Chapter 3- Dark Duels in a Dark Forest

 

(Location- Dark Forest)

 

After spending the entire day travelling through the dark forest, night eventually fell. It was surprisingly easy to get to sleep that night, considering how creepy this place was, and that they knew something BAD was here. Since Ash was out cold, on account of his… (ahem…) brawl with Misty, she and Brock agreed to have one person stay up to watch. Brock stayed up, because Misty was worn out from her fight, also because she threatened him. He sat up and held the frying pan, watching and wishing he had a higher rank in the group.

 

Hours passed, it became darker to pitch black. His head sagged, his eyes closed (you can hardly see the difference) and his hand let go of the pan. He was fast asleep. Around the same time he fell asleep, Ash woke up at that moment. He struggled to see in the dark, but soon he could make out all the shapes. Apparently Misty was sleeping peacefully, as well as Pikachu and Togepi. And Brock, since he was sitting up with the frying pan was next to him, yet his head hung and he was snoring, obviously he was supposed to guard, but he’s asleep on the job.

 

Ash laid his head on the ground, and stayed awake. He wasn’t tired now, and since they can’t rely on Brock to protect them, then he’d have to be the hero. After half an hour of lying down, doing nothing, Ash had begun to get really bored. He crawled out of the sleeping bag, and stretched himself. Then he remembered what woke him up. He then looked left and right, into the darkness. “Hey, Pikachu. Wake up” he nudged Pikachu.

 

Pikachu woke up, yawned and stretched. Ash smiled and stroked his head, “Morning, buddy. How are you feeling?” He then looked at Brock and Misty, who were still asleep. “Pikachu, sorry I woke you up this early, but there’s kind of a problem. I heard some sounds out there, and I want to go take a look. It might be another trainer, or whoever was being chased. Think you can come and check it out with me?” Pikachu didn’t seem too happy with the idea, but he agreed to go.

 

Quietly, they walked out of the campsite. Ash took the flashlight, in case of an emergency. For protection, he had his full deck of pokéballs and Noctowl in case of ghost pokémon. Pikachu managed to pick up some kind of scent and was following it. Ash followed Pikachu, because surely it would lead to a person, or a pokémon, something that wasn’t inanimate.

 

“Pikachu!” Pikachu said out loud, stopping and standing up. His ears moved upwards.

“What is it Pikachu?” Ash asked, he understood what was going on. Pikachu heard some kind of sound, and when Ash listened carefully, he heard it too.

 

“Pika!” Pikachu ran in that direction, and Ash followed.

 

The sound was getting clearer, there was a scratching noise, and squeaks and squeals, as if there was a hurt animal, Ash and Pikachu followed the sound. Then they came to an area, it looked just like the rest of the forest, dark gnarled trees with roots sticking out of the ground. Then they saw what was making the noise.

 

“A Pikachu!” He gasped. A Pikachu was struggling; it was stuck in some kind of trap. By the looks of it, this Pikachu’s leg was tangled up in some tough metal wires. There were teeth marks on the wires, indicating that it had tried to chew them to release its leg, but had no success.

 

Ash and Pikachu rushed over to help the poor pokémon. As Pikachu spoke with the trapped one, Ash tried hard and untangled the hard wires. The second it was untied, the trapped Pikachu stepped up and looked at Ash and Pikachu. Ash and Pikachu looked at it, it was giving them a strange look, then all of the sudden. Without warning, the Pikachu launched a strong thundershock attack, zapping both Ash and Pikachu. They both yelled out in pain, and Ash fell over on his front. He was twitching a bit from the electricity, but got up.

 

“What the heck is your problem!?” Ash yelled at the Pikachu

 

“PIKA!” Pikachu yelled angrily at the one who attacked them. He was upset for the ingratitude.

 

“His problem…” A voice said, “…Is you.”

 

“What?” Ash spun around and saw a few meters away, standing on a tree root… himself? “Who are you?!” He yelled

 

The Ash standing on the tree root looked at him strangely “You don’t recognize yourself? You must be having some sort of identity crisis…”

 

“Hey, shut up!” Ash yelled at the impostor. He pointed the flashlight at the other Ash; he looked exactly like Ash did. The voice was a perfect match; the face looked exactly the same, even the lines on the face were exactly like Ash’s, and it was the same thing for the clothing. “What are you doing out here copying me?”

 

“Copying you?” The other Ash spoke, “How do you know you’re not the copy?”

 

“Shut up! I’m real, and I’ll prove it!” Ash clenched his fist.

 

“With a pokémon battle?” The other Ash asked

 

“Right on!” Ash pulled out one of his pokéballs

 

“A pokémon match, how predictable…” Other Ash pulled out a pokéball, “I’ll let you choose first”

 

“Fine then! I choose you…!” The background went green, Ash turned his cap and threw the ball. The pokémon materialized, “Noctowl!”

 

“Noctowl, I saw that one coming!” Other Ash said, the background behind him turned green, he turned his cap and threw the pokéball, “Noctowl! I choose you!”

 

The pokémon materialized, a yellow coloured, orange winged Noctowl appeared, facing Ash’s.

 

“What?!” Ash saw the colouring on the opponent’s Noctowl, “Well whatever! It may be a rare breed of Noctowl, but not one of a kind! Noctowl! Use Quick attack!”

 

Noctowl hooted and swooped to the opponent’s Noctowl. Enemy Ash called the orders to his pokémon “Wing Attack on my mark! Ready… … … NOW!” The enemy Ash’s Noctowl swung its wing, slamming Noctowl and halting the attack. Noctowl shook his head, dazed. Not only was enemy Ash’s voice and looks the exact same, so were the battle skills.

 

“Tackle!” Ash yelled quickly. Enemy Noctowl was close by and Noctowl flew and bashed the opponent with a strong hit. “Whirlwind!” Noctowl began flapping his wings violently. Enemy Noctowl was spinning, caught in the tornado and obviously loosing HP fast. Enemy Ash covered his face a bit, shielding his eyes from the dust and wind.

 

“Noctowl!” Enemy Ash yelled, “It may be a bit windy, but don’t let it distract you! Agility and bide, Now!” Enemy Noctowl waited a few more seconds, then straightened himself up, and began flying fast. With the help of agility, he ripped through the wings, despite the injuries. Noctowl had only a few seconds to screech out with shock when he saw the opponent flying through the winds, and slam into him, hard and with the help of agility, did more than twice the damage. Ash’s Noctowl fell to the ground, defeated.

 

“No! Noctowl, return!” Ash growled, “I can’t lose this one!” Ash looked at him angrily “I’ve dealt with illusions and copycats before, and I don’t believe for a second that you’re me, or even real!” Ash yelled, “Pikachu! Attack!”

 

“Fine then! Show them whose boss, Pikachu!” Enemy Ash sent his Pikachu to fight.

 

Both Pikachu’s launched electric attacks, one after another, meeting in mid air, cancelling each other out. The enemy’s Pikachu sent a spark to the ground, causing an electric bolt to jump from the ground and bounce to Pikachu. Pikachu launched a close range thundershock and deflected the bolt, and then he fired a thunder attack, only to have it shielded by the opponent’s own attack.

 

“Careful Pikachu!” Ash called out, “Although he’s not the real one, he’s still strong! Use thunder!”

 

“Pi-ka-CHUUU!” Pikachu shot a large bolt of electricity

 

“Deflect it with your own thunder buddy!” Enemy Ash called

 

“Pi-KAAA!” Enemy Pikachu fired an equally strong bolt. The two shots cancelled each other out.

 

“Pikachu! Use agility!” Ash commanded

 

“Swift!” Enemy Ash yelled

 

Wait a minute, where’s that faker…?”

 

His question was answered with a hit on the face. Enemy Ash had swung from a tree branch and kicked Ash in the face. Ash fell backwards, and looked up to see his opponent.

 

“I don’t think it’s fair that only our pokémon get to have all the fun!” Enemy Ash said. Ash got up, but enemy Ash punched him in the face, jumped and did a roundhouse kick on Ash’s face. Ash flew and fell face first into the dirt. Enemy Ash came running towards him, ready to attack. Ash got up quickly and punched, but enemy Ash moved his head and dodged it easily, then hit Ash again and again. “Face it!” He yelled, slamming Ash on the stomach, “You’ll never beat me! I’m way stronger and faster than you!” Ash got up, and punched with his left. Enemy Ash moved his head to the right, dodging it, but that hit was only a decoy. Ash punched with his right, straight into enemy Ash’s face. Enemy Ash fell on his back and clenched his face where Ash had punched.

 

Ash wiped his face, “You may be faster, but stronger? Never! Faster maybe, but you can’t even take one punch while I took all those hits! I’m not just stronger, I’m also tougher!”

 

Enemy Ash sprung up from the ground with his hands and flew feet first into Ash, kicking him on the face, “You really think so?!” Ash fell back, and enemy Ash ran towards him, grabbed the front of Ash’s shirt and clenched his fist, “I’m trained and know how to fight, that’s the difference that’ll win this battle” He looked at the real Ash’s face, but Ash was… smiling?

 

Ash threw a handful of dirt into enemy Ash’s face, blinding and hurting him. “An opening!” He punched enemy Ash straight on the neck. Enemy Ash made a gagging sound from that hit. Ash then punched him on the side of the head with a strong hook (slow motion, sweat and drops of blood flies from enemy Ash’s face), the stomach (slow motion, enemy Ash coughs gags from the hit), and finished off by kicking him in the groin (slow motion, this one speaks for itself). Enemy Ash’s eyes bulged from the last hit. He fell the ground, wheezing.

 

“You were right, faker!” Ash laughed at him, “That is the difference that’ll win the battle! I fight dirty!” Ash looked and saw the two Pikachu’s. The enemy’s Pikachu was down and Ash’s Pikachu had won his battle.

 

Enemy Ash got up, gasping for air, and speaking in a very, high-pitched voice, “This isn’t over! I’ll be back! Pikachu, return!” He called back his pokémon into a ball and hobbled into the darkness.

 

Ash laughed and Pikachu jumped up and gave him a high five, “I guess we showed them a thing or two!” Ash then yelled out into the distance, “Don’t come back or I’ll do that again Faker! On the other hand, do come back! That was fun, and I wouldn’t mind doing it again!”

 

The faker then ran out of the darkness, with a wicked smile. “Hey real one!” Ash looked at him, “You and your pokémon may be able to tell I’m not the real you, but will the other people?” He laughed, “If I go out and do bad things, looking like you, you’re gonna look like a criminal! Think, how all those people, especially the bounty hunter will react when seeing you, and the great big price on your…”

 

WHACK!

 

The impostor Ash fell over, dazed when Ash threw a rock in his face. “Oh no you’re not gonna go out looking like me and doing bad things! Not only is that plan incredibly stupid, it’s overused too! Everyone knows if the hero goes bad, it’s an evil look alike! There are more ‘don’t fall for evil impostor’ posters than ‘don’t do drugs’ ads out there!” Ash walked over and kicked him, “However, since you were planning to do bad things anyway…”

 

“What are you going to do to me?” Impostor Ash asked nervously and sweatdropped. Ash put his hands on the impostor’s shoulders…

 

Two minutes later

 

“!@#!$-ING DAMN IT!!! You !@#$@ LET ME DOWN NOW!” Impostor Ash yelled, hanging upside down, six feet in the air, arms tied, and his legs bound together and dangling from a tree branch. The real Ash turned around, looked at the impostor’s face and smiled cheerfully.

 

“Hey, before you challenged me, you should’ve thought of the consequences!” He looked at him “And If you’re gonna talk that way to me, then I’m not gonna let you down. And since you were intending to use my looks, voice and identity to frame me for doing bad things, I oughta leave you here until autumn so you can fall with all the leaves” Ash walked forwards to the impostor who hung upside-down and took his pokémon league cap and examined it, “You’re really dedicated to your faking you know that? You even went out and got yourself an AUTHENTIC pokémon league cap! One which I could sell for big bucks online. And I think I’ll take this too” Ash pulled out the guy’s wallet as well, pulled out the HUGE wad of cash. As he walked away, he threw the empty wallet to the ground.

 

The impostor started swearing again, but they just ignored it.

 

Pikachu ran to Ash, “Pika, Pikachu” he said

 

“Don’t worry Pikachu, he’ll be fine. I’m not really intending to leave him there until autumn” Ash said, “Those ropes aren’t THAT strong. The one dangling him from the branch is weak, and will break in a few hours. Of course, he will be getting a nasty headache when the rope breaks, especially with those rocks I put underneath…” Ash laughed.

 

As they walked away, the only thing that could be heard in the forest was the loud profanity, but with the ‘tree falling in the woods’ bit, no one was around to hear it. The impostor gave up closed his eyes, the acting like Ash and running around wreaking havoc wasn’t a very good idea, and running back to the field just to tell real Ash his evil scheme definitely wasn’t a good idea. But what the real Ash just did to him, beat him up, take the money, hang him upside down from a tree, this meant war…

 

Ash and Pikachu headed back to the camp. Whoever that faker was, he was probably the guy making all those sounds in the night, trying to scare them, but now that they knew he was weaker then them and could be beaten without too much trouble, they had nothing to fear about this forest! Ash fixed things up good.

 

Back at the camp, Brock and Misty were still asleep. Ash checked the time and saw that it was still very early. Pikachu curled up and fell asleep, and Ash noticed the frying pan Brock held. He was supposed to stay up and watch for the night.

 

“The faker’s ropes are gonna snap in a few hours, and when they do, he’s not very likely to be in a very good mood.” Ash spoke quietly, then scowled at Brock “Even if Brock did stay awake, there is no way could protect any of us with that thing” Ash said to himself, “We need a smarter plan.” Quietly, he took out a pokéball and released one of his pokémon. (You don’t see which one, just a small black shape.) Ash kneeled over and started whispering some orders to it (you don’t hear them either. You just see their silhouettes from a distance) Ash picked up a particularly large tree limb, broke the smaller twigs and branches off and held it like a club. Then, with a bit of effort, he climbed one of the trees surrounding them, and sat on a thick sturdy branch, holding the club.

 

“If the faker comes here, I’ll be ready”

 

A few more hours passed, it was almost dawn. A bit of sunlight broke passed through the leaves. Ash dozed off in his watch. While he was asleep, Brock woke up and checked the time. This was the hour Ash wanted them to wake them up. He saw Ash’s sleeping bag, his head was covered up completely.

 

“Why does Ash sleep like that? Even he knows he wouldn’t be able to breathe under the covers” Brock said, “Oh well, better wake him up before he suffocates.” He walked over to the sleeping bag and nudged it, no response. He nudged it again, harder. No response. “Geez, he must still be out cold after Misty hit him. Ash, wake up!” He shook it hard, but no response came, “Oh come on! Even she couldn’t hit you that hard!” He pulled open the covers…

 

“TCHRHAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIILE!” It was too dark to see everything, but a monster’s face lit up in the darkness, revealing a hideous face, with sharp pointed fangs, a series of bloody red spines, dark red glowing eyes and black markings leaped up and hissed loudly in his face.

 

“GHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!” Brock screamed

 

The noise immediately woke Ash up. Instantly, he clenched the club, and jumped down from the tree. He could see the shape of a person, but it was too dark to see who it was exactly. But that didn’t matter, “SO YOU’VE COME BACK, FAKER! COME TO FOOL MY FRIENDS AND LEAD THEM INTO A TRAP?! WELL YOU JUST STEPPED INTO MINE!!! MUAHAHAHAHHAHAH!” Ash jumped up and down, laughing manically, and continuously whacking his head “TAKE THAT AND THAT AND THAT AND THAT…” He slammed Brock on the head, again and again.

 

“Ash?! What’s going on?!” Misty yelled, pointing a large flashlight, illuminating the whole scene. Ash had the club raised over his head and was about to swing down again. Apparently, the scary monster with the red spikes and fangs was Totodile, using the scary face attack. Ash sweatdropped when he looked down. Face flat on the ground, with several huge lumps on his head, it was Brock. “I hope you’ve got a good explanation, because he’s not very likely to be in a very good mood when he wakes up” Misty looked at him.

 

“Well Misty… it’s like this…” Ash began to explain

 

(Later)

 

Brock sat on the ground, holding an ice pack over his head. He turned his head and looked at Ash, “So let me gave this straight. You walked into the forest and saw an evil clone of you, in which you engaged in a pokémon battle and a fistfight, leading you to setting up a trap for him in case he returns, and causing you to brutally attack me?”

 

“Well… yes” Ash nodded nervously

 

“Heh…” Brock looked down and chuckled… “YOU FREAKING MORON! IS THAT HAT ON TOO TIGHT?! IS IT KEEPING THE AIR FROM REACHING YOUR BRAIN?! THAT WAS BY FAR THE STUPIDEST THING I HAVE EVER HEARD YOU SAY, AND THAT IS SAYING SOMETHING!!!!” Brock slammed Ash over the head with a mallet, then sighed “We’re still not even. I don’t want to kill you right now, because I wanna get out of this forest safely. Still, I can’t promise I’ll restrain myself from any strangling if you start imagining things again”

 

“Ow… Brock!” Ash spoke “I didn’t imagine it!”

 

“And give that back!” Misty snatched the mallet out of Brock’s hands, “Don’t you EVER use this without my permission!” She waved it threateningly in Brock’s face

 

Brock sweatdropped, then turned to Ash “Now Ash, I could understand you’re young and have a very active imagination, but even YOU have your limits. As the oldest one here, I feel responsible to ask, you weren’t… intoxicated with anything?” Brock patted his shoulder “You know what I’m talking about, right? I mean… there wasn’t any alcohol involved… or anything illegal, right? Like cannabis? It must have been cannabis… was it cannabis?”

 

“Hey! I wasn’t drunk!” Ash yelled, insulted, “And what about that cannabis remark?! I have never been so insulted in my life! ARE YOU SAYING I EAT OTHER PEOPLE?!”

 

Everyone but Ash sweatdropped, then Misty spoke up “Can we please change the subject? Ash told us everything of what he saw, and I believe him!”

 

“(Yeah, take ASH’S side over mine ya scrawny orange hag)” Brock muttered.

 

“What was that?” Misty glared at him, and clutched the mallet tightly

 

“Nothing! Nothing…” Brock sweatdropped backed off.

 

“Well anyways, I don’t want to stay in this place any longer!” Ash said, “We’re all packed, so let’s go!”

 

(Location- Dark Forest outpost)

 

“What’s that light up ahead?” Misty asked

 

“I don’t know” Ash said

 

“It might be Teal Ville!” Brock said hopefully

 

They all rushed ahead, but were disappointed. It was only a plain shack covered with sheet metal and wood and stuff.

 

“(Tsk!) It’s just some ugly shack!” Misty said angrily, “No doubt some hillbilly or…”

 

“In the dark, you should prepare for trouble!” A woman’s voice spoke

 

“The nightmares is real, so make it double!” A man’s voice rang out

 

Jessie leaped from the trees, onto the shack, holding a microphone “To protect the world from devastation!”

 

James jumped out from the branch, but slipped a little, and fell to the ground. Slowly and painfully, he climbed to the top of the shack. “(Grunt) To unite all people within our nation!”

 

“To denounce…!” (Lights turn off and speakers are out)

 

“Hey, what happened?” James asked

 

They looked down and saw Misty holding something.

 

“I am so sick and tired of that motto!” She said, then held up an unplugged cord, “So I pulled the plug on you guys!”

 

Jessie growled, “How dare you interrupt the motto!”

 

“Motto or no motto! When we’re done with you, you’ll be singing a different tune!” Ash said, “I can see you didn’t bring reinforcements today!”

 

“We don’t need reinforcements, because we got a secret weapon!” Meowth said, then whispered to Jessie and James “Where was the secret weapon?”

 

“We didn’t bring one” they answered, “The boss said he won’t sponsor our weapons anymore, until we pay him in full for what we owe him.”

 

“How much is that?”

 

“Well… if we captured Articuno and Zapdos by the end of the week… we’d still owe him fifty more pokémon, plus Pikachu” said James

 

“Argh! Whatever!” Jessie turned around, “We don’t need any secret weapon! We’ve been training hard, and our levels have nearly doubled! Why don’t we demonstrate our newfound power?”

 

“We’re not the same Team Rocket you’ve always known! We use the power of Teamwork! We’re not only stronger, but better than before!” James called

 

“And in a few more levels, I’ll evolve into a Persian!” Meowth got up and flexed his arms in a mock muscleman pose.

 

“Arbok! Wobuffet! Attack!” Jessie threw the pokéballs

 

“Victreebell! I choose you!” James threw his pokéball

 

Victreebell screeched, but James didn’t even shake. Instead of jumping up and trying to eat James, it dove down and engulfed Meowth.

 

“I told you! I trained it so that it’ll only attack pokémon!” James laughed

 

“You could have trained it NOT to attack team members!” Meowth crawled out of Victreebell, dashed to James and slashed his face.

 

“I was always five times stronger than you ever were, and higher levels from you means more exp. for me!” Ash said, and then turned his cap and threw the pokéball “Time to use one of my veterans. Kingler! I choose you!”

 

“Co-KING!!” Kingler growled

 

“Arbok! Attack from a distance with poison sting!” Jessie ordered. Arbok opened his mouth and fired hundreds of poisonous needles.

 

“Bubble attack!” Ash ordered. Hundreds of bubbles flew out of Kingler’s mouth and hit the needles. Each bubble popped when hit with a needle, but each needle was erased on contact.

 

“Whoa! I’ve never seen a poison sting attack like that before!” Brock exclaimed, “Arbok’s able to use rapid fire poison sting! Ash is gonna have a hard time beating them now!”

 

“Well then let’s help him, instead of just standing around!” Misty pulled out a pokéball and tossed it, “Staryu! Go!”

 

“HA!” The starfish yelled

 

“Geodude! Go!” Brock threw Geodude’s pokéball

 

“Geo-DUDE!”

 

“Victreebell! Razor Leaf!” James shouted out the orders. Victreebell screeched, and fired two large, sharp leaves. Geodude slammed one to the ground with his fist, and Staryu hit the other with a water gun. But as the two pokémon countered those ones, it left an opening. “Use multiple leech seeds!!” James yelled. Victreebell fired a barrage seeds from its mouth. Staryu moved fast and barely dodged them, but Geodude wasn’t fast enough. The seed opened up and ensnared him with vines.

 

“Geodude!” Brock yelled, “Ah! Not only is James stronger, he’s got the elemental advantage!”

 

“We can’t let him win!” Misty called out to Staryu, “Staryu! Show them it takes more than elements to win this! Swift attack!”

 

“Ha!” Staryu straightened up and fired bright, sharp stars at Victreebell. Victreebell screeched in pain from the stinging stars, but other than stinging, they didn’t to much damage. “That didn’t work! Quickly, use double edge!” Staryu turned sideways and spun towards Victreebell like a shuriken, but this attack meant that it’d be perfectly aligned in front of Victreebell.

 

“Now Victreebell! Show them the power of a fully evolved Team Rocket pokémon! Stun spores!” Victreebell leaned forwards and the leaf covering its mouth moved, opening it. Then a cloud of orange powder flew out, and Staryu flew right into it. The second it flew into the stun spores, it felt a stinging sensation, and stiffened up to the point where it couldn’t move. Staryu dropped to the ground.

 

“Oh no!” Misty yelled

 

“Oh yes! Use Vine whip!” James yelled down from the roof. Victreebell spun and the long, whip-like vine on its back stretched and hit Staryu into Geodude. Both flew and hit a tree, then dropped to the ground.

 

“Ah!” Misty yelled, “He beat us!”

 

“I don’t believe it!” Brock said, “But we’re not beat until every one of our pokémon are down!” He pulled out all of his pokéballs and threw them

 

“That’s right! You’re strong, but you’re using only two pokémon against this many! Let’s see how you deal with strength in numbers!” Misty threw all her pokéballs, releasing every one of her pokémon. James gulped and sweatdropped nervously. He had just bitten off more than he could chew, and he gonna choke.

 

Meanwhile, there was another heated battle. Standing back to back with James, facing the opposite direction from James’ battle was Jessie.

 

“Kingler!” Ash yelled, “Bubblebeam!” He turned his head called to his other Pokémon, “Bayleef! Vine whip!”

 

“Arbok, Dig! Wobuffet! Counter!” Jessie yelled. Arbok dove into the ground just in time to miss the beam of thick foam and bubbles, and Wobuffet raised the counter so Bayleef’s vines bounced off and flew back and whipped the owner. Arbok came bursting out of the ground right under Kingler, knocking him over.

 

“Arbok! Bite!” Jessie yelled

 

“CHAARBOK!” Arbok hissed and opened his jaws, ready to chomp the crab.

 

“Quick! Use crab hammer!” Ash yelled. Quickly, Kingler swung his large claw and slammed Arbok across the face, sending it flying and hitting a tree. But Arbok was stronger than before, and therefore got up and could still fight. Ash turned to Bayleef “Bayleef! Ignore Wobuffet and focus on Arbok! That way, it couldn’t do anything!” Bayleef obeyed and didn’t attack Wobuffet. It turned its attention to Arbok and attacked.

 

“Arbok! Use… use…!” Jessie stumbled; she didn’t know what to do. Arbok couldn’t beat those two pokémon at once, “You stupid blue lunk!” She yelled at Wobuffet, “How come you don’t have any offensive attacks?”

 

“Waaaaaa-buffet!” Wobuffet saluted

 

Arbok dropped to the ground, he couldn’t take any more punishment. Ash looked at Jessie, and James standing up on that roof, then smiled a nasty grin. “Heh… we win.” Ash then pointed at the shack, “Kingler!”

 

Jessie sweatdropped nervously, “What… are you doing?”

 

“Hyper beam the shack!” Ash shouted. Kingler aimed his gigantic claw. It started to glow and yellow energy gathered at the center, followed by a powerful beam. The beam took a gigantic chunk out of a corner of the shack. It looked just like it had been bitten out. The shack started to bend…

 

Jessie and James sweatdropped, “Looks like Team Rocket’s…” The shack fell over on one side, and Jessie & James fell head first to the ground. “…Grounded again… ouch” They moaned. Ash struck a pose, he had just one his battle. Further away, Pikachu was fighting his battle.

 

“SLASH!” Meowth extended his claws and swiped. Pikachu barely moved in time to dodge. Meowth turned his head and faced Pikachu. Pikachu launched a thunderbolt, but Meowth jumped out of the way easily. He landed behind Pikachu and scratched him. Angry, Pikachu swung hit tail and slapped Meowth in the face hard. Meowth growled and swiped again, but Pikachu moved. Meowth laughed as he extended his claws and ran towards Pikachu “And you thought you could beat me that easily… I’m really enjoying this game of Cat and Mouse! And to think!” he slashed, Pikachu ducked, but it hit his ear. Pikachu leaped and head butted Meowth’s face and thunder shocked him, but not damaging him too much. He jumped back several meters away and crossed his arms. “I’ve levelled up and increased my speed, strength and defence! When I win this battle, I’m gonna be the bosses favourite once again!”

 

Pikachu’s ears moved up. Meowth was strong, much more than he had expected, he was in a completely different level from the other two, and nothing like he was before. Meowth ran towards Pikachu, uncrossing his arms and extending his claws. He was gonna finish Pikachu off… “Pikaaa…!” Pikachu ran towards Meowth, cheeks sparking with electricity.

 

“HAAA!” Meowth leaped and slashed, “Oop?” He blinked and landed on his feet, Pikachu was nowhere to be seen!

 

Pikachu knew if he tried went for the ‘samurai finish’ against Meowth, he’d lose. He took a much smarter one. He had jumped at the last moment and dodged the slash. Pikachu landed from the air, right behind Meowth. He jumped and hung onto Meowth’s back and bit hard. Meowth screamed and tried to shake Pikachu off. Pikachu’s cheeks started sparking.

 

“PI-KA-CHUUUUUU” He zapped Meowth with a powerful Thunder attack, and at that range, he had 100 accuracy.

 

Meowth’s body smoked, but he could still fight. His eyes flashed as he tried to use leer, but Pikachu ran a different direction. Pikachu ran to a tree, jumped to the trunk and kicked off, flying towards Meowth. Spinning rapidly, sparking, he rammed head first into Meowth, sending him flying.

 

Meowth was thrown to the ground. He hit it hard, and fell face down near Jessie and James. He raised his head and tried to get up, “Ah, shoot. And I was just about to beat you too…” he moaned, and his face dropped to the ground. He twitched and his shoulders jerked a bit, but then stopped moving.

 

“ALL RIGHT!” Ash, Misty and Brock high-fived, they won! “No matter how strong you are, Team Rocket…!” Ash spoke, holding up his peace sign

 

“We’ll always be stronger!” Misty also held it up

 

(Clap, clap, clap) Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu heard the sound of clapping. They all turned around and saw who was doing it. “Very impressive,” He clapped, “As weak as those three clowns were, they’ve gotten a lot stronger than before… and you still managed to beat them” They looked at who it was. It was an aged man, most likely in his 50’s. He had a pointed nose, and his hair was black and going grey in some places. He wore a red bandana around his neck, a red beret and white gloves that reached to his elbows. He had black pants and shirt, with a big, red ‘R’. It was a Team Rocket member!

 

“You’re part of Team Rocket!” Ash exclaimed

 

The man laughed, then spoke calmly “It’s true, I am part of Team Rocket, but I’m not just any Team Rocket Member!” He pulled out a pokéball, “My real name is classified information, only Giovanni knows. But unlike that teenager show-off Domino with that ‘Black Tulip’ super spy code name, I prefer to be addressed by my status.” He looked at them and smiled, a nasty one, “You can call me 001”

 

“001!?” They all yelled, and pulled out pokéballs

 

“You’re a Team Rocket Elite!” Ash yelled

 

“And you’re Ash Ketchum…” said 001, “You’ve become a real thorn in Team Rocket’s side, you’ve defeated our agents by the hundreds… but you’ll find that I’m different.”

 

“We’ll just have to see about that!” Ash said, reaching for a pokéball…

 

001 laughed, “Giovanni will give me a nice big reward for bringing you in as prisoners. You’ve been causing them a lot of trouble, you know? And there is a nice big bounty on your head…”

 

“Get ready…” Ash said to his friends

 

“I may only have one pokémon” He held up the pokéball, “But that way, I could concentrate more on making him stronger instead of wasting time with other weaker ones. One pokémon is all I need. One exceedingly powerful pokémon…” he started laughing, “POKÉBALL! GO!” 001 threw the pokéball. All Ash, Misty and Brock could do is watch and wait to see what pokémon will come out when it hits the ground…

 

What pokémon is 001 going to use? Will Ash, Misty and Brock stand a chance against an Elite? And what about that Ash impostor? Find out more, in the next chapter!

 

(TO BE CONTINUED)