "And the kid was out cold," Jessie added. "He wouldn't wake up at all." "Hmm... very well," Giovanni said. "If you don't mind us asking, sir," James came up shyly and said, "why do you want them both?" Giovanni spun around and stared at them. After a few seconds, he answered. "In that building there's a machine," he explained turning to look at his old headquarters. "By using the machine, we can put a human consciousness into a pokemon. Unfortunately, our first experiment fell short of our expectations." "But sir," Jessie piped up, "wasn't that first experiment on Meowth?" "How did you know that?!" he snapped at them. After seeing he wasn't going to get an answer, he turned his back to them again. "Anyway, yes, you're right. Just imagine our surprise when our own experiment came back to us, asking to join our organization. When we realized this was the same pokemon, we immediately took him in. However, after seeing that it was just as incompetent as you two turned out to be... well, let's just say, you three have at least that much in common. We lost the pokemon we wanted for the second experiment, and after the building was destroyed, we kept an eye on this place until we were able to do another one. Unfortunately, now that experiment is out there, somewhere," he said, getting angry, as he looked back at them. "Now get out of my sight and go do your jobs!" "Yes sir!" they said to him, then they ran off. Giovanni turned back to look at the destroyed building once again. 'My precious experiment,' he said to himself. 'You'd better return to me.' Back at Ash's house, Misty, Brock, Ash, and Ms. Ketchum were preparing to head out. Prof. Oak was telling Misty how to use the machine. Ash was beginning to get worried about his mother. "Mom, are you sure you want to come? It could be dangerous," Ash warned. "I'm going, and that's all there is too it," she answered. "I'm not sure how this will play out," Prof. Oak said to the two of them. "If you two have anything important to say, I think you should say it now." Ash slowly looked up to his mother. "Mom, I'm sorry for getting into this mess," Ash said. "It's okay," she said, in a soothing voice. "But you better come out of this okay." "I will," he responded, then they headed out. The next day, they finally arrived at their destination, but a slight problem arose. "How are we going to get down there?" Brock wondered. "Well, we could use Bulbasaur," Misty proposed. "We don't have my pokemon with us," Ash said. "What about Onix?" Misty asked Brock. "He's too heavy," Brock responded. "Well," Ms. Ketchum spoke up. "I guess we should look around for some stairs." Brock set Ash's body down a safe distance away from the building and they went about searching through the rubble, being as cautious as possible. "Hey," Ash said. "I think I found some, over here!" The others walked over to remove some debris revealing a staircase. Thy were about to walk down when Ash suddenly got a really bad headache and fell over in pain as he held his head. "Ash?" Misty said when she noticed him. "Ash, what is it?" When he didn't respond, his mother picked him up and cradled him. "Ash, what's wrong?" she asked as she started to panic. "Ash!" But he couldn't do anything except hold his head in pain. As they were looking at Ash, no one noticed that three people were walking up to them. The two on the sides stayed back a couple feet while the third one walked up, grabbed Misty, and pulled her back behind the other two. They turned around and saw Giovanni holding Misty, behind two of his bodyguards. "Hey! Let me go!" Misty yelled, trying to get free. "Well well, look what I've found," Giovanni exclaimed. "Hey!" Brock yelled. "What are you doing? Who are you?" "Wouldn't you like to know," he responded with a smirk. "If you don't want this young beauty here hurt, I suggest you do as I say." "Let her go..." Ash said, still in pain. "A talking pikachu?" he noticed in surprise. "So, it was you that were snooping around here before." "We weren't snooping around," Misty clarified. "We followed Jessie and James!" "Really..." he said. "Then I'll deal with them when the time comes. But, for now, I suggest you do as I say." "Let her go..." Ash repeated as sparks started coming from his cheeks. He jumped from his mother's arms and ran towards Giovanni. "Ash, no!" Ms. Ketchum yelled to him, but he wouldn't listen. "Let her go, now!!" he yelled as he lept up and grabbed Giovanni's face, catching the guards off guard, making him let go of Misty. She ran back over to Brock and the others while Ash lept up and shot a Thunder Shock to all three Team Rocket members. His headache vanished as he landed. "How dare you!" Giovanni angrily exclaimed. "Get him!" he commanded his bodyguards. "Tauros, go!" one bodyguard yelled, throwing a pokeball. "Pinsir, go!" the other yelled, copying his teammate. "Tauros, Tackle Attack!" the one yelled. "Pinsir, squeeze him, now!" the other yelled. "Ash, look out!" Misty yelled. Ash furiously dodged Tauros and Pinsir, who, in turn, repeatedly went after him. 'Ash, get between them and jump!' he heard in his head. After knocking the two pokemon in separate directions, he stood in between them as they started charging him. When they got close enough, Ash lept up causing Tauros to tackle into Pinsir's squeeze. He landed on top of them and shocked them, and their trainers, until they ran away. "I can see that you're going to be a nuisance," Giovanni calmly realized. He knelt down to his persian and pet it on it's head. "Are you ready to catch me a mouse, my pet?" It nodded in response, then slowly stepped forward, confronting Ash. "Disable!" It's eyes started glowing, causing Ash to become paralyzed. "A persian can use psychic attacks?!" Brock asked in amazement. "No way!" Misty exclaimed. "Slash Attack!" Giovanni commanded. The persian lept forward and swiped at Ash, knocking him down. The persian tried again, but he was able to jump away and dodged the continuing attack. Ash hit the persian with an electrified tail slap as it continued to miss. The persian then attemted to charge him, but he jumped and used it as a springboard, jumping away while knocking it over. "Ash, do a Thunder Bolt!" Brock yelled out to him. Ash shot a thunder bolt towards the persian as it stood back up. "Confusion!" Giovanni countered. The electric attack swerved right before it hit the persian and struck Ash instead. "No, Ash!" Ms. Ketchum yelled. "Furry Swipes!" Giovanni said. Ash was able to dodge the attack before he ran forward and tackled the persian. Getting ready for a final attack, Ash started charging his electrical power. It eventually got so high that it seemed as though he was starting a thunder storm. "Light Screen!" Giovanni hastily commanded. As the persian created a gold translucent wall to protect itself from the coming attack, Ash released the most powerful Thunder attack he could at the persian, shattering it's Light Screen, and striking Giovanni along with his persian. Giovanni fell to his knees in pain as the persian fell over in defeat. "Yeah! Alright!" the group yelled to Ash. He turned around with a smile on his face and ran into his mother's arms once again. "Are you alright, honey?" Ms. Ketchum asked. "Yeah," he reassured her. "It- it can't be!" he growled in exhaustion, as he took out a pokeball. "Return, my pet," he said calling back the persian. "You may have beaten me this time," he stated as he took out a remote control. "but I won't let you get what you came here for!" he exclaimed, pressing the button. Giovanni ran off laughing as a series of explosions caused the building to start collapsing again. "Oh no!" Brock yelled. "Come on, hurry up!" Ms. Ketchum ran with Ash down the stairs as Misty followed. Brock ran over and picked up Ash's body. After getting downstairs, Ash jumped into one of the capsules and Brock set his body in the other, causing the doors to shut automatically. "Misty, now!" "Right, here goes!" Misty exclaimed, activating the machine. Ash was once again overcome by a flash of light that knocked him unconscious. When the doors opened, Brock reached in and grabbed Ash and Ms. Ketchum picked up Pikachu. They were able to get out only seconds before the building collapsed in on itself. They set Ash and Pikachu down a safe distance away from the building. "Honey...?" Ms. Ketchum called in a soothing voice. "Honey, come on, wake up." Slowly opening his eyes, Ash could barely make out the form of his mother, kneeling over him. "Mom?" he called back. After sitting up, he looked at his hands and saw that he was once again human. Looking back at his mother, he saw her staring at him, smiling, with tears forming in her eyes. He, too, smiled and reached over and hugged his mother. "I'm so glad you're okay," she said, starting to cry. "Me too," he responded, with tears in his eyes as well. "Pika..." a familiar voice said quietly. Ash looked beside him and saw Pikachu sitting next to him. "Pikachu!" Ash called to him. "Pi?" Pikachu said as looked over and noticed Ash. "Pika-pi!" he exclaimed as he jumped up and hugged Ash. "He can't speak anymore?" Brock noticed. Ash just smiled and shook is head no. "And that's just the way he likes it," he stated. When he heard some sniffling, he looked up to see Misty with tears in her eyes, too. "Misty?" "I'm... I..." she tried to say. "You're happy to see I'm not hurt, right?" he said standing up. "Well, yeah but, that's not what I was going to say..." she trailed off quietly. Ash leaned over and whispered into her ear. "I know," he whispered. They just stood there looking at each other. "Oh, you two look so sweet together," Ms. Ketchum commented. They both looked at his mother then peeked back at each other, blushing. "Pikachu," Pikachu said happily to the two. "Come on, let's go home," Brock suggested. "You know, Ash. I may just forgive you enough to forget about my bike," Misty said as they started walking home. They all started laughing, except Misty who stood there, angrily. "What's so funny?! I really did like that bike! Come on, give me a break you guys!" she yelled as she ran up to them. >TO BE CONTINUED =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= No, unfortunately, there aren't any more chapters for this story. I added that to be continued thing just to make it seem more like the anime. My second story, however, is going well. So, watch for it. Like I've said, comments and (constructive)critiques welcome! crobin_99@yahoo.com