Goodbye, Raichu

Chapter Four -- The Circus

Ash and Misty arrived at the outskirts of Pallet Town. Pallet Park was not far away, and they could make out the huge red and white hemispherical dome of the Pokéball Circus. When they reached the circus, they saw several caravans, some areas where performers were practising, and an amusement area with rides and games.

As they walked through, a pleasant-looking lady in a glittering dress with Poké Balls around her waist approach them.

"May I help you?" she asked politely.

"Hi, my name's Ash. Mr Grey--I mean, Mr Monmaster--wanted to see my friend Misty here."

"Nice to meet you, Ash. You too, Misty. I'll see if I can find him for you. You can wait here and watch the practice if you like."

"Thanks," said Misty.

A few moments later, Mr Grey appeared, thanked the lady, who went to resume her work, and invited Ash and Misty over to his caravan.

"Ash, I'm very grateful for this opportunity. And, I believe your Misty, my dear. I can see Ash has good taste in friends."

"Why, thank you, Mr Grey," replied Misty. "Ash said that you were interested in introducing water Pokémon to your circus."

"Yes, there's always room for something new in the circus," replied Mr Grey. "We have to keep that element of novelty."

Ash looked at Pikachu. "Looks like they're going to talk shop, Pikachu."

Mr Grey turned to Ash and Pikachu. "I'm sorry this might be a bit boring for you two. I won't mind if you go and have a look around. Have a look at the practising performers, Ash. I bet you'll learn a thing or two about Pokémon training."

"Thanks, Mr Grey," Ash said politely. "C'mon Pikachu, let's have a look around." Ash realised that this was an opportunity to try and find something out. As soon as they were out of Mr Grey's earshot, Ash bent down and told Pikachu, "Have a look around and see if Raichu's here." A Pokémon snooping around, Ash thought, would be less conspicuous than a sixteen-year-old.

As he walked around, Ash saw the lady in the glittering dress. Three of her Poké Balls were in her hands now, and she started to juggle of them. As the balls were flying in the air, one by one they released a Butterfree. Each of the first two Butterfree floated in mid-air until the full trio had appeared. Then, as the lady continued to juggle, the Butterfree began to fly around in a circle, first in the same direction has the Poké Balls, then in the other direction. Finally, they performed an elegant pirouette, and, one by one, they re-entered their Poké Balls. It was an amazing spectacle that left Ash open-mouthed.

The lady turned to Ash and said, "I see you like my act. Come along to the circus and you'll see lots of fine acts like this one."

Ash nodded and walked on. Further on he saw a man with a Charmander and a Charmeleon. These lizard-like, fire-breathing Pokémon each had a flame on the end of its tail. The Charmeleon was the larger of the two, being the evolved a form of a Charmander. The man held a hoop in the air, while the Charmander was jumping through, first one way, and back again.

"That's good, Charm," Ash heard the man say to his Charmander. "Now, Flarey, it's your turn."

Flarey the Charmeleon stood on its back legs, primed itself, and opened its mouth. A short burst of flame issue from its mouth and formed a circle of fire in the air. The circle floated for a second or two, and then dissipated.

"That's great," encouraged the man. "OK, now both together."

Charm the Charmander crouched back, ready to jump. Flarey sent out another fire ring, but the last moment, Charm lost his nerve and failed to jump.

Further away, Ash noticed the poacher walk into a caravan. Ash really want to see how the training would proceed, but he had to put first things first. As inconspicuously as possible, he walked up to the man's caravan, and stopped, pretending to attend to his shoelace. The name "Brent" was written on the caravan door. He noticed the man's voice, sounding like one side of a conversation.

"...Yeah, I've got a Graveler, but there's two buyers still bidding for that one... No, the Vaporeon in the Poké Ball's for Viridian Gym--but make sure you make that look legal. You know how fussy they are. And I've got a buyer for the Raichu... She can be shipped tonight. Make arrangements for transport from Vermilion to the Orange Zoo... That's right, I'll give her to you at eleven after tonight's show. You know where."

The man hung up. Ash dashed around the corner of the caravan, and turned back pretending to call for Pikachu. As he saw the man already out of the caravan, Ash asked him, "Hey mister, have you seen my Pikachu?"

The man recognized Ash and eyed him suspiciously. "You can't even look after your own Pokémon and you criticize us. Get lost, kid."

Ash was genuinely offended, but gritted his teeth and controlled his tongue. He didn't want to risk further suspicion. He continued calling for Pikachu, who heard and ran up to him.

When he was far enough from the poacher, Ash asked Pikachu, "Any sign?"

Pikachu shook his head sadly. Ash looked worried. "How we going to find her?" he wondered anxiously to himself. By tomorrow morning, she'd probably been on her way to the Orange Islands. The poacher didn't even say where he was hiding her.

Ash and Pikachu walked solemnly back to the circus master's caravan. Misty and Mr Grey seemed to have finished their conversation.

"Misty, my dear, I can't thank you enough for your advice and all your kind offers of assistance. When we pass through Cerulean City, I must take the time to catch some of your performances."

"Mr Grey," said Ash, "those performers of yours were great."

"Ah, Ash, you're back. Thank you ever so much for this opportunity. Here, I'll give you both tickets to an evening session. We're here for another five days."

"Thanks," came the synchronous reply.

"Oh, if either of you have someone nice you'd like to bring along..."

Mr Grey noticed Misty's eyes flick involuntarily to Ash and back.

"Urr... you mean Pikachu?" asked Ash innocently. "Can he come along?"

Mr Grey looked at Misty understandlingly. "That's all right, Ash. Pokémon can come and watch for free."

"By the way, Mr Grey," ventured Ash, "where do you get all those great Pokémon from?"

"Well, Ash, some of us caught Pokémon in our younger days, just like you. We also buy them from reputable sources. Mr Brent is the man who knows the market better than I do, so I leave the dealings in his capable hands." He added jokingly, "Why, are you interested in selling us some?"

"Uh, no, just wondering that's all," Ash replied. "Anyway, we better get going."

After they said their good-byes and left the park, Ash and Misty stopped to talk.

"Did you find out anything?" asked Misty.

"Sure did, but it's not enought." Ash explained all he knew to Misty. "So we know he's going to hand Raichu over to someone after tonight's show, but we don't know where."

"I don't know what to do, Ash," admitted Misty. She gave a helpless sigh.

"We're going to have to hang around the circus until we see him leave, then follow him. It's the only way."

"Even then, Ash, how do we rescue Raichu?"

"Hmm..." Ash put his hand on his chin and thought hard. "We've got to take advantage of what we're good at, Misty. We use our Pokémon."

"It doesn't sound foolproof to me, Ash."

"Yeah, I know. But we've got to try. Raichu's depending on us. And so is Pikachu."

"I think we're going to have to get the police," spoke Misty firmly. "If they don't catch this guy, he'll only keep doing it. And these people are probably dangerous."

"Tell you what, Misty. We find out where Raichu is first, then we call the police. And if we don't find her, we call them anyway. Is that OK?"

"Well..." Misty looked resigned, and sighed again. There were times when Ash wouldn't listen to reason. At least they had reached a compromise. "OK, Ash."

"C'mon Misty, let's go to my place. I'm getting hungry."

At home, Ash called Viridian Pokémon Centre and asked the nurse to fax him a copy of the wanted poster. His excuse was that he could show it to others around Pallet Town. It wasn't a lie, well not exactly: he showed it to his other Pokémon.

Famished after a long day on the road, they had dinner. Then the two sat down and made their plans for the night.