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~Three~

~Flight~

“It looks really beat up. We should get it to a pokemon centre urgently,” He said.

“The nearest one is a day’s walk away and I’m blacklisted at all pokemon centres,” she muttered the last part.

After staring at her Ash took out a pokeball, “We’ll fly.”

He stepped back.

“I choose you Pidgeot!” A glossy, golden brown bird burst forth, it had a plume that resembled a lock of hair with many pink coloured strands. It was larger than the two of them put together.

“But you gotta pretend Mix is your cyndaquil if we want it to get treatment.”

“Sure, get on.”

Valeri threw her leg over Pidgeot’s back, and cradled Mix in her arms.

Ash got on in front of her.

Pidgeot leaped into the air, they free fell off the side of the hill, the ground suddenly seemed dangerously close but Pigeot spread its wings and they bounced spasmodically upwards.

In large fluent movements they gained altitude until the earth below resembled a blurry painting.

Valeri studied her cyndaquil, it was losing body heat fast, she regretted the cuts and bruises that were etched on in skin.

“I shouldn’t have pushed it so hard,” she murmured and her thoughts trailed back to Vale, had she pushed her too hard as well?

Pidgeot effortlessly manoeuvred across the sky, it found all the fast air currents, dipped past clouds, and dodged every spearow in a passing flock.

They were coming upon a town, they could see the red roofs of the houses below, and even the soft pink of the pokemon centre.

“Pidgeot land near the pokemon centre,” Ash commanded, and almost immediately they fell into a nosedive.

“What are you doing?” Valeri yelled over the sound of the wind rushing over them.

Ash didn’t reply, they hurtled towards the ground and at the last second Pidgeot extended its wings and they landed lightly in front of the pokemon centre.

Valeri dismounted and ran into the Pokemon centre, she tripped a couple of times and wobbled clumsily towards the doors.

Ash followed after her with Pidgeot in tow.

“Nurse Joy, you have to help my cyndaquil,” Ash said and stood next to Valeri who had artfully placed a bandana on her head and sunglasses just before she’s come in.

“It looks bad, Chansey take this pokemon to ICU stat,” a Chansey wheeled a stretcher in, it placed Mix on the stretcher and then vanished into the operating room.

“What happened to it?” Nurse Joy asked.

“I pushed it hard during a battle,” Ash said on behalf of Valeri, who adjusted her sunglasses.

“Well I hope you’ve learnt your lesson, young man,” Nurse Joy waggled a finger at him.

“Will it be okay?” Valeri asked in a girly voice.

“I hope so dear, I’m about to go operate, take a seat,” Nurse Joy slipped into the operating room and closed the door.

“Now do you see why I say raise your pokemon with care, love and kindness?” Ash asked her once they’d sat down.

“I do, but I don’t believe in mollycoddling them okay?” Valeri snapped.

“I don’t believe in forcing your pokemon to do things they obviously can’t do,” Ash retorted.

“It could that’s why I told it to use Fire Blast,” she said, angrily.

“It couldn’t or else it wouldn’t be here right now,” Ash pointed out.

“Listen, I know my pokemon’s limitations, cyndaquil is lucky I didn’t ask it to use sacred fire or something tough,” she said.

“But its only a cyndaquil, it can’t do those attacks. Do you have any respect for pokemon? You remind me of Team Rocket, abusing pokemon,” Ash said.

Valeri stared at him for a few moments.

She stood up and walked to the other side of the centre, leaving Ash all alone.

They waited for a few hours, until Nurse Joy came out.

“We’ll have to keep it in over night, its flame pouch is severely damaged, we might even need a transplant. But I have to say I’ve done a few tests and we’ve also discovered that this pokemon is missing a gene that every single pokemon that can evolve has. It can’t evolve at all unfortunately. I’m not sure of the implications however. You can come and collect it tomorrow, and I think that for the best no battling for the entire week,” Nurse Joy finished, she smiled at Ash and then looked curiously over to Valeri, in her sunglasses.

“I don’t mean to be nosy but did you and your friend have an argument dear?” Joy asked, she had a sympathetic look on her face.

“Just a tiny argument Nurse Joy, no need to worry about it,” Ash forced a laugh and rubbed the back of his neck.

She smiled and went behind her desk, another trainer came in with a pidgey with a broken wing.

“Now how did that happen?” she asked the trainer.

Ash got up, he walked over to Valeri. She got up without speaking to him. They walked in silence to Pidgeot who was waiting outside. Ash mounted Pidgeot but Valeri stood staring at the ground.

“I’ll be back now,” she disappeared around the corner.

There was a sound of shattering glass, and Valeri came running around the corner clutching a bandaged Mix in her arms.

“Go! GO! We got to get out of here!” She jumped on Pidgeot.

Ash urged the bird pokemon into the sky. It took off just as Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy ran outside.

Valeri yelled in triumph. She hugged Mix and then threw an arm around Ash.

“We did it!” she cried, and whooped as Pidgeot did a victory pirouette in the air.

Ash kept himself from smiling.

“I can’t believe what you just did! It wasn’t right,” he said.

Valeri put her hand on his cheek and pulled his face to look at her.

“I can’t leave Mixy all alone in the Pokemon centre. You know how it is you’re a Pokemon trainer as well. We can’t be without our Pokemon.”

“Mix is still injured, it needed the rest,” Ash argued.

“Well, it can rest up with us, it doesn’t need some pink nurse person to do that.”

Ash didn’t say anything, they flew in silence for awhile.

“Thanks Ash for helping me and Mixy,” Valeri said, and ruffled his hair playfully.

“Just a second ago you were fighting with me.”

“I decided to ignore what you said. You were angry so you didn’t mean it, right?” she asked with grin.

“I wish you could be like this all the time, you’re not half as annoying,” Ash said.

Pidgeot interrupted their conversation by dipping through a storm cloud.

It glided across the sky for a second before hurtling downwards, not as steeply as it had the first time. Long before the ground they began circling, lower and lower before they alighted in camp, with the delicious smells of food in their noses.

“Hi Brock, what’s cooking?” Ash said.

Brock shook his head, “Is that the only thing on your mind?”

Valeri dismounted Pidgeot with Mix in her arms.

“There’s a storm brewing, we should find shelter, these tents aren’t going to last,” Valeri said, she withdrew Mix into its pokeball.

Brock looked into the sky, there were indeed black clouds inching slowly over them.

“Yeah you’re right,” he said. “Let’s get all the pokemon to help, I’ll carry the food.”

“Ash can we send Pidgeot as a scouter for shelter?” she asked him.

Ash nodded and sent Pidgeot in search of shelter.

They spent the next ten minutes hurriedly packing their tents, and clearing the camp site. By that time the rain was already beginning to fall, it was only drizzling but Pidgeot still hadn’t come back with a place to stay.

“We should just start trying to find a place so long,” Valeri said, she covered her head with a large leaf she’d found.

The rain was already starting to fall harder and the distant rumble of thunder was heard.

Ash began marching off, they all followed him.

“I’ve got faith in Pidgeot, it’ll find us a place to stay,” he said, and scanned the sky for the brown bird.

The four of them including Pikachu wandered slowly through the forest, they glanced up continuously in hopes of finding Pidgeot.

The forest filtered the full intensity of the rain but they still got drenched. The sky was dark, leaves, sticks, and sand hit them full on in the face. Lightning cracked across the sky, thunder soon following its lead.

“I hope nothing happened to it,” Ash said.

“Don’t worry, Pidgeot is tough. It’ll make it back okay,” Brock said, and patted Ash on the back. Pikachu climbed underneath Ash’s hat, it pulled a face at the new onslaught of rain.

“Pikaa!” it squealed.

“Don’t worry buddy we’ll get some place soon,” Ash said to the yellow pokemon.

“Pikachu,” it muttered.

Valeri pulled her black cloak out of her backpack, she clipped it around her neck so it covered her face.

“Were you at a Halloween party or something?” Brock asked her.

Valeri smiled, “Nah, I use this cloak to get food at night, nobody can see me in the dark.”

Brock was silent.

“I can believe that,” Ash said and shook his head in amusement.

“Sherbet,” Valeri suddenly said. “My equipment is going to get wet.”

“Are you a bank robber as well as a burglar and pyromaniac?” Ash asked sarcastically.

“No seriously my stuff is gonna get wet. Where is Pidgeot?”

“My bag is waterproof, you can put it in here?” Brock said, and pulled his bag off.

“Can we use someone’s jacket so it doesn’t get wet in the transfer process?” she asked.

“It’s for a lady,” Brock said and removed his jacket.

Ash rolled his eyes.

She wrapped all her pokeball editing equipment in the jacket, and passed it to Brock who put it in his bag.

“Thanks, Broccoli,” she said. Ash raised his eyebrows incredulously.

She turned to him, “What are you looking at?”

He looked back at the sky, the rain was looking like a typhoon by then.

“Pidgeot! Pidgeot!” he yelled. Valeri joined in.

Brock pulled out a pokeball and called on a purple bat like pokemon, Crobat.

“Okay buddy, find Pidgeot for us and if you can see if you can find some shelter, k?” Brock ordered.

The bat rose into the air with much flapping, and disappeared over the tree tops.

“I’m going to take this into my own hands,” Valeri said, she took out her rope and wrapped it around a branch.

“Bye guys.” She swung herself into the tree, and jumped from branch to branch.

“I like a woman with many talents,” Brock said.

“She is just plain weird.”

Valeri increased her speed as the rain started to slash at her face. She could see Crobat fluttering over the tops of the trees, but Pidgeot was gone.

It wasn’t long till she located a small cave that they could use, but the mystery was Pidgeot, it had disappeared.

She called out to Crobat. It flapped over to her.

“Come on kid, let’s get back.” She patted it on the head.

“Can you give me a lift? You strong enough?” she asked the pokemon.

It clicked its teeth together.

“Yeah?” She smiled and held onto its legs. She folded her own legs underneath her and Crobat airlifted her onto the ground.

Then they ran back to find Ash and Brock.

Ash heard the sound of hurried footsteps coming from the trees.

Valeri appeared in front of them with Crobat hovering in the air beside her.

“I found a place to stay but I think something happened to Pidgeot,” she said.

“What?”

“I couldn’t see it anywhere at all, I could see the entire sky and Pidgeot was definitely not there,” she looked genuinely concerned.

“Maybe it was just so far away you couldn’t see it?” Brock suggested to keep Ash’s spirits up.

Valeri glanced up at the sky in an act of blind faith.

Ash held up his fist, “We gotta find it.”

“I don’t think you’ll need to,” a strangely voice came from the trees.

“Prepare for trouble,” a purple haired woman jumped down from the trees.

A blue haired man came out of the bushes, “Make it double.”

They stood back to back and began to recite a motto.

“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.”

“Jessie!” the girl shouted.

“James!” the man chimed in.

“Team Rocket blast off at the speed of light

Surrender now or prepare to fight.”

A Meowth jumped down before them, “Meowth that’s right!”

Ash slapped his forehead, “I should’ve known.”

Jessie pointed at Valeri, “And who are you, girl? The twerp’s new girlfriend?”

“I am not his girlfriend, heaven forbid. But it doesn’t matter who I am who are you?” she said.

“Weren’t you listening a second ago? Jessie (she pointed at herself) James (she pointed at the man beside her) Meowth (at the pokemon in front of her). You really need better girlfriends,” she said to Ash.

Ash and Valeri scowled simultaneously.

“Enough of this chit chat, give us Pikachu and we’ll give you back your stupid Pidgeot,” Jessie said, and behind her a hot air balloon with a Meowth as the balloon rose up from the trees, beneath it was Pidgeot in a cage.

“Give back my Pidgeot!” Ash yelled at them.

“Yelling will do you no good,” James said.

“Pikachu,” he turned to the electric rodent. “Use Thunderbolt.”

“Wait,” Valeri said. “You’ll hit Pidgeot as well.”

Pikachu’s sparking cheeks ceased to spark.

“So twerp you finally got yourself a smart girlfriend? That is, smarter than they usually are,” Team Rocket laughed at its own stupid joke.

Valeri cringed at their lameness.

“So what is it Ash? Pikachu or Pidgeot?” Jessie laughed stupidly.

“Neither,” said Valeri, she took out a pokeball, and kissed it.

“What’s this? She’s also got style. You want to join Team Rocket? You’ve got our flair,” Meowth said.

“Mixy let’s take out the trash, wow that’s lame,” she said to herself and released Mix.

Cyndaquil appeared before her.

“I thought she’d have stylish pokemon as well but we were wrong it’s just an average cyndaquil,” James said and yawned loudly.

Valeri raised her eyebrows, cyndaquil squeaked in indignity.

“Mixy flamethrower now!”

A torrent of heat spiralled towards the three Rockets, they laughed maniacally as the flames bounced away from them almost as if they’d been repelled by a hidden barrier. The fire came towards Valeri and Mix who dodged just in time.

“Heh, so you actually have some fight in you,” Valeri said, with a hint of pleasure in her voice.

“More than yous can handle!” Meowth said and reached for a rope dangling off the balloon.

“Bye bye!” Jessie and James said before disappearing over the trees in their hot air balloon.

Ash, Valeri, Brock and Pikachu stared in amazement as Team Rocket made a successful attempt at capturing one of Ash’s Pokemon.

To Be Continued

Do Ash and Valeri get back Pidgeot? Does Team Rocket ever succeed at capturing Pikachu? Will Valeri join Team Rocket? Find out in the next episode of The Evolution Gene.