Hi! Here’s Episode 14!

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, sadly. It belongs to Nintendo, Game Freak, 4Kids, and a host of other now-rich corporations.

Note: takes place right after Episode 13. Oh yeah, I am not using the Jessie-James team. They have enough fans already. Besides, they’re in some of my other fanfics.

Another note: Remember, ** indicates thoughts, Italics indicate translated poke speech!

Episode 14: Team Rocket shows up! Trouble in Mount Moon!

Ash, Todd, and Pika-chan were now wandering through Mount moon. After Ash had driven away the Zubats, they hadn’t encountered any other pokemon or pokemon cards. Pika-chan was starting to get edgy.

“You know Ash, I have a bad feeling about this.” She said.

“What is it, Pika-chan?” Ash asked. Pika-chan was perched on his shoulder, still dressed in the little white bow and headband, although they were starting to turn gray around the edges due to flying dust. There was an amazing amount of dust in this cave. They were literally eating and breathing dust. None of the three explorers were very happy about it.

Ash was surprised that his costume was actually okay for exploring caves. The only problem was that the flowing sleeves of his costume were getting caught on outcropping rocks. Ash finally got impatient and snipped off the last four inches of his trailing shirtsleeves, so they only fell a little bit past his elbows now. Todd had been shocked and disappointed, but he had to admit that the card captor getting stuck on a rock was not a good way to explore. Especially since that would put a wrench in their plan to reach Cerulean by sunset.

“There shouldn’t be any lights in here. Somebody installed them for a reason. I’m afraid it might mean trouble.” Pika-chan said. They were too bright, and she was used to caves being quiet places where you could rest.

Just then, there was a super-bright flash of light. Ash covered his eyes. When he opened them, he saw two figures there.

“Prepare for trouble!” The first one said. The voice was obviously female. She had short blue hair cut like a boy’s, though.

“And make it double!” The second shouted. He had dark blue hair that was tied back in a short ponytail.

“To protect the world from devastation!” Somehow, a superimposed picture of the earth appeared behind them.

“To unite all peoples within our nation!”

“To denounce the evils of truth and love!” Now there was a picture of a huge arrow shooting through the two words, truth and love.

“To extend our reach to the stars above!” Now, the cave ceiling was replaced with a shot of the earth from outer space. Ash wondered how they were doing this? Had he missed an overhead projector or something like that?

“Amy!” The blue haired girl proclaimed. She crossed her arms and gave a very nasty smile.

“Jake!” Said the pony tailed blue boy. He held up a poke ball that seemed to have fallen from the sky and looked ready to throw it.

“Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!” This ended with Amy doing a flip in midair.

“Surrender now or prepare to fight!” Jake said, sounding deadly serious. Now he was holding the poke ball out and it was starting to open. Ash could barely make out a whitish shape inside.

“Ninetails!” A deadly looking, white fox pokemon jumped out from between the two and posed.

Ash blinked. * What is going on here? *

“Hand over your pokemon now, trainer kid!” Jake said. “Otherwise… you’ll learn how merciless Team Rocket can be!”

Todd quickly scuttled out of the way. However, he did pull out his video camera and begin taping. The two trainers dismissed him as any threat and turned to Ash. It was certainly a correct assumption, but Ash could become threatening if he wanted to… however, in that outfit, it did not seem like a convincing argument.

“You heard us, kid, now hand over your pokémon!” Amy repeated. “Or maybe I’ll just force ‘em out of you. Slowpoke, go!” The pink tubby pokemon materialized in a flash of red and just… sat there.

“Right! Diglett, I chose you!” Jake called. He grinned wolfishly. “Surrender, now, kid!” The small mole pokemon started chirping its species name in a very cute voice. It did not look threatening in any way. And they were asking him to surrender? Were they crazier than Todd?

Ash sweatdropped. These rocket trainers were only 2-3 years older than he was! Who were they calling a kid?

“Thanks, but no thanks. Storm, I choose you!” Ash said. He enjoyed the shocked look on the faces of the two rockets when they caught a glimpse of the magnificent dragon pokemon, but they quickly squashed it.

“I don’t care who you are, we’re stealing your pokemon! Slowpoke, Confusion!” Slowpoke yawned, before slowly standing up to begin its attack.

“Diglett, Scratch that dragonair! We’ll show them that size doesn’t matter!” Jake called to his own pokemon.

“Storm, Thunderbolt the Slowpoke, and use Bubblebeam on the Diglett!” Ash called. Todd recorded vigorously from his little niche.

“This is gonna be great! I’ll call it ‘Card Captor Ashura vs. Team Rocket!’”

Pika-chan sweatdropped as she got out of the way. She watched as Storm quickly knocked out Slowpoke, but Diglett dove underground before Storm could nail it with bubblebeam. Sadly, none of them had noticed the Ninetails, which had snuck up behind Ash and run off with one of his poke balls.

“Hey! Give that back! You thief!” Ash said. “Storm, nail it with Dragon Rage!” The two rockets gulped as the small cave around them suddenly started spinning.

“Uh-oh.” Amy said.

“What do we do?” Jake asked nervously. Sadly, they were in no position to do anything, before the storm hit.

“Looks like Team Rocket’s blasting off now!” They called as they flew through the roof of the cave, creating a large hole.

Dragonair scowled. They still didn’t drop the poke ball! I can’t believe it! She was irritated because her dramatic effort had been wasted.

Don’t worry; it was an empty one. Ash said, as he checked his belt. Thank heaven for small mercies!

What?!

I only have 4 filled poke balls. You, Ponyta, Butterfree, and Pidgey! They grabbed one of the empty ones. I kept them on my belt just in case, and I cannot believe that it actually worked!

Oh! Dragonair said. But I still want a treat later, even if I didn’t save anyone from being stolen.

I’ll give you one now. How about some salmon-flavored poke treats?

Yay! Dragonair munched the treat, before returning to her poke ball to take a nap. Ash turned around to see how Todd was doing, and found him staring into the lens of a video camera.

“Todd!” He said.

“What? It was a good shot of you.” Todd shut down his video camera and placed it back in his pack. “Shall we keep walking?” He asked, as if nothing had happened.

Ash sweatdropped. * Nothing fazes this guy. *

They continued to walk. After a while, they reached a large, open section of cave. It was very… empty. However, there was a faint sense of magic surrounding the area eerily.

“Do you sense anything?” Pika-chan asked nervously. The situation didn’t seem right.

Ash shook his head. “No…”

“Maybe the moon stone is blocking your magic. Wait! Maybe that was where the Moon stone was, before the Clefairies moved it somewhere else!”

“Maybe…” Ash said, not that convinced. Then, he got an idea. “Say, Todd, do you mind videotaping the path as we walk, just in case we get lost and have to go back or something?”

“No problem!” Todd said, surprised that Ash was actually asking him to videotape. After half an hour, they reached an open clearing in the mountains. Ash blinked.

“I didn’t know that there was such a gaping hole in the tunnel to Cerulean.”

“Neither did I!” Todd said. He looked around, amazed. “But as nice as the landforms are, there aren’t any pokemon anywhere. That’s so disappointing!”

“Really?” Ash and Pika-chan both felt around for auras, but the place was completely aura-less.

“Could Team Rocket have been kidnapping pokemon or something like that?” Pika-chan finally asked.

“No… but I bet I know where Brock is now!” Ash said, as he felt another person’s chi, weakly pulsing.

Ash suddenly took off running. Pika-chan and Todd struggled to keep up. He was fast when he wanted to be! When they stopped, they saw that Ash was standing next to a boy who wasn’t that much older than they were. His left leg was trapped under a rock, and he was obviously in pain.

“Are you okay?” Ash asked, as he enlisted Ponyta and Storm to free Brock.

“I think so. How did you know I was here?” Brock asked.

“I didn’t know! But the earth told me.” Ash did not bother to clarify his statement with an explanation of his powers.

Brock brushed that explanation off. He sat up slowly, but when he tried to stand, he fell over. He cried out in pain as his leg banged against the rocky floor.

“You must have broken your leg.” Todd said. He looked in his backpack to see if there was anything that could help, but was shocked to find that he had no medical supplies. * Darn! I should have refilled them in Pewter! Where did they go? *

“Butterfree, go!” Ash said, releasing the bug pokemon. Brock looked surprised.

“What are you doing?”

“Butterfree, String Shot!” Butterfree nodded and shot a long strand of sticky thread at Brock’s leg, until finally they had constructed a somewhat makeshift cast. Brock felt better, and he looked at Ash gratefully.

“Thank you so much.” Brock said. “But I have to go home to my family now.”

“But I need a badge.” Ash said. Todd sweatdropped as he looked up from his recording of Card Captor Ashura and the medical marvel.

“Okay. I guess I can spare a few minutes.” Brock said. He wasn’t in that bad shape! He reached for a poke ball. “Geodude, go!”

Ash was about to send out Storm when he realized that she was still tired. So he went for the next best choice. “Ponyta, go!”

“Geodude, Tackle!”

“Ponyta, Smash Kick!” Ponyta nodded and knocked the Geodude into handy boulder, stunning it. Geodude fell down with swirls for eyes, spinning crazily like a top would.

“Great job. Geodude, Return! Onix, bind that Ponyta!”

Ponyta ran before Ash could give her a command. However, Onix finally caught up with Ponyta and bound it, so Ash had to recall her.

“Pidgey, go! Use Sand-attack!”

“What?” Todd glanced up from his videotaping again.

Pidgey nodded and repeated Sand-Attacked Onix, until it didn’t know where Pidgey was.

“Onix, Screech!” The sound waves cut through the wave of blinding sand and cornered Pidgey.

“Pidgey, Return! Butterfree, Confusion!”

Butterfree’s Confusion waves plowed into Onix, knocking it out. Then, Butterfree perched on Ash’s head and winked at the camera. Todd chuckled.

“Well, I guess some pokemon like the attention.”

“Wow! You win.” Brock said. “Here. This is the Boulder badge.” He produced the badge for Ash, who put it in his backpack.

“Good battle!” Ash said. They shook hands. Todd cut off his videotaping and pocketed his camera.

“Well, see you!” Ash said. He waved good-bye to Brock. Then, the two of them continued their trek through the mountains. Pika-chan hoped that they would hit Cerulean city soon, because she was getting sick of eating Macaroni and cheese. Why had Ash bought so much of the yellow stuff in Viridian? It had lasted an amazingly long time, but… If she saw one more bowl of macaroni and cheese, she was going to hurl!

Gary’s still in his hotel, isn’t he? Nope. He finally quit lounging around and went out to look for pokemon cards. His parents forgave him and bought back his sold pokemon, much to his relief. Or maybe it was Professor Oak’s threats to bring them to justice if they did that…

“Wigglytuff, use your Sing!” Wigglytuff puffed itself up and started a soothing lullaby. The attacking Flareon froze in its tracks, and slowly fell asleep.

“Hah!” Gary said, as he slapped an ofuda on it. The Flareon also went to card form readily.

“Oh yeah, I rule!” Gary said proudly.

His cheerleaders cheered.

“Gary, Gary, we love Gary!”

Gary grinned. “Now let’s go get lunch!” They all piled into his sports car and drove towards Saffron city.

End Episode 14! Comments and constructive criticism accepted with hugs. Flames will be used to create illusory clamshells.