Chapter 16

***

A six year old Ash was simply sitting on a log in the middle of the Grove. 
Suddenly, a bright beam of light enveloped the stump Ash was on.

“Dra?” It was a simple practice session with Ash. Blue, Arrow and Digger 
would search and attack Ash for fun. Magic was left at home base to guard 
the flag that Ash had to capture.

“Up here!” Ash was hanging off a branch above Blue. Blue fired off another 
ice beam and Ash dodged it well. Ash’s pokemon would never admit it but Ash 
was beginning to rival them in their non-elemental abilities.

“Dra! Dra! Dra!” A young Ash dodged the repeating fire of ice beams. Ash was 
a blur of movement. Ash’s movement was twice that of a pokemon’s agility 
because he had upper body strength to contend with, even though it seemed 
impossible for a boy. Ash could move as fast as any pokemon. As long as he 
remembered how to.

***

The movement was too fast to follow. The beam seemed to swallow Ash up. Mark 
had used the same sub-sonic ray gun to catch too powerful pokemon for 
Giovonni’s private collection and now it seemed that it could be used on 
humans too.

“Ash!” everyone yelled in horror. They hadn’t seen Ash dodge the beam and 
land directly behind the two remaining Rocket members.

“I’ll take that!” Ash grabbed the gun from Kess and threw it into the water. 
Kess gasped to find Ash directly behind them and Bubba growled.

“Wrong move kid!” Ash didn’t have time to duck as a fist hit him in the gut, 
knocking the wind out of him. Disoriented by the next blow to the head. Ash 
decided it was time to run.

“Dumb kid!” Kess growled, finally realizing she had lost her weapon. Ash 
suddenly bolted from the pair and ran blindly into the brush to his right.

Mark charged after Ash knowing that this wasn’t the end of Kess and Carl’s 
chase. Ash found his wits after five minutes of running by a certain 
pokemon.

“Pikapi!” Pikachu began to lag behind. Ash dropped his stride and picked up 
the pokemon. Ash suddenly charged through into the open space of the town 
park. Ash slowed to a stop.

‘I’m going to be out in the open! Do I risk it?’ Ash’s bag suddenly opened 
to reveal Blue and Digger.

“Dra-tini, dra!” Blue said happily.

“Lar! Lar-vi-tar,” Digger added. Ash then remembered that he had secret 
weapons. Ash grinned a goofy smile and shifted his bag up higher on his 
back.

“I know I’m going to regret this! Here we go!” Ash went back into his sprint 
stride and headed for the one place he knew he would be safe, the police 
station. Up in the air, Kess and Bubba were having a hard time trying to 
follow Ash.

“Where is that little mump! I’ll have his hide!” Bubba growled. Kess, noting 
the anger in Bubba’s voice, decided to calm him down.

“Now, now Bubba. No kid is worth getting this worked up over. Giovonni said 
this might be a tough assignment. Remember whose son we’re going after.” 
Bubba settled down with a shiver.

“Right, we’ll get him!” Bubba cheered. There were stories about Neo in Team 
Rocket, scary storied. Mark Neo was a legend, said to be the most skilled 
officer that Team Rocket ever had and they were after his son.

“I see him!” Kess said suddenly. Ash saw running past the training center 
when he saw the hovercraft.

“I’mintrouble!” Ash wouldn’t be safe anywhere if they could simply hover out 
of range. ‘I’m going to need a new plan.’ Ash changed direction and began to 
lead Kess and Bubba on a merry wild goose chase.

“Where is that kid going?” Bubba spat out in frustration. Ash had led them 
around town three times. Officer Jenny had seen it out the window and was as 
frustrated as Bubba.

“I don’t care if they’re on leave! Get them out here now!” Officer Jenny 
yelled into her radio. The Officer was calling in the surrounding backup to 
help with an enormous problem. All of a sudden, the hovercraft turned back 
on itself.

‘What?’ Jenny asked herself. Ash had almost thought of a plan when he met 
Officer Jenny on his bike.

“Ash! What on earth is going on?” Officer Jenny gasped. Ash had just come 
over a fence and out an alley, startling here. Ash screeched to a halt and 
moaned.

“Don’t ask.” Ash then heard a familiar whump in the distance and jumped out 
of the way. Ash dif under the awning of the hardware store and began to 
explain. “You’re not going to believe this, but it’s Team Rocket.

“Say no more. I’ve got backup coming. They’ll be here…”

KABOOM! The ground suddenly exploded in front of Ash and he was stunned.

“Too late to help,” Ash moaned. Ash noticed that he wasn’t the only one 
stunned. Ash saw Officer Jenny sprawled on the ground.

‘That does it! No more Mr. Nice Guy.’ Ash formulated the last of his plan in 
three nano seconds and grinned.

“Listen up guys. I have a plan!” Ash explained what he was planning to do 
and giggled. This was going to be the performance of a lifetime.

“Did we get him?” Bubba asked, hopeful. Kess lifted an eyebrow at Bubba’s 
tone.

“I don’t know. I’ll check.” Kess looked into the binoculars and saw someone 
staggering away form the scene like a drunk.

‘I sure hope they buy this,’ Ash thought to himself Ash made it look like he 
was absolutely stunned and disoriented.

“We sure did. What do you say we land and collect our prize?” Kess said in a 
good mood. Bubba smiled his cruel smile, one reserved for someone who 
annoyed him and was in trouble.

“I get dibs on restraining him,” Bubba said in a childish tome. Kess rolled 
her eyes and prepared to land. Ash glanced to his high tight and saw the 
craft come in for a landing, directly behind him. Ash stifled a grin and he 
continued on his seemingly dizzy walk.

‘Here they come.’ Ash had made it to the place where he wanted to be. Ash 
hoped that all of his water war tricks were up and functional. ‘This should 
work. They were made for the older teenagers if they decided to help out 
Justin and the rest of that lot.’ Ash suddenly went into a small sprint that 
forced Bubba and Kess to follow on foot.

“Where’d he go?” bubba growled. The Rocket pair had entered the Cherry 
Canyon Park. There was a path leading down some stairs into an open area 
with a fountain. The fountain was shutoff and had benches and the typical 
brick circle spanning out.

“I think he went this way,” Kess pointed across the fountain way. Bubba and 
Kess slowly walked up the other fountain. Bubba stood up on the concrete 
side of the fountain and looked around. Kess noticed something odd about the 
fountain. “How long do you think this fountain’s been off?”

“Dunno. Why?” Bubba asked, miffed after looking unsuccessfully for Ash. 
Bubba jumped in the fountain to see what Kess's point was. Kess touched the 
cold cement and a drop of water came up with it.

“It’s still wet. That little ruffian must have turned it off.” Kess put a 
finger under her chin. “But the question is why.”

“To have enough pressure for this, dirtbags!” Ash suddenly popped out from 
the very top of the fountain holding a slightly modified version of an old 
fire hose. Ash had turned up the pressure to maximum and let it go.

“What?” Kess and Bubba didn’t have time to move as Ash attacked. Ash took 
out Bubba first by aiming the water stream at his legs. Bubba fell over 
backwards into the fountain, hitting his head hard. Kess, in total surprise, 
turned to face Ash as he turned the nozzle of the hose on her. Ash blasted 
Kess at maximum power, knocking the woman fifteen feet behind her and she 
hit the ground, rolling a few times. Ash turned off the water and looked at 
his handiwork.

“There! See how you like a sneak attack!” Ash jumped down from the fountain 
and handcuffed the pair to a bench. Ash then gathered up the old fire hose 
and wrapped it into a neat coil.

‘Officer Jenny will come to look for me. Just wait until I show her the 
present in the park.’ If anyone was watching Ash, they would have thought it 
was strange for someone to dig through a built in cement trashcan.

“Lar? Lar-vi-tar?” Ash laughed at the question. Ash handed the pokemon the 
hose through the hole in the trashcan and jumped in.

“It went fine. Scratch two rockets on my case. So, Pikachu, how do you like 
the catacombs? They are like a maze, and all paths run to the center of 
town. We dug them when I was young.”

“Pikaaaa,” Pikachu said in awe. Ash had taken some crystals from Crystal 
Lights Cavern and set them up in sequence to light up the caverns. Ash had 
adapted the idea from an ancient civilization called the Egyptians. Ash put 
the cover back on the lid and shifted his bag higher on his shoulder again. 
Ash, Digger, Blue and Pikachu set off to find Officer Jenny. Not too far 
today…

“Ash!” Mark called out. Delilah had never seen Mark like this. Mark was 
searching like a madman for Ash ever since he left the beach. Mark had a 
look on his face that could only be described as pure panic. Delilah grabbed 
his arm.

“Mark! Mark, calm down! I’m the one supposed to be hysterical here.” Mark 
stopped for only one second to make Delilah let go.

“You don’t understand! I know who those people are! I know what they want 
and it’s not pokemon!” Delilah looked at him, confused.

“Then what do they want from Ash? Why aren’t they after you?” Mark’s face 
distorted in pain as he remembered his young life and he spoke his next 
words slowly.

“They-want-to-train-Ash. They-want-HIM!” Delilah found a new fear deep 
inside her heart and her legs buckled underneath her.

“No!” Misty and Brock were having a similar conversation very close to Ash. 
Too close…

‘What? Who is that?’ Ash jumped behind a tree as he heard someone thrashing 
through the bushes. Ash held a hand over Pikachu’s mouth and shushed the 
pokemon in this bad. Then Ash heard the voices talking.

“If anything happens to that boy… Ash! Tell us where you are! We can help! 
Ash!” He relaxed; it was just Misty and Brock.

“Ash!” Brock echoed. Misty and Brock walked right by Ash. Misty suddenly 
asked Brock a question that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on 
end.

“Brock, you don’t seem too worried about Ash. Why are you so calm in all of 
this?”

“I think Ash can handle himself right now, but I don’t think he can handle 
those Rockets. They were different from the usual Rockets we battle. I’m not 
worried because Ash is smart and he’ll wait for us to back him up.”

“Oh, Ash! It’s us! Come out!” Misty yelled. Ash waited until they had gone a 
little further away from him before responding.

“Brock, Misty!” Ash suddenly called out. Ash walked from behind a tree and 
saw them on the other side of the clearing. Misty and Brock turned to see 
Ash walking towards them and a shadow looming up behind him.

“Ash!” The pair cried in unison. Ash saw the looks on their faces and turned 
around.

Author's notes: Wow! two evil cliffhangers in a row! I'm on a roll!

Disclaimer: (Shadow looms up from behind author) Eh heh, I don't own 
pokemon.