Chapter 2: I don’t think this is right…

“So, what do you do now that there’s no more league?” Ash asked. He had finally fallen asleep after the exhausting events of the day, and had woken up the next morning to find breakfast waiting.

Red adjusted his cloak. “What do you think? I’m a pokemon trainer. I’m too young to settle down and get married.”

“Oh.” Ash said.

“And now, I have to make a choice.” Red said, standing up.

“What do you mean?”
“My goal in life right now is to destroy Team Rocket.”

“I’ll help you!” Ash said.

Red smiled. “I knew you’d say that. Perhaps there is a bit of me in you. But first, I have to train you.’

“Train? I’m a good pokemon trainer.” Ash said proudly. “I have six badges!”

“Badges aren’t everything.’ Red told Ash sternly.

“Nani?!”

“Come on, I know you saw that battle yesterday.” Red said.

“Yes, but…”

“Hold on. I’ll explain.” Red said. “You do know what TMs are, right?”

“Yes, but I’ve hardly ever used one.” Ash said.

“Well, here.” Red dug a computer chip out of his backpack and plugged it into Ash’s pokédex. “Watch. There are some new attacks that would be very helpful. I didn’t use them yesterday, so you’ll have to watch these clips.”
“All right.” Ash said. “Hmm, starts with fire, but I don’t have any fire-types…”

“No, most of those would be useless.” Red agreed. “But go down to the fourth one on the list.”

“Flaming Thunder?”

“Fire and Electric attack.” Red said. “It gives both advantages. Watch.” Ash pressed the ‘play’ button, and the scene faded to show a girl and her Flareon surrounded by sixteen Tentacruel.

“Flareon, Flaming Thunder now!” The girl said.

Suddenly, streams of fire mixed with lightning shot in all directions. In seconds, the Tentacruel were no more.

“It works on both fire and electric types, so you could teach your Pikachu.” Red told Ash.

“Wow.”

“Hmm…” Red rifled through the database. “No, no, no… Ah. Here’s the water section. Pick a few.”
“Tsunami?”

“Water, wind, and electric energy cyclone.” Red said, not looking up. “Gyrados knows it already.”

“Ice Spore?”

“That’s in the water section?” Red looked confused. “Well, that’s odd, because I teach it to grass and bug types. Freezing spores. Like Stun Spore or Sleep Powder, only it freezes the opponent.”

After a while, Ash had decided on their plan. They were about to leave the forest via teleportation again when a second squadron of rockets came in. This time, there were seven, a total of twenty-one enemy pokemon.

“This is bad.” Red muttered. “Ash, let’s see how well you do in an actual battle. Gyrados, Hyper Beam! Aerodactyl, Supersonic Wave! Venusaur, Sun Scatter! Pika, use Thunder! Eevee, let’s give them a Scary Face! Gardevoir, start dropping them with Psybeams!”

Ash gulped and threw out his own pokemon. “Muk, toxic on what’s the closest! Sandslash, lets try Fissure! Pikachu, do Thunder as well!” He wasn’t used to commanding large numbers of pokemon.

The rockets counterattacked with their own pokemon.

At first, it seemed to be going well. The Hyper Beam had sent many of the pokemon flying, and Aerodactyl’s supersonic wave had knocked out several as well. Venusaur’s Sun Scatter was like firing three Solarbeams in different directions every time, only with weaker power, and Eevee’s Scary Face had frozen a few pokemon in their tracks so The pikachus could finish them off.

However, Sandslash fell prey to a Golbat’s Leech life and hit the ground, but not before Muk severely poisoned it with Toxic. Muk began a fight with a Weezing, which ended when Weezing exploded, knocking out more pokemon. Gardevoir had been dueled into submission by a Haunter, and a rogue Jolteon released by the leader had frozen Aerodactyl and Venusaur solid.

“No choice.” Red said. ‘We have to keep fighting.”

He pulled out a strange black stone and flashed it in the air. Eevee began to glow, and soon evolved into a Flareon.

“Eevee, use Flamethrower on those Glooms over there!” Flareon nodded and set them ablaze.

Ash sent out Lapras, commanding it to sing. This reduced the number of fighting enemy pokemon to four.

Jolteon set its sights on Lapras and did Thunder, but fortunately Gyrados managed to deflect it with another Hyper Beam. Gyrados used Dragon Rage, throwing off the Pinsir on its back, but then it inhaled some of a Koffing’s toxic fumes and toppled over as well.

“Pika, use Match Thunder!” Red said. “Eevee, protect Pika!”

Flareon moved in front of Pikachu, sending Embers at anyone who came close while Pikachu charged.

“Now.”
“PIKACHU!” Pika yelled. The last of the rocket pokemon toppled over. Pika fell over also, drained of 1/3 of its HP from the attack, bringing it down to barely 10% health.

The battle over, the rockets attempted to flee, but Whiscash and Wartortle stopped them with powerful water blasts and ice beams.

Ash and Red collected the enemy pokemon and quickly left.

“So, where are we going?” Ash asked.

Red smiled. “To get those new TMs.”

“Who made them?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.” Red said. Soon, they landed by a tiny house on a cliff facing the ocean.

Red rapped on the door and it opened, there stood a girl about Red’s age.

“Glad you made it here alive, aniki.”

“Thanks, you’re so confident in me.” Red said. “Ash, this is my sister, Charlotte.”

“So, you’re still going through with your insane plan?” Charlotte asked.

“Yes, in precisely nine days we’re attacking the Radio Tower in Lavender town.”

Ash fainted.

He was awakened by a bucket of ice water a few hours later.

Ash bolted awake. “What?!”

“Come on, the two of us have to go now. Charlotte’s finished with her TM work, your pokemon know the new moves now.” Red said.

“Why?”

“Team Rocket has been sighted in this area. Charlotte’s going to destroy the house and eradicate any evidence that we were here.”

“But-!”
“Don’t worry, the lab is underground.” Red said. “And don’t worry about her, they don’t call her Phoenix for nothing.”

Ash blinked.

Red grabbed his arm. “Let’s go. Gardevoir, Teleport!”

And they vanished…

End Chapter 2

Started 5/23/03, completed 10/3/03