Chapter 9
The Secret Weapon?


The door to the lab opened slowly to reveal a young man dressed in jeans and a T-shirt
and another young man dressed all in black with a Pikachu perched on his black cape
covered shoulder. The man in black’s hood hung behind him as his young, handsome
face was fully revealed.
As Ash and Tracey walked into the lab they immediately saw the oh-so-familiar group of
Pokemon trainers staring back at them. Their eyes opened wide to match the wide-eyed
stares of the trainers.
‘Oh God no,’ Ash thought as he stared in horror, realizing the seriousness of the situation.
“This can’t be good,” Tracey stated nervously as a very angry Prof. Oak glared at him.
“The man in black?” Brock was in a state of confusion as he stared at the revealed man in
black.
Gary was equally confused, but mostly because of the fact that the man in black now
seemed so familiar.
Giselle gazed enticingly at the man in black’s exposed face. “Well I didn’t think it was
possible for him to look any better but apparently I was wrong.”
“This doesn’t make sense.” Duplica couldn’t understand how the man in black and Ash
could be the same person, especially after what Misty had told her earlier.
Prof. Oak seemed to be more in a rush than anything else as he looked desperately at Ash
and the other trainers.
As for Ash, he was not really worried about the other people in the room as all his
attention was focused on the weeping redhead in front of him. Ash watched as Misty
shook her head in disbelief.
“Misty, please, you don’t understand!” Ash pleaded with Misty who was approaching
him slowly.
Misty reached Ash. As she stared into his pleading eyes, memories came back to her,
memories of earlier that day when her own eyes had pleaded with Ash, pleaded to be
forgiven for betraying him. Misty looked away and with one swift movement her hand
met with Ash’s cheek as a loud slapping sound echoed through the lab. 
“You jerk! How could you?! Was this a game to you? Were you playing with me? Is that
what it was?”
Ash rubbed his cheek that was throbbing in pain as he tried to plead his case to Misty.
“No Misty, it wasn’t a game. I love you.”
“You love me, really? Because earlier today you told me that you didn’t love me. You
accused me of cheating on you,.....WITH YOU!”
“I had to do it Misty, I had to protect you-”
“Ash, the only thing I need protection from is you! If you didn’t want to be with me you
should have had the guts to just say so instead of-of making me think that I –oooh! I can’t
believe I ever had feelings for such an insensitive, uncaring, bastard like you! And you
know what?” Misty lifted her finger as she emphasized the words she spoke with a
painful poke into his chest and a tone of hurt in her voice. “I ..don’t...want...you!” Misty
began to storm off, stopping suddenly for a moment to speak. “I want you to stay away
from me from now on, you....and your alter ego.” Misty then continued to run off out the
door.
“How could you do that to her?....You’ve changed Ash,” Duplica  said in disgust as she
ran after Misty.
“Ash? You were the man in black all along?” Brock questioned as he studied Ash.
“Okay, is anybody besides me completely lost here?” Gary wondered out loud.
Ash ignored both questions as he began to walk in the direction Misty and Duplica
exited.
“Ash, you are staying here.”
“No I am not! Prof. if I let her go I’m going to lose her.”
“Ash, you have to let her go. For your benefit and hers, let her go. Besides we have more
important matters to deal with right now. Gary, Brock, Giselle, please excuse us, I need
to speak to Ash in private.”
“But Gramps-”
“Now, Gary! Escort them out Tracey.”
“Yes Prof.”
Tracey held the door open as Giselle, Brock and a disgruntled Gary exited the room.
Tracey then closed the door behind them to give Ash and Prof. Oak some privacy.
Ash was silent as he stared at the ground.
“Ash, I’m sorry about all this. I’m sure you must be going through a lot and I feel for
you, I really do.”
“But...”
“But, you are going to have to put your emotions aside for the time being until we deal
with the matter at hand.”
Ash rolled his eyes at the Prof.
“Ash.”
“I know,...it’s just so hard.”
“Team Rocket are here.”
“Team Rocket? That’s what you wanted to tell me? I know that. I’m the one who asked
them to come here.”
“No. Not that Team Rocket, Butch and Cassidy, I saw them chatting with your
“sources”.”
“What?”
“I think they set you up Ash, and if that is the case then we are all in grave danger.”
“They didn’t set me up, you must be mistaken!”
“It’s not a mistake Ash. I had let a Nidorina out of her Pokeball and somehow she got
loose and ran out into the woods. I ran after her and while I was looking for her I stumble
into a clearing where I saw Butch, Cassidy, Jessie, James, and Persian talking about you.
I didn’t really hear much because I was trying to keep from being seen but they were
definitely discussing you.”
“No! I wont believe it. They would never betray me. Not when there is so much at risk.”
“Aaaaaaahhhh!”
“Let her go!”
Ash and the Prof. heard voices coming from outside. One voice sounded like Brock and
the scream sounded like-
“MISTY!” Ash ran as fast as he could out of the lab followed closely by Prof. Oak.
As soon as Ash got outside he saw the most horrific thing he could have ever imagined.
There was Team Rocket, Jessie, James and Persian standing off to the side as Cassidy
and Butch were standing in front of Giselle, Gary, Brock, and Duplica. And in Butch’s
grasp was Misty.
“Let her go!”
“Well well, if it isn’t the gullible man in black. Not so tough now are you?”
Ash had a look of loathing in his eyes as he turned accusingly towards Jessie, James, and
Persian.
The three former “sources” all simultaneously stared at the ground in guilt.
Ash looked away from them and took a step towards Butch and Misty.
“Uh, uh, uh, not another step or I’ll break her neck,” Butch said as he tightened his grip
on her and moved his hand to her head.
“Ash.” Misty looked at Ash in fright as Ash stood still.
“What do you want?” Ash said angrily
“Now your talking.” Butch laughed at Ash’s misfortune.
“What do you think we want? We want you. You give yourself up and we’ll let your
girlfriend, or should we say ex-girlfriend go free. Also, I must compliment you on your
dumping skills, that strategy was pure evil, maybe there’s hope for you yet.”
Tears rolled down Misty’s face, but Ash didn’t know if it was because of the situation she
was in now or because of what Cassidy just said. Either way it made Ash furious to see
Misty like that.
“You’d have to be crazy to think I would actually just let you take me without a fight.”
“If you don’t you can kiss the redhead goodbye.”
Ash stood in silence for a moment, contemplating the situation.
“What’s your decision? Come on we don’t have all day here.”
Everyone stared at Ash waiting for him to make his move. Ash lifted his head up and
began to speak in an unaffected tone.
“You’ll give me your word that you’ll let her go unharmed?”
“ASH NO!” Misty shouted in protest.
“Well I don’t know what our word is worth, but yes we give you our word as Team
Rocket Elite members, we’ll let her go...unharmed.”
“Ash, you can’t believe them! They even said it themselves, there word isn’t worth
anything.” Brock tried to reason with Ash.
“What else can I do Brock?!” Ash looked at Brock waiting for an answer, but when none
came Ash began to walk forward, approaching Butch and Cassidy.
Pikachu could tell that Ash had some kind of plan in mind because Ash gave him the
signal to stay still.
Unfortunately Cassidy also observed this signal.
“If you or your rat try anything funny you’ll regret it,” Cassidy said as Butch swiftly
released Misty and through her to the side. Cassidy then quickly bonded Ash’s hands
together with some kind of electronic device.
“Please, you don’t honestly think you can keep me trapped like this,” Ash said
confidently.
“Perhaps we can’t, but if you do try to escape the people you care for will suffer for it.
And remember, we know where you live,” Cassidy said just as confidently as she turned
to look in the direction of Ash’s house.
“Mom!”
“That’s right, and after we’re done with her we’ll just continue done the line until there’s
nobody left except you and your electric rat. But think on the bright side, at least you’ll
have your freedom even if you have nobody to share it with.”
“If I take you out-”
“Everybody back at Team Rocket headquarters knows who you really are now, thanks to
the loser threesome. If you manage to get rid of us there will always be somebody knew
sent after you, your family, and friends.”
Ash knew the truth in Cassidy’s words. That’s why Prof. Oak stressed the fact of keeping
his identity secret. He knew this would happen if Ash was careless. But it was kind of
ironic how it wasn’t Ash’s relationship with Misty but his relationship with Team Rocket
that got him into this mess. Ash felt lost and helpless. He hadn’t felt like this since he had
left Misty behind all those years ago. He hated this feeling, he hated being.....alone.
Misty watched as Ash was bonded by the device. After Cassidy finished talking Misty
finally realized the reason Ash wanted to break it off with her. ‘He really was just trying
to protect me. Oh God.......Ash.’
“I wont try to escape.”
“That’s a good boy. And remember the consequences if you do.”
“Well we finally captured the thorn in Team Rocket’s side. Wont the Boss be proud?”
“He sure will Butch. And what do you know, you losers were actually good for
something after all.” Cassidy turned towards Jessie, James and Persian who glared back
at her.
“Well let’s get going-”
“Wait!”
“What now?”
“Can I just say something to Misty, like a goodbye since I’m probably never going to see
her again.”
“You’re definitely not going to see her again......Go ahead, but make it quick.”
Ash walked up to a very confused and upset looking Misty.
“Ash?”
“Misty I do love you, you don’t have to believe me and I don’t blame you if you don’t
but I just wanted you to know that.” Ash stared into Misty’s eyes as he gave her the most
heartfelt expression she has ever seen.
Misty threw her arms around the bonded Ash as she cried into his shoulder.
“I love you too Ash please don’t let them do this, I do believe you, please. Don’t leave
me.”
Ash began to whisper into Misty’s ear so that nobody could see or hear him. “Misty now
that they are taking me I can’t escape but Pikachu, Pikachu has the secret weapon. Get it
from him, it’s up to you, you and Brock and-”
“Come on that’s enough.” Butch roughly pulled Ash away from Misty as a helicopter
was heard in the distance.
‘Secret weapon? What on earth is he talking about.’
The helicopter made a landing in the clearing as Butch pushed Ash ahead of him and
Cassidy followed slowly behind, stopping for a second to gloat.
“Now that the man in black is gone you will all soon fall under the rule of Team Rocket.
And the more you fight us the harder it will be for you in the end. No Pokemon can
defeat our Super Pokemon.”
“At least no Pokemon that youz have, Perr”
“Shut up you mangy cat!” Cassidy screeched at Persian. “Get in your balloon and let’s
head back to headquarters.”
“Look Cass, I caught an Ash,” Butch joked as he dragged Ash into the helicopter.
“Too bad he doesn’t fit into a Pokeball, it would be a lot less crowded in here.” Cassidy
said as she tried to cram herself into the small helicopter built for two.
“Uh we could always take him back, there’s plenty of room in our Persian balloon,”
James stated.
“Yeah like we’d trust a bunch of incompetent idiots with something so important, get in
your balloon and shut up,” Cassidy ordered.
Jessie growled in anger and was about to say something when James shook his head.
“Jess just let it go, we don’t want to make things worse.”
Jessie looked from James to Ash who was sitting very uncomfortably in the ready-to-
take-off helicopter.
“Your right, but this is not over.” The threesome then jumped into their balloon as the
helicopter took off.
The group of Pokemon trainers, Pikachu and Prof. Oak watched as the helicopter
disappeared into the distance with the Persian balloon following far behind.
“I can’t believe this is happening.” Misty said as she broke down crying once again.
“Prof. should I alert Ash’s mom of the situation?” Tracey asked the Prof.
“No, I will tell her myself. I’ve known her and Ash a lot longer and I think she deserves
to hear it from me,” the Prof. said as he left the trainers behind and headed for the
Ketchum residence.
“Now what are we going to do?” Brock asked no one specifically.
“What do you think we are going to do, we are going to save Ash.”
“Misty, are you crazy?! How the hell could we pull that off? Team Rocket have way
more Pokemon than we do all together, plus those grunts are all trained in martial arts,”
Duplica addressed her determined looking friend.
“Yeah before at least we had the man-uh I mean Ash on our side,” Giselle stated.
“My Pokemon are really powerful and I’m a Pokemon Master so I don’t see how grunts
could defeat me. I’ll wipe the floor clean with them, besides I know a few moves
myself.” Gary began to demonstrate his moves by flailing his legs about in uncoordinated
motions.
“What is that?” Giselle questioned.
“It just looks like you have to go to the bathroom really badly.” Duplica stated honestly
as Gary’s face turned a deep shade of red.
“Save your moves Gary, we don’t need them, we have a secret weapon.” Misty stated
slyly as she looked at Pikachu.
Everyone turned their attention toward Pikachu.
“Pika?” Pikachu said looking confused.
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Inside the lab Prof. Oak, Delia Ketchum, Gary, Tracey, Giselle, Duplica, Brock, and
Misty were all gathered around Pikachu.
“What did Ash say?” Delia asked Misty.
“He told me that Pikachu had some kind of secret weapon and that I should get it from
him.”
“Well Ash did say that if all else failed he had some kind of backup plan, maybe this is
it,” the Prof. concluded.
“Well, where is this secret weapon?” Gary said skeptically as he looked at Pikachu.
Misty crouched down to Pikachu’s level.
“Pikachu, do you know what Ash was talking about?”
“Pika? Pikachu pika chu chu pi”
“He doesn’t know?” Brock questioned.
“That’s what it looks like. Come on Pikachu think, did Ash give you anything, something
to take care of, something important.”
Pikachu seemed to be deep in thought. After a few seconds he popped his head up in
remembrance.
“Pikachu!” Pikachu pulled a tiny yellow backpack out of thin air and began to dump it’s
contents out onto the lab floor. A brush, a miniature lightning bolt sleeping bag, and
dozens of ketchup packets were among the things that fell on the floor.
The group of humans sweatdropped at the contents of the backpack.
Misty looked through the Pikachu possessions.
“Did you find anything?” Duplica asked anxiously.
“Not-wait, what’s this?” Misty held up a miniature Pokeball.
“Open it,” the Prof. told Misty as she enlarged the Pokeball and called the Pokemon out.
“Pokeball go!”
A bright light flashed as the Pokeball opened and a large creature began to take shape in
front of the group.
The humans all stared in amazement at the beautiful Pokemon they saw before them.