Different Paths

Blaze yawned as she awoke, stretching out and loosening her muscles lax from sleep. "Hey Growlithe, time to get up," Blaze nudged his side gently. Growlithe yawned and stood up, shaking off his slumber.

Brock, Misty, and Ash were still sleeping, though Pikachu was awake now. Blaze packed up her bag quickly and began to shoulder it. "You'll tell the others I said good-bye, right Pikachu?" Blaze asked.

"Kachu," Pikachu nodded. Blaze smiled and patted him on the head before she turned away with Growlithe trotting at her heals.

The sun was high and warm. Blaze walked on, wondering where she should head next. She had the Boulder Badge, Marsh Badge and Thunder Badge, but that was it so far. She figured she'd get the Soul Badge, then head up the bike path to Celadon for a Rainbow Badge. Poison and grass pokemon should be two easy consecutive wins. Then she'd head to Cerulean and challenge the Sensational sisters again and hopefully get one of them to fight her. Water was strong against fire and she really wanted to see how her fire pokemon could hold out against water.

'I should have challenged Misty,' Blaze cursed herself. 'She might have had an extra Cascade Badge on her.'

"Prepare for trouble!"

"Make it double!"

"Oh no," Blaze rolled her eyes.

"To protect the world from devastation."

"To unite all peoples within our nation."

"To denounce the evils of truth and love."

"To extend our reach to the stars above."

"Jesse!" Jesse leapt out of the green brush along side the path.

"James," James, visibly less enthusiastic, stepped out behind her.

"Team Rocket! Blast off at the speed of light!"

"So surrender now, or prepare to fight."

"That's right!" Meowth somersaulted down in front of them.

"Listen, dumb and dumber," Blaze said, not impressed. "I'm leaving now, you can try to steal the pikachu if you want."

"We're not interested in the pikachu at the present moment," Jesse smiled. "We want that Growlithe."

"Over my dead body," Blaze suddenly became defensive. Fire lit up in her eyes fiercely. "No one, but nobody, threatens my pokemon."

"We'll see about that," Jesse grinned. "Arbok! Go!"

"Growlithe, fetch!" Blaze yelled. Growlithe leapt and caught the poke ball to keep it from opening.

"Hey! That's cheating!" Jesse protested. Growlithe tightened his grip around the poke ball. "No! Don't hurt my Arbok!"

"Here, Growlithe," Blaze patted her leg and Growlithe trotted over to her, handing her the poke ball. "Let me pass and I'll give it back."

"James, get Wheezing out there!" Jesse demanded.

"Do I have to?" James asked.

"Yes, you do!" Jesse smacked him.

"Wheezing, go," James tossed the poke ball down.

"Fetch it, Growly," Blaze commanded. Growlithe caught this ball too.

"Growly..." James's eyes filled with tears suddenly. They went unnoticed by Jesse and Blaze.

"Let me by if you want your precious poison pokemon back," Blaze growled.

Growlithe growled, echoing his master.

"We've still got one more trick up our sleeve," Jesse smiled. "Meowth! Now!"

"Right!" Meowth yelled back. Blaze had forgotten about the mouthy feline. She looked up and suddenly a net caught her from beneath her feet and yanked her up, leaving her dangling from a tree. In her surprise, Blaze had dropped Jesse's poke ball.

"Thank you, brat," Jesse smiled, picking up her poke ball.

"Grooooowlithe!" Growlithe howled, dropping James's Wheezing.

"Growlithe, run!" Blaze demanded. "Get Ash and the others!"

"Come back here!" Jesse raced after the fleeing Growlithe, followed quickly by Meowth.

James paused to grab his poke ball, then looked up at Blaze. She stuck her tongue out a him and pulled down on her eyelid. James blushed, then ran after Jesse.

Blaze sighed and began sifting through her pockets. "Where's my lighter?" Finally, she pulled out a small cigarette lighter and held it up to the ropes of the net. Carefully, she burned a hole in the net big enough to climb through and drop to the ground.

"I call you, Ponyta!" Blaze yelled, taking a poke ball off her watch and tossing it to the ground. Ponyta leapt out, standing restlessly while pawing the ground. She whinnied worriedly.

"Yeah, they're after Growlithe," Blaze said, swinging herself up onto Ponyta's back. "But we won't let them catch him. Kick it, Ponyta!"

Ponyta raced down the path after Team Rocket and Growlithe. 'Please be okay, Growlithe,' Blaze thought.

"Grooooowl!" Growlithe leapt into the clearing where Brock, Misty, Ash and Pikachu were packing up their stuff in.

"Growlithe!" Ash looked surprised. "Where's Blaze?"

"Grrr," Growlithe growled. "Grrr, ithe. Grrrowl."

"Has something happened to Blaze?" Brock asked.

"Ithe," Growlithe nodded.

"We have to help her!" Brock began running in the direction that Growlithe indicated. Growlithe raced after him, followed by the others.

"Stop right there!" Jesse yelled, coming into view. "Arbok! Go!"

"Wheezing, go!" James tossed out his pokeball.

"Arbok, bind that Growlithe and hold him!" Jesse yelled.

"Pikachu thundershock!"

"Wheezing, sludge attack!" James yelled. The sludge covered Pikachu's electric sacks.

"Chu!" Pikachu looked defeated.

"Here!" Jesse held open a small, fire proof cage, seemingly from nowhere. "Arbok, put the puppy in here."

"No you don't!" Blaze rode into the clearing, Ponyta whinnying loudly. Ponyta bucked and Blaze held on with her knees, as she leaned down to snatch the cage from Jesse.

"Blaze!" Brock smiled, seeing her astride Ponyta and throwing the cage down fiercely.

"Growlithe, jump!" Blaze yelped. The small puppy leapt from his spot on the ground toward Blaze's open arms. But Meowth had leapt from a tree and landed squarely on Growlithe's back. Growlithe was pinned down.

"No!" Blaze yelped. Ponyta backed away skittishly.

"Ha! You're beat!" Jesse yelled. "Give it up!"

"Never!" Blaze yelped.

"Arbok, attack that ponyta!" Arbok lunged and Ponyta panicked. She bucked hard, almost throwing Blaze off.

"Settle down, girl!" Blaze yelled, leaning forward. "Down!"

Arbok stood rigidly, poised for an attack. He lunged in at Ponyta's neck. Ponyta bucked again. This time she did throw Blaze. She flew off the fire horse's neck and hit the ground hard, hitting her head against a tree. She blacked out slowly.

The first sense Blaze got back was hearing. She could hear Jesse laughing and her Growlithe barking about being caged up. Pikachu whined and Blaze heard some muffled yells.

"Well, it took us long enough, but we finally got something right," Jesse smiled. "C'mon, James. We've got the pikachu, growlithe, and a bonus! Ponyta!"

"Are we just gonna leave them here?" James asked.

"Of course we are," Jesse replied. "Now let's go."

"Coming," James sighed. Blaze heard footsteps walking away.

Next, she felt pain explode in her head where she'd hit it. She shook the pain away and found that she could now move. Slowly, she sat up, blinking her eyes. Gradually, her other senses came back to her. Ash, Misty and Brock were tied up against a nearby tree, unable to reach their pokemon to free themselves.

Blaze rubbed her head gently, then shakily stood up. She looked after Jesse and James, but she couldn't see them. She stumbled over to Brock, Ash, and Misty and untied them, still slightly in a haze. She started to faint and Brock caught her quickly.

"Are you okay?" Brock asked concerned.

"Hit my head..." Blaze murmured. "They stole my pokemon!"

"How do you feel?" Brock asked.

"Angry!" Blaze jumped up, fire in her eyes again. She raced after Jesse and James. "Give me my pokemon back now!"

Team Rocket stopped and looked back. Jesse and James were leading Ponyta with fire proof reins and fire proof gloves. Blaze was reaching for the last poke ball on her watch. "I choose you, Kadabra!"

"Kadabra?" Ash, Misty and Brock asked.

"Kadabra!" The psychic pokemon leapt from his poke ball.

'Kadabra, teleport us both onto Ponyta's back!' Blaze thought, knowing that Kadabra would read her mind. As soon as she thought it, she found herself astride her horse, holding her Kadabra. Ponyta reared up and Blaze caught the reins that kept her in Team Rockets clutches. She kicked Jesse's wrists to maker let go. James had already been thrown clear by Ponyta's bucking.

"Pika pi!" Pikachu cried from his rubber cage that James was holding.

"Grroooowl!" Growlithe barked from his fire proof cage.

"Bulbasaur, I choose you!" Ash tossed Bulbasaur's poke ball forward.

"Bulba," Bulbasaur growled.

"Bulbasaur, use your vine whip to bring those cages over here," Ash commanded.

"Saur," Bulbasaur whipped his vines out and tried to latch them around the handles of the cages.

"Pikachu!" Pikachu chirped excitedly as Bulbasaur lifted his cage, but Growlithe was less enthusiastic.

"Lithe!" Growlithe breathed fire through the bars of his cage and burnt Bulbasaur's vines. Grass pokemon are weak against fire-types, so Bulbasaur let go quickly, only bringing Pikachu's cage over to Ash, then jumped swiftly into his pokeball.

"Sorry, Growlithe has an attitude with grass-types," Blaze apologized. "Kadabra, get Growlithe!"

"No you don't!" Jesse wrapped her arms around the cage, trying to prevent Kadabra from snatching it away from her. Instead, Kadabra reappeared inside the cage, touched Growlithe's fur, and teleported back to Blaze on Ponyta.

"Kadabra, psychic attack!" Blaze commanded, letting Growlithe jump down from Ponyta's back. She still held Kadabra carefully.

"I-I can't th-think straight!" James complained, holding his head.

"Me t-too!" Jesse shrieked. "I've got a monster headache."

"Confusion!" Blaze commanded.

"Where am I?" Meowth yelped, holding his head and squeezing his eyes shut.

"Teleport them outa here," Blaze said finally. Team Rocket disappeared.

"Wow!" Ash murmured, seeing Kadabra's power.

"I've got a headache," Misty complained.

"Pika kachu," Pikachu was holding his head too.

"Sorry," Blaze smiled. "Good work, Kadabra. Return."

"Kadabra!" Kadabra returned into his poke ball.

"I thought you said you trained only fire pokemon," Brock said.

"I do, but this guy started following me since he was an abra," Blaze smiled. "I found him in the woods outside Cerulean. He was hurt because he'd teleported into a thorn bush and got himself scratched up pretty badly. So after I took him to a Pokemon Center, he refused to go back into the wild. I couldn't just abandon him."

"So you decided to train him?" Misty asked.

"Originally, I intended to give him up to a pokemon adoption agency or something," Blaze sighed, rubbing her Kadabra's poke ball. "I didn't think I could raise him well because I've never studied psychic-types, only fire. But after I lost several times to Sabrina's psychic pokemon, I decided that I had to fight fire with fire...figuratively speaking of course. I trained Abra enough to fight, so that when I got back to the gym, he could win. Unfortunately, Abra was losing pathetically, so in the middle of the battle, Abra evolved into Kadabra and he won. I just couldn't give him up after that."

"That's so touching," Brock smiled. "Are you gonna stay with us awhile?"

"No, I've got to get to Fuschia before lunch today," Blaze smiled. "My bag of potions and healers is empty and I need more. Bye!"

"Bye Blaze!" Misty and Ash waved.

"Pika!" The electric rodent called after her, the ponyta, and the growlithe.

"Good-bye, fair fire trainer," Brock looked depressed.

"What's wrong, Brock?" Ash asked when Blaze was out of sight.

"She was the most beautiful girl I've ever seen," Brock whined.

"Quick, get him to a Pokemon Center," Misty rolled her eyes.

"Why? His pokemon didn't battle," Ash asked.

"Not for his pokemon!" Misty yelled. "So Nurse Joy can take his mind off of Blaze."

"Not even Nurse Joy can compare with Blaze," Brock was beginning to cry.

"Hey! What are you kids doing here?" Officer Jenny had just pulled up to the group on her motorcycle. "Don't you know that it's illegal to loiter in the Safari Zone?"

"Oh, hello, Officer Jen-" Ash was cut off as Brock jumped up and pushed him aside.

"I'm sorry, Officer Jenny, it won't happen again. Can I help you with something?" Brock asked, his cheeks turning red.

"There he goes," Misty sighed.

"Hey Brock, I thought you said no one could compare with Blaze," Ash smiled.

"I said Nurse Joy couldn't compare with Blaze," Brock corrected him. "Officer Jenny is the most beautiful woman in the world."

Ash, Misty and Pikachu sighed before they dragged Brock away.