Chapter 2: Conflict of Conscious.
By Contaniac

Ages:

Matt-15 Michelle-17 Greig-24 Scarlet-23 Ash-Around 16?

I do not own Pokemon. Yet.

This WILL get all sorts of weird near the end of this chapter. But hey…I like to shock an audience.

They arrived at the Pokemon center just as the sun dipped out of the sky to be replaced by the crescent moon. Matt was still depressed after the thrashing he received at the hands of the trainer with the Pikachu. He had his head down, and wasn’t talking to Michelle at all. She looked at him guiltily, knowing it had been her Pikachu that had sent him into this new wave of grief. She sighed, thinking of what she was doing. Why was she helping this boy she didn’t even know? Was it because she felt sorry for him? Or was it something else?

Matt was tall, and had short, dark blonde hair that was ruffled and unkempt. His light blue eyes were shimmering, and had been ever since Michelle had met him when he had been lying downtrodden on the grass. He seemed on the verge of tears. He just stared at his trainers as they approached the center, his loose fitting green T-Shirt and baggy tracksuit trousers rippling from the slight breeze. He was rather cute, thought Michelle. She wondered what he looked like when he was happy.

“Are you okay Matt? We’re almost there.” Matt looked up at her and gave a weak smile. He properly surveyed her for the first time, but being careful she didn’t notice his stare. She had long blonde hair, lighter than his, with hair also falling over her face sometimes. She had sea-green eyes, and Matt was filled with amazement at their beauty. She was wearing red shorts and a cut, bright yellow top, showing off her honey colored stomach. She looked amazing. And she was traveling with HIM. A damn goof. It made him feel sorry for her…before he went back to feeling sorry for himself.

They entered the Pokemon centre and went up to the desk. As you would expect, Nurse Joy was standing behind it, talking to another trainer. An awfully familiar trainer. Matt froze again, and Michelle noticed it quickly.

“Oh, not again…”Michelle rushed to Matt, before he fell to his knees in shock again. The trainer who had been talking to Nurse Joy noticed though.

“Hey, what’s wrong with him?” Michelle laughed weakly, before sighing. She took the trainer out of Matt’s earshot, before telling him what was going on.

“Do you recognize him?” The trainer peered round Michelle to get a better look at Matt, before a look of comprehension dawned across his face.

“Hey, isn’t that the trainer I beat not long ago…” Michelle clamped a hand over his mouth before he could finish. She was afraid Matt would hear and get in an even worse state than he was now. The trainer broke free and looked at her, a confused look on his face. “What?”

“He’s kinda in a state of shock after you beat him,” She whispered, trying not to notice the gathering crowd around the kneeling and unmoving Matt. “He goes into a phase every time something reminds him of the beating your Pikachu gave him.”

The little yellow mouse Pokemon on the trainer’s shoulder cocked its ears and listened attentively. It was interested now as to what this conversation its trainer was having was about.

“Well, I couldn’t really deliberately lose, could I? I wanted to get through to the next round!” The trainer was starting to get angry though, adamant that it was not his fault that Matt was now temporarily paralyzed.

“I know, but could you at least keep your cap over your eyes and your Pikachu out of sight as long as he’s around? Please?” The trainer sighed, but reluctantly asked his Pikachu just to go into the Pokeball for a while. After a while, the electric-type agreed.

“The Name’s Ash. What’s yours?”

“I’m Michelle, and over there’s Matt. Thanks for the favor.” Michelle smiled. “Well, we’ll hurry out of here, once Matt has his Pokemon treated…”

The roof of the Pokemon centre suddenly exploded. Smoke filled the centre, and no-one could see a thing. But they could hear something.

“Prepare for Trouble!”

“And make it double!”

“Oh brother,” Ash moaned, between coughs, “It’s team rocket…but it doesn’t sound like Jessie and James…” The motto continued high above.

“To inform the world of devastation”

“To confuse all people’s within our nation”

“To chastise the evils of truth and love”

“To conquer all of the stars above”

“Scarlet”

“Greig”

“Team Rocket wins battles at the speed of light”

“Surrender now or we’ll start a fight!”

“Murkrow!”

“That’s even worse than the other motto…”Ash groaned, shaking his head.

“It’s a work in progress,” The woman’s voice came from above. The smoke started to clear, and Michelle and Ash got a better look at the new arrivals. The two rockets were standing on a lowered platform coming through the ceiling. Both were wearing team Rocket outfits, not the white rookie ones, but the more advanced black ones. The red R on the front almost seemed to stick out from the rest of the costume.

The woman called Scarlet was only just taller than Michelle, with short bubblegum-pink hair. She had an evil look in her eyes. The man, who Ash presumed was Greig, had a very wrinkled face for his age, but a look of youth in his eyes. He had a dark green mullet, which looked absolutely awful. A Murkrow was perched on Scarlet’s arm, leering evilly at Ash.

“We’ve come to whisk away all your Pokemon, if you please,” Scarlet bowed mockingly at Nurse Joy, who frowned back. Greig grinned mischievously.

“I don’t think there’s any need for formalities Scarlet. Let’s just take the Pokemon and make a stylish getaway.” Both of them laughed, but so did someone else. “Who’s laughing? Only Team Rocket may laugh!”

“Nice Hair!” Ash managed to shout between fits of laughter, pointing at Scarlet. She turned red, and clenched her fists. Greig pushed in front of her though, and looked closely at Ash.

“Hey, you look like the kid James was telling me about…Brown hair, Red Cap, Pikachu…are you the one they refer to as “The twerp”?” Michelle started to giggle, but stopped after a thunderous glare from Ash.

“Maybe I am…hey what happened to Jessie and James anyway? They haven’t been trying to capture Pikachu in a while. It’s been kind of weird without them to beat all the time.”

Now it was Scarlet’s turn to giggle. “They’re on permanent vacation. The boss had enough of them goofing up and fired them. They’ve disappeared. I haven’t seen them. Maybe they’re finally out on the streets where they belong!”

Ash didn’t enjoy the last comment. He may have been annoyed sometimes by Team Rocket’s attempts to nab all his Pokemon, but he knew they were only doing it for a living. He hoped they were doing something better with themselves.

Greig interrupted Ash’s chain of thought. “Enough with the questions, it’s time to steal some Pokemon! Go, Nidorino!” Greig threw a Pokeball down to the Centre floor, and the horned poison, Nidorino, popped out. It growled at Ash and Michelle.

Scarlet decided to join in on the act as well. “Go! Nidorina!” The female poison pokemon emerged next to Nidorino. “We’ll get you two out of the way first. Send out your pokemon!”

Ash nodded to Michelle, who responded in kind. “Are you ready Pikachu?” He threw the Pokeball containing Pikachu on the floor, releasing the mouse Pokemon to stand opposite to the two poison types. It’s red cheeks began to spark.

“My Ninetails won’t want to miss this! Go!” The beautiful white fox Pokemon stood next to the smaller Pikachu, and waited for the battle to start.

“Nidorino! Horn attack!” The Nidorino jumped towards Ash’s Pikachu, but it easily dodged the attack. The poison type skidded on the shiny floor, and slipped up, allowing Ash to get a command in.

“Pikachu! Iron Tail on Nidorino!” Pikachu’s tail swung out and hit the Nidorino back into the wall of the building. Pikachu then prepared itself for the next attack. Meanwhile, across the room, a second battle was unfolding.

“Nidorina, hit the Ninetails with your tackle!” Nidorina obliged, launching itself at Ninetails, hitting it back towards Michelle. Michelle stayed calm however.

“Ninetails, use fire spin!” The fox pokemon opened its mouth and unleashed a tornado of fire straight at Nidorina, surrounding it. Ninetails was just about to turn up the heat when the Murkrow crashed into Ninetails, knocking it out! Pikachu was distracted by this, and it gave Greig the chance he needed.

“Nidorino, Horn Drill!” The poison Pokemon crashed its horn into Pikachu, sending it sprawling. It was dazed, and couldn’t get up.

Scarlet punched the air with her fist. “Yes! Team Rocket is victorious. Jessie and James must have been worse than I thought…and I thought low of them already.” Michelle and Ash could only try to kill Team Rocket with their stares.

Matt (remember him? :P) was watching all of what was happening. And he was having a serious argument with his conscious.

**Matt’s POV**

**Back to normal**

Just as Grieg and Scarlet had returned their poison Pokemon, and Murkrow had flown back to Scarlet’s shoulder, smoke filled the centre. Greig and Scarlet, from their lofty vantage point, couldn’t see anything on the ground. Michelle and Ash could only see up. And what they saw next amazed them.

A Hyper Beam came from nowhere and collided with Team Rocket’s platform. It burst through the floor of it and hit Greig and Scarlet. They screamed as they were sent through the hole in the ceiling. As they flew into the distance, Ash was sure he heard a shout of “Team Rocket blast off...for the first time!”

Michelle was wondering where the Hyper Beam had come from. As the smoke cleared, she could see no Pokemon that could have caused it. But her gaze did fall on Matt, lying on the floor, apparently sleeping. She sighed softly. He had been through a lot…maybe he hadn’t noticed what had happened. She felt no need to tell him.

But Matt was awake. He had his eyes closed to take all suspicion from him.

No-one must know.

Woah. THAT’S WHAT YOU CALL A TWIST! Work it out. Chapter three shall come soon…and I’m working on a crossover as well. I’m very busy…