Chapter 1- Late Night Street Fight

(Location- Green Forest)

“All right, Pikachu!” Ash yelled, “Now! Finish them off with THUNDER BOLT!!!!”

“Pii… kaaaa…” Pikachu growled, as electricity was gathering in his body, and sparks flew from his cheeks… “CHUUUU!!!!” A gigantic blast of electricity flew and hit the ground in front of Team Rocket, creating a huge explosion.

“Looks like Team Rocket’s Blasting off AGAAAAIIN!” Jessie and James both cried as they flew over the horizon, along with their pokémon.

“Alright!” Ash jumped up and down excited. He looked at the other Team Rocket soldiers, all of them wearing masks covering their eyes, and dressed in black uniforms, “Okay guys! I’ve beaten all your pokémon, and Jessie & James! If you don’t want to go blasting off like those two, I suggest you run as fast as you can, right now, because Pikachu’s still got enough juice to the rest of you!!” He glared at the Rockets as Pikachu growled threateningly at the group of Rocket Grunts and all their KO’d pokémon.

One of the Rocket Grunts yelled, “Rockets! Retreat!” All the Team Rocket Grunts quickly recalled their pokémon into their pokéballs and then retreated into the thick woods. Kingler let down his claw and dropped to the ground, sweating and exhausted.

“You did a great job guys.” Ash said, “Take a rest everybody! Return!” He held up several pokéballs, each one fired a red beam, pulling the exhausted pokémon back into its pokéball, and carried Pikachu himself, “Whew. That’s was some battle today!”

Misty stepped forward, “That wasn’t just some battle! That was the eleventh today, and adding up with the rest of the attacks, you’ve beaten down at least a hundred Rockets this week! I don’t know what’s up with them!”

It was true. They’ve been attacking the group again and again. Every time they beat Jessie, James and the underlings, they just came back with another group of grunts. Beating them in pokémon battles aren’t that hard, but not when fighting more than twenty pokémon at the same time, multiplied by ten for each day. After all these attacks, all of Ash’s pokémon were weak and worn out. Ash had to keep switching one of his pokémon with a healthy one through the white button on the pokédex. Even his entire Tauros herd is worn out.

Brock sighed, “I doubt they’ll attack us again for a while. We’ve beaten them and their pokémon too many times, and we’ve bashed up Jessie and James’s pokémon and themselves quite a lot today. I think they’re probably going to go recover and regroup. It’ll be a while before they come back”

“That’s a relief. The ones I sent to Prof. Oak’s lab via white button on pokédex are being treated, but the ones I’m carrying need to be healed. After this battle, I don’t know if we’d be able to withstand another round of attacks.”

Brock looked at the map, “Well, the closest pokémon center is in Scarlet City.”

“How far is it to Scarlet?” Misty asked

“No that far” Said Brock, “It’s probably several kilometres south of here. If we head there now, we’ll reach it before nightfall”

“Well, we’d better get going then!” Ash said, picking up Pikachu and resting him on his shoulder.

(Location- Scarlet City)

Ash walked down the road. The pokémon were all resting at the pokémon centre, as was everyone else. He had Muk with him, partially for protection, because he was the only pokémon left, seeing how all the others are exhausted and hurt. They’ve even called Tracey to join them, seeing how they need more support, especially if Team Rocket decide to launch a full-scale assault on the group. Ash had asked Tracey to pick up Pidgeot and call Charicific valley for them send Charizard. Pidgeot was supposed to stay with that flock until Ash came back from the orange islands and Charizard was only planning on staying until he was the strongest Charizard in Charicific Valley, and both have them have completed their goals. The flock knows how to fight for themselves and Charizard has finally become stronger than Charla and any other Charizard in the Valley. The problem was that the group didn’t really get the chances to go back, and these recent battles haven’t been helping. Tracey had agreed to meet them. They also made a phone call to the Charicific valley asking for Charizard. Charizard is currently flying to Teal Ville, the next city. All of them will meet up in about a week. Tracey had already picked up Bulbasaur and Pidgeot.

They definitely need the strength of those high-level pokémon, and the support of another trainer. There was no doubt that soon Domino will attack, and even worse Giovanni. Ash remembered the Team Rocket agent 009, also known as the Black Tulip. Her real name is a secret, and she goes under the alias of Domino. She’s an Elite Team Rocket member and very dangerous. Last time when they faced her, it was on Mewtwo’s island with all those super clones. She caused a lot of trouble, held a baby Nidoqueen hostage and Ash wasn’t able to even fight her because she took them by surprise and trapped them with those metallic rings before they could even move. If they have to fight her, then there’ll definitely be more elite ranked Rockets, along with the Team Rocket combat squad and the air-raid army, and it will be only a matter of time until Giovanni himself shows up. Giovanni had used all those strong machines against Mewtwo. Team Rocket is a lot stronger than Ash would have ever believed possible. Ash is one of the top trainers in the world, he couldn’t even put a scratch on Mewtwo, but Team Rocket mortally wounded him. That sleek aircraft beat all the pokémon clones in one shot each, and the twin robots were strong enough to wound Mewtwo to the point of near-death. If Ash didn’t help him reach the spring, then Mewtwo wouldn’t have survived. (If you haven’t got a clue of what I’m talking about, watch the pokémon special Mewtwo Returns.)

Ash kept wondering why they were so intent on beating him now. Mewtwo erased the Rocket Society’s memory so they have no recollection of the events in Purity Canyon, Mewtwo’s location and of Ash, Misty and Brock. As far as Giovanni remembers, he doesn’t even know them. But now really isn’t the time to think about these things, especially not on an empty stomach. There’s still a lot more and it made Ash’s head hurt. It’s been a while since Ash has eaten anything or slept, mostly because they were spending so much time on defending themselves against Rocket attacks and fighting, they never really got a chance to eat and relax.

Just then, he heard some loud yelling, and he had to check it out. He rushed around the corner and saw what was going on.

“AGH! STOP IT!!” A skinny Japanese-looking teenager with glasses was yelling.

Ash watched and by the looks of it, the teenager was being attacked by two punks.

“Shut up!” Said Punk A, punching the guy and sent his glasses flying off his face

“Be quiet if you know what’s good for you!” Punk B said, tripping him.

“Heh, too easy” Punk A said, “I don’t know what you did to upset the fiends, but we were told by the Doppelganger himself to take care of you!” They continued to laugh, kick and beat him (In the background, Ash runs in their direction, silently pulls out Muk’s pokéball and tosses it so it lands between them) Muk popped up right between the two guys, making them both scream, and he pounced on Punk B. Punk A was caught by surprise when Ash jump kicked him on the back. The blow sent him crashing face-first, into a brick wall, and the wallet flew out of his hand and into the air. Ash caught it in with his left hand and looked at guy who was being mugged. The guy got up and put his glasses on, and took a good look at Ash.

“Are you okay?” He asked, holding the wallet and walking over to him

“I’m fine, thanks” said the guy, rubbing the side of his badly bruised face and accepting it”

Punk B was still struggling to get out, but Muk had completely smothered over him and wasn’t going to let him go. But Punk A got up, and by the looks of it, really pissed off.

“That really hurt!” He yelled, rubbing his badly bruised face, “You are gonna pay!”

Ash just looked at him calmly, and just shrugged, “Yeah, like I’d have anything to be scared of a lowlife like you”

Punk A looked at him strangely, then laughed “So the little sucker’s trying to be brave, huh? Looks like I’m gonna have to teach the punk a lesson!”

“Funny” Ash said, running over to him, “I was about to say the same thing!”

Punk A swung his fist at the smaller kid, but Ash sidestepped it easily.

The punk punched out again, and again, and again. But Ash kept dodging every hit.

“Grrr… Stupid kid! Fight like a man!” he yelled

The punk swung again, but Ash dodged it easily. The punk started growling and lashing out wildly. Ash just kept on moving back or sidestepping everyone, making the guy even madder. Even though he was fighting a possibly murderous street punk, Ash kept calm. He had learned that it is easier to win a fight when calm and cool instead of raging and berserk, and a good way to make the opponent enraged is to keep cool. It just irritates them. “Fine then!” Ash smiled

Before Punk A could react, Ash poked both of his eyes. Punk A screamed and held on to them, leaving a WIDE opening. Ash punched him on the stomach and kicked him really hard on the shins. Punk A backed up a few steps. Before he could recover from the hit those hits, Ash dashed and attacked him again. A swung his fist at the kid, but Ash only dodged it and landed another blow on the guy’s face. Ash punched him really hard, making Punk A fall over on his back. The punk got up, panting and gasping, and Ash kept on hitting, not even giving him a chance. Now he was struggling to move. His arms and stomach were in pain, his nose was broken and he had a black eye, meanwhile the kid was fresh and looked like he could go on for hours. This was impossible! He’s bigger, older and stronger than this kid! There’s no way he could be winning! Yet he was fighting with all his might and was unable to even land a hit.

Even though Ash himself wasn’t one of those super powerful, martial artists with all the techniques and such, he was still strong and tough and knew how to fight, and most importantly, he doesn’t let himself get hit. He landed another blow on Punk A. Punk A dropped to his knees, badly bruised and hurt, he struggled to stand up.

“Done already?” said Ash

“Who… are you?” Punk A asked, struggling to breathe.

“My name is Ash Ketchum…!” Ash yelled, running kicking him in the face. It was too much, and the punk could no longer fight. He fell face-flat to the ground. “…And don’t you forget it!”

Ash wiped some sweat of his forehead. To him, this was just another pokémon battle, where a combination of strategy, as well as strength is being used. In a battle, as well as calling out attacks, a pokémon trainer has to read the opponent’s moves and direct their pokémon to evade them. The only difference this time was he’s doing the evading and reacts to it himself, which is a whole lot easier than watching from a third person view and calling out what to do. He looked at Muk; Punk B has finally stopped struggling. Muk crawled off, and despite the little X’s for eyes, Punk B was still alive.

The guy walked over to him and smiled “Thank you for helping me right there. You managed to stop those jerks from robbing me!”

“It was nothing really. These losers are nothing but petty thugs, I’ve been fighting much tougher guys lately” Ash said

The guy sighed “Although you made a really big mistake, telling him your name”

“What?” Ash asked

“You see… this city is very unlucky. One reason is that there is a Team Rocket base North of the city, but that’s not the worst. There is a large and powerful mob of gangsters and punks, all led by one crime lord in this town. When you told them your name, you just made yourself their enemy, which is something you definitely don’t want. They’re probably gonna track you down, and definitely gang up on you, and won’t quit attacking on you until you go down. This gang is called the Missingno”

Just hearing the word Missingno was enough to make Ash shudder. He had heard so many stories about that evil demon pokémon. In the legends, it didn’t have a true form and came in sometimes strong, and sometimes weak. But its strength isn’t what bothered everyone, it was the evil deeds it has committed (the thing messes up your game! Can you think of anything more evil?)

“Ugh… Okay, so I’ve got another band of jerks, they call themselves the Missingno, who aren’t going to stop picking on me until I go down. Two questions. Are they anything like Team Rocket? I mean as strong, and by going down, do you mean just beating me in a battle, or until I’m dead?” Ash asked

The guy looked at the ground “Well, yes and no. They are, but they aren’t. The Team Rocket society only fights trainers in pokémon battles and steal their pokémon. The Missingno gang isn’t as organized, but definitely violent. Fortunately, not all of them have pokémon. The gangsters and punks with pokémon may not be as strong as Team Rocket’s, but that doesn’t matter. They use their pokémon and attack trainers, taking them on by surprise, attacking the person and without bothering to challenge them, and then steal their pokémon along with the money and possessions. They also go out and commit serious crimes. Hold-ups, ransoms, hostages and murder… The ones without pokémon would fund the mob by mugging defenceless people like me. And they’re probably going to take you by surprise, gang up on you, take your pokémon and then kill you” He looked at the two unconscious punks, “It was a good thing it was only two guys you were fighting, because even if you could beat that one up, and possibly both of them, normally they’d come in larger groups. The only things these Missingno jerks are good at is ganging up on people.”

“Well, if that’s the case, then maybe me and my friends should stay here for a while, beat the leader, send them to jail, and I won’t have any worries about being killed, for the time being”

The guy looked at him “The way you defeated those two, I really think you are a very strong trainer. But the Missingno isn’t something to be taken lightly. This city, Scarlet, has by far, the strongest police forces in the Johto and Kanto regions, we have four officer Jennies, an Arcanine, Growlithe and Spinarak fighting unit. And even they aren’t enough! These days, there are muggers showing up way more than usual. I think they’re trying to raise more money, and the Missingno gang pokémon trainers are busy training. Word on the streets say they’re preparing for something big. Still, if you wish to fight them, then there isn’t anything I can do to stop you. Well, I gotta go now…” He started walking away, and then stopped and turn around “By the way, my name’s Ebi”

Ash stood there and watched him walking away. This explains all the Rocket attacks, because they’re close to a base. He looked left and right, and saw no one was around. He walked over to the Punk B, reached into the pockets, and pulled out a large bundle of bills. Ash whistled at the huge wad of cash. He walked over to Punk A, reached for his wallet and took out as much cash as B.

“Hey kid! Get your grubby meat-hooks off my money!” Punk A turned his head and yelled at him, lying on the ground, still unable to move.

“Your money?” Ash waved the bills around, “You’ve been mugging defenceless people for this!”

“Not for that cash! I earned that money through good honest work!” He yelled, “We work long and hard, and for that, my boss pays us well!”

“Good honest work? Earned that money? Well, in that case…” Ash said, flipping through the bills and counting them. “You’ve earned that money by beating up a lot of weaker, innocent people just because some guy tells you to. I’m just teaching you a valuable lesson in life. Crime doesn’t pay, but it does to the guys who fight it! And since it’s yours and not stolen from civilians, to the victor go the spoils”

If it were robbed from innocent people, Ash would have taken it straight to an Officer Jenny for her to give it back to the rightful owners, but this cash didn’t belong to anyone innocent. Not to mention, it’s 100 legal for RPG heroes (pokémon’s an RPG don’t forget) to claim along with items won in the battle, the bad guy’s cash.

“This should cover for an exceptionally large meal.” Ash said, counting the money, and stepping on Punk A’s head as he walked. “About a dozen exceptionally large meals, not to mention some hyper potions, pester balls, and an assortment of evolution stones and maybe some power up items like poison barb or quick claw…” The guy started swearing loudly, and Ash cringed. Plugging his ears, he spoke up, Geez, man! Shut up already! MUK!”

“Muk!” Muk immediately crawled onto the swearing Punk A, smothering him completely and quieting things down. Ash took his fingers out of his ears.

“Thanks Muk. It would be unfair to the other guy if he were the only one who got the cruel and unusual treatment. Stay there until he stops struggling. Oh, and by the way, make sure he doesn’t swallow his tongue when he faints. I’m hittin’ the sushi bar. Meet me back at the pokémon center.”

Ash walked down the sidewalk whistling to himself and counting the money. Indistinct muffled swearing could still be heard. Ash was then stopped. A group of four punks were standing in his way. One of them had a two-by-four, another one was holding a chain, the third was wearing brass knuckles, and the last one was holding a pipe.

“Hey kid!” Brass knuckles punk spoke, “I saw just saw what you did to our friends!”

“You’re gonna pay for that!” yelled chain punk

“Beating up our friends wasn’t enough! You just had to rob them!” Pipe punk clenched the metal pipe.

Ash sweatdropped and spoke “Guys, come on! Chill out! There’s no need to fight about it!”

“Oh yes there is!” They all yelled at him, “You’re going down!”

Ash sighed. He wasn’t stupid enough to fight a group of guys older and bigger and armed by himself, well… yes he is, and he could probably win if he fought really dirty, but he wasn’t in the mood right now.

“Sure guys, fine, whatever, I’m really not in the mood to fight you, but if you want to fight, you can fight.” The muffled swearing in the background has stopped, “I guess that guy must be out by now so get them Muk!”

“MUK!” Muk yelled, jumping from around the corner and charging at the band of armed punks.

Ash continued walking right past them, whistling to himself. He knew that they’d ignore him now that there’s a bigger threat.

“Watch out!” The punk with the two-by-four yelled quickly as they readied themselves. They scattered to get out of the charging Muk’s way, but the one with the chain wasn’t so lucky. Muk rammed him straight into the wall.

Muk turned around and curled up with defence curl. His sludge body was swirling, mixing, and churning. For most pokémon, it would make them harder and tougher, but for Muk, it made him even slimier and watery. Because it made him slimier, it made him even more toxic, therefore increasing his attack power

“YEAAAH!!” The one with the pipe raised it over his head and was going to swing it. Muk turned around, and hit him with a sludge attack by swinging his extra slimy hand and slapped a load of sludge into the guy’s face, throwing him back, struggling on the floor trying to pull off the hardened rubbery sludge.

The punk with the two-by-four slammed it onto Muk’s back, but Muk didn’t even flinch. He didn’t feel much pain, if any at all. Muk turned around, and saw that the pipe punk managed to rip the sticky slime off his face. Muk opened his mouth, and let out an almighty belch, along with a lot of black gas. It was a poison gas attack! The three remaining punks backed off out of the toxic gas’s range. With all that poisonous breath around, it was like a smokescreen and they couldn’t enter. The smoke cleared, and Muk was no longer there.

“Careful guys!” Brass knuckles punk said, “He could be anywhere”

Muk was sticking to the side of the building. “Hmm?” The two-by-four punk looked in his direction. Immediately Muk leapt and pounced on him. Clamped his mouth over the top half of his body, so only his legs showed. Muk held him in his mouth, and spun around and around, faster and faster, and released the two-by-four punk, sending him flying into pipe punk and they both crashed into the wall and collapsed right on top of the chain punk. Muk turned around. The brass knuckles punk was the only one left.

He opened his mouth and yelled, “MUUUUUK!” and charged at the last one.

“HIYEAAH!” The brass knuckles punched straight into Muk’s face, going right through. “Ugh… I think I’m gonna puke” It felt like he was punching a big wet pile of cold, fresh manure, but at least manure smelled nicer and was definitely a lot cleaner than this. He pulled his arm out quickly and looked at it. “Gross!” It was covered in purple smelly slime. Muk’s arm shot out and grabbed the punk’s face with one hand, and the neck with the other. He then turned around hurled the last remaining punk over his head, straight into the brick wall, and landing on top of the others, all of them moaning and groaning in pain.

“MUUUK!” He yelled in victory, and began to charge at the punks, to finish them off.

(In the background, you hear crashing sounds, men screaming, and Muk laughing. Don’t worry; they’re alive after this, although not very much)

As Ash walked down the sidewalks, but he was really starting to regret leaving Muk back there, he was alone. The streets were all dark and empty, and Ash soon realized the situation he was in. There was a reason the streets were empty, because people were afraid of getting robbed. Just like Ebi back there, he was wide open for anyone to attack. He started to feel something he had not felt in a long time, fear. He started to walk faster, hoping to reach the center soon. He felt like someone was watching him, creeping up on him. But he was the future pokémon master of the world, and the legendary chosen one! He could not let fear take him over! Even without pokémon, he has to rely on his next best weapon, his instincts. He stopped walking, and took a deep breath.

“HAAA!” Ash yelled as he spun around, punching the person who was creeping up on him in the face. Ash looked at the guy fall over, it was another one!

“Owwww…” The gangster growled, getting up. The man was planning to attack from behind, and with a blow on the head, Ash would be down. This is exactly what Ebi told him would happen!

Ash was shaking a bit, but took up a fighting stance and prepared himself to fight. Unlike back there, with the punks, he was facing a gangster, alone. Against Punk A, that guy was unarmed and a loser, plus Muk was right behind him, but now there was no one to watch his back. Ash took a deep breath and readied himself as the gangster charged at him. Ash moved and dodged the punch, but barely. He shot his arm straight and punched the gangster straight in the face. When the gangster flinched from the blow, it left another opening for Ash to hit. He kicked the gangster hard on the stomach with his knee. When he bent over, Ash hit him with an uppercut, causing him to fall over on his back, and then Ash charged again ready to punch him, feeling more confident. The gangster punched out, and Ash moved quickly to the right, dodging it. Before Ash could do anything else, he took a full blow in the face.

“AHH!” Ash yelled out in pain from that hit. He stumbled back a few feet, tripped and hit the wall, and looked up just to see that gangster charging at him. Ash got up and crouched. “Take this!” He yelled as he dove under the gangster’s legs, grabbing them, twisting himself and tripping the gangster, causing him to fall crash into a few trashcans that were in his way.

Ash rubbed the side of his face on the spot where he had been punched. He saw the gangster trying to get up, but Ash wasn’t going to let him. He jumped onto the gangster’s back and kept stomping him hard, but he wasn’t counting on the gangster making a move.

“You- Stupid- JERK!” Ash kicked him, turned around and walked off

As he turned around, the gangster got up and pulled out a knife. Ash turned around, just in time to see the man charging at him.

“WA!” He barely dodged the knife. Before the guy could use it any more, Ash grabbed his arm and bit it, hard. The gangster yelled out in pain and dropped the weapon. With his fist, he slammed Ash on the head hard, again and again, until he was too dazed to keep a grip.

Ash groaned in pain and stumbled backwards. He could see the man turning around and pulled his arm back a bit, about to punch Ash. Ash and looked quickly to his right and grabbed the first thing he could reach. As the gangster struck forwards, Ash pulled up a trash can lid and blocked the hit.

“YEOWCH!” The gangster yelled out and pulled his aching fist back, “You’re not going to made is easy on me, are you?”

“What-does-it-look-like-you-MORON!” Ash grunted, blocking every hit.

Ash sucker punched gangster, hard “Don’t you have anything better to do than rob little boys at night?!” Ash swung the lid, and slammed it into the dazed gangster’s face. Ash put his fingers in the “V” peace sign, although the intent was the exact opposite. He poked both the gangster’s eyes.

“YEAARRGH!!” The gangster screamed, and dropped to his knees.

Ash grabbed the gangster’s hair, yanked down and slammed his face into the concrete sidewalk. The guy lay face down, totally unconscious this time. Ash panted and wiped sweat off of his forehead. He didn’t feel like eating anymore. He kicked the gangster’s unconscious body, “JERK!” He yelled, and ran to the pokémon center as fast as he can, he didn’t want to fight anymore. He rushed to safety in the center before any more trouble came.

Things have gone from bad, to worse. Not only is Team Rocket attacking in masses, Ash had gone out and made himself a new set of enemies! Where will it go from here? Find out next time on Pokémon: Ultimate Adventures!

(TO BE CONTINUED)