Part 7! Yes, I know I should be working on something else, but this is more fun!

Disclaimer: Shadow does not own pokemon, and she is not making any money from this. Sue me and you will die. Oh yeah, Destiny, Tempestwolfe, Delphinis are mine. What can I say?

Notes: <> indicates telepathy, ** indicates thoughts, italics indicates pokemon language.

Part 7: Don’t try to steal my pokemon!

Ash surfed through the warm waters of the Orange Archipelago on Delphinis’s back. The sun shone brightly on his sparkling ice-blue hair. Pichu surfed alongside on a tiny red surfboard. Vaporeon and Sunny swam too. It was good exercise, after all.

Say, what island is that? Pichu asked in poke speech.

< I don’t know, but there doesn’t seem to be a gym there. > Sunny replied.

“That’s too bad.” Ash said in mild annoyance. “Oh well, we could all use a day of relaxation after that battle, right?”
< Yeah! > Vaporeon cheered.

When they got to the island, which looked deserted, Ash released all of his pokemon so they could get some fresh air and soak up the sunshine. Most played around happily for a while, but the nocturnal pokemon simply slept.

“Whoa… look at all of those pokemon.” Thomas whispered to his partner, Elaine. “I bet we could make a killing off these.”

“Who knew having a deserted island as a base could come in so handy?” Elaine whispered back, with money signs on her eyes. The two were a pair of pokemon poachers, who collected and sold rare pokemon to rich, influential families and businesses, as pets and battlers.

“Do you have any equipment with you?”

Thomas showed Elaine his binoculars, sleeping darts, and bag of sleep powder. From her own pouch, Elaine procured a stun gun, an electric/fire/water proof net, and two bottles of smokescreen formula.

“Guess that’s enough. Let’s wait a bit before we begin.”

Ash sipped his pink lemonade as he lay on the beach, the sunglasses shading his eyes from the glare of the light reflecting off the water. “Wow, this is the life.”

Pichu nodded and nibbled on an apple.

Sunny and Vaporeon had joined several other pokemon in a raucous game of tag. Ash smiled and petted Pichu on the head.

Houndoom trotted by with a limp Rattata in his mouth. < Can I eat this? >

“Go ahead.” Ash said. “Where did you catch it?”

< Oh, near the other side of this island. There’s plenty of wild Rattata there, some of the other pokemon are already hunting. >

< Just don’t get into any trouble. >

< We won’t! > Houndoom promised as he ran off.

Thomas and Elaine watched the pokemon run around in the grassy meadow for about half an hour before they got ready to do some poaching.

Elaine put the sleep powder in the blower and let the wind waft it over the meadow. Most of the pokemon began to yawn and fall asleep.

Then, Thomas picked off the few that were left with the stun gun. Elaine next covered the area with smokescreen using the bottled formula and shot a sleeping dart at the ones who looked like light sleepers.

Then, they gathered all of the pokemon up in the net and began transporting it back to the base.

Ash yawned. Why was he feeling so tired? Suddenly, his eyes widened.

“Sleep powder!”

Pichu jumped up. <What is it? >

Ash closed his eyes and felt around for his pokemon’s chi. “Some of them were careless and have been captured.”

< Oh no! What do we do? > Pichu asked.

“Simple. We go rescue them. Let’s go.” Ash put Pichu in his backpack. He briefly paused to make sure that he wasn’t transformed before he took off. Then, he pressed two buttons on his belt and Haunter and Mysdreavus appeared.

“Could you two help?”

< Certainly. > Mysdreavus and Haunter chorused together.

< Do you want us to release them? >

“Well, that would help. But I’d like them to be awake first.” Ash said. He tossed Haunter his awakening spray bottle.

< Okay! We’ll follow those petty thieves! > The two ghosts took off at top speed.

The hair on the back of Elaine’s neck prickled. “Thomas?”

“What is it?” Thomas asked as they lugged the net of pokemon along.

“Don’t you get this feeling that someone is following us?”

“You’re just being paranoid. This is our best haul yet!”

“Maybe…” Nervously, Elaine looked back, but there was nothing. Of course, they couldn’t see the ghost-type pokemon that floated just behind them.

Soon, the two thieves were trying to load the pokemon into poke balls for easier transport. Suddenly, the eyes of the pokemon began to open and they started growling softly.

“Oh crap! Thomas, you have any more of that stuff?” Elaine asked.

Thomas immediately started throwing more sleep powder into the air, but surprisingly, nothing happened. Instead, the two thieves suddenly found themselves surrounded by growling pokemon.

Ash chose this moment to make his entrance. “Well, well. What have we here?” He stated in a sarcastic tone.

Thomas and Elaine blinked. This was the trainer? All they saw was a teenage kid in a typical trainer’s outfit with a pichu. It was most certainly not what they expected.

“I thought it was some great trainer.” Elaine muttered.

“Or a pokemon master at least.” Thomas said.

Ash didn’t even blink. “Oh? Is that so?”

“I guess we’ll just have to teach them a lesson then, Pichu! Use Thunderwave! That’ll show them that you don’t have to be a master to defeat poachers!” Pichu jumped off his shoulder and began shocking them with malice in its small eyes. Soon, the two poachers were paralyzed and unable to move.

Ash smiled, loaded them onto Skarmory’s back, and sent them off to the police station on Mikan Island. Then, he collected all of his pokemon, emptied out their base, and took off for the next island.

By the time the Officer Jennies arrived, he was gone.

“He’s not here.” One of the officers said. “We could have given him a medal of thanks. I wonder where he went?”

“Or who he is? Did you get his description?”

“Um, blue hair in a ponytail, a black and yellow outfit, he has a Pichu.”

“That ought to make our search easier. We have to congratulate him properly.” Officer Jenny said.

Another Jenny nodded, before pausing. “Say, the trainer who beat Cissy yesterday had a Pichu. Do you think it might be him?”

“Maybe, sister.” Jenny number one said. “Why don’t we check it out?”

“Sounds good to me.” The Jennies piled back into their boat or helicopter and began their trip back to Mikan Island.

End part 7!

So, what do you think? Drop me a review! Flames will be used to flame-broil the anime Ash for abandoning all of those pokemon. Grr…

Created 11/4/02, completed 12/16/02