I should probably look
this up. . . nope, I still don't own Pokemon.
Chapter 4
A
Discovery in
Ash heard footsteps
outside his room. Who was that? He decided to investigate. Ash tiptoed out of
his room and followed the footsteps to a balcony. There, leaning against the
railing was. . .
"Amber?"
Amber jumped about five
feet in the air and turned around.
"Ash, what are you
doing out here this late at night?"
"I was just about to
ask you the same question," Ash said as he leaned against the balcony next
to Amber.
"Pika, Pika?"
Pikachu asked as it waddled onto the balcony next to Ash.
"I was just. .
." Amber turned her attention to Pikachu. "That's a Pikachu, right? I
didn't get a chance to ask yesterday."
"Yes, and you still haven’t
answered my question."
". . ."
Amber turned her attention
back to the city below and the mountain beyond it.
"You didn't have to
do that, you know," she said suddenly.
"Huh?"
"Cheer me on. I know
you were really rooting for Brock's dad. I'm a complete stranger to you, and
you knew him a lot longer than me, I know."
"No," Ash said
as Pikachu hopped up next to them. "I really was cheering for you. There's
something. . . different about you."
Amber paled, then forced
herself to return to normal quickly.
"You really are a
good guy, aren't you?" she said.
"I hope so!" Ash
laughed, then got serous. "You aren't used to that, are you?"
Amber shook her head and
sighed.
"My dad was never
like that. He would always challenge me to make it just a little bit
farther."
"What about your
mom?" Ash asked, curios.
"I never knew my
mom," Amber said, then paled again. "I've never told that to
anyone!"
Ash just stared at her,
shocked. He knew what it felt like. His own dad was never around when he was a
kid.
"I'm sorry," he
said.
Amber looked at Pikachu
and picked it up.
"I've never had a
friend to tell to be honest," she said quietly.
"Now you do."
At that, Amber jerked her
head up as if it were tied to a string, her eyes large.
"Really?" she
asked in a small voice.
"Yeah," Ash said
with a smile. "Friends till the end."
He held out his hand.
Amber stared at it, then took it.
"Till the end."
* * *
"C'mon,
Ketchum!" Amber yelled as she mounted her bike. "Got to get going!
"I'm still cooking
breakfast!" Brock interjected.
"And I'm
hungry," Ash said as his stomach gave off a confirmation of what he said.
Amber sighed.
"Fine."
After the two hungry
Hippopotases finished eating, the trio entered
"It sure is dark in
these tunnels," Amber said as she entered.
"It's underground,"
Brock said. "What did you expect, a luxury hotel?"
"No, just something a
little brighter. . . Wait! I have an idea!"
Amber reached for a
pokeball and threw it. Charmander appeared.
"Alright, Charmander,
light our way!"
"Char!" it said
as it put its tail in front of it. Light flooded the tunnel.
"Good thinking,"
Ash said as his eyes adjusted.
Amber set Charmander in
the bike basket.
"I'll scout ahead and
wait a little ways down," she suggested.
"Alright," Brock
said. "Just don't go too far."
"I won't," Amber
assured him.
After a few hours' travel,
Brock and Ash heard a noise.
"What's that?"
Brock asked.
"It sounds like a
pokemon," Ash answered.
"It's a
Clefairy."
Both boys nearly jumped
out of their skin when they saw Amber and Charmander sitting right where they
had just walked past.
"Where'd you come
from?" Ash said as he regained his balance.
"Well, when a mommy
and a daddy love each other very much. . ." Amber started.
"Wait, they're
getting closer," Brock said, then he pointed down a tunnel. "From
there. Let's check it out."
Amber leapt out of her
sitting position, her eyes wide.
"No!" she said.
"You don't want to do that! There could be Spinarak or Onix, or something worse!"
But Ash and Brock didn't
hear her. They wandered down the corridor, looking for the Clefairy.
"Uuuggghhh! Why'd you
have to do that! I didn't want you guys to get caught up in all this!"
Amber said to no one in particular. Charmander looked at her strangely.
"Char?" it
asked.
"Nothing," she
mumbled. "We got to get them out of there before they find. . ."
* * *
"Where are we?"
Ash asked as he looked around. They had lost the Clefairy now and were in a
large room that wasn't made up of rock or dirt.
"It seems we've found
something out of the ordinary," Brock said simply.
"Hold it right
there!"
The pair turned around. A
rocket grunt was standing behind them.
"Team Rocket?"
they asked to no one in particular and took off running deeper into the room.
* * *
"Great, just
great," Amber was mumbling as she saw Brock and Ash run from a rocket. The
rocket chased after them, holding a communications device and talking into it.
Soon the room flashed red and alarms bleeped. Amber pressed herself into a wall
and followed them deeper into the secret rocket laboratory.
* * *
Ash and Brock ran through
room after room of rockets, wondering what to do. Each room they ran through
added more rockets to the chase. Finally, they reached a large room with a
large machine in it. The room had no doors except the one they had come in.
Rockets filed into the room.
"Alright, who sent
you?" an important looking one asked. "Have the Police or the Elite
found out about our. . . project?"
"Operation?"
Brock asked Ash under his breath. Ash shrugged.
"It will go a lot
easier on you if you fess up."
Ash noticed one of the
rockets scanning them with some sort of device.
"Very well then. You
won't talk now, but once you've been handled by our superiors, you won't be so
tight-lipped. Take them, boys."
Two very large, very nasty
looking rockets grabbed a very frightened, very confused pair of boys. Just as
they were about to take them out of the room, impenetrable black smoke poured
into the room. Another, smoother arm grabbed Ash and Brock.
"You two owe me big
for saving your necks!" a voice whispered to Ash. It was Amber! She led
them out of the complex through very confused grunts.
When they reached the main
tunnels again, Ash and Brock sat down, confused.
"What was that place,
and why was Team Rocket there?" Brock said. "What was that big
machine in that room anyway?"
"How should I
know?" Amber said with a pale face neither of the boys could see because
of the smoke. "All I know is I just stuck my neck out for you two, and I
have no idea why!"
"Charmander!" it
said, agreeing with its master.
"Sorry,"
Brock said. "Thanks."
"We really should get
going," Amber said as they settled down.
"I guess you're
right," Ash agreed. "Let's just hope we don't run into anymore
rockets."