Touketsu Namida
part III - Team Rocket Strikes Back
Narrated by Brock; Fanfic written by Sami, aka Suicune3K

Pre-Fic Notes:
I still don’t own Pokémon or any of the characters in any way. However, the personality of Aisu is mine. Ah, the lazy bum that is me; it took me forever to get myself to re-write the last part. However, now that I am motivated, maybe the rest will go smoother.

. . .

   Even as a confused Aisu tried to calm Ryouki, its vicious snarls and restless tail-whipping continued.
   “Enough of this!” getting fairly irritated, I shouted blindly into the towering trees. “Come out, you cowards!”
   That was apparently good enough; Jessie then stepped out of the shadows with a piercing scowl, a bit dusty with pine needles but obviously steamed! She did seem uncannily swift that day, as she leapt from the tree branch to the ground alongside James and Meowth and uttered a frustrated sigh of her own.
   “Do you wish to repeat that?” Jessie approached us as she cracked her knuckles.
   “Well, it’s true!” I glowered, finally beginning to lose my temper. “Who else would go out of their way to avoid direct combat?”
   “That’s it!” she thrust at me, only to be held back by a frustrated James and Meowth.
“Your teeth are going back to Pewter City!”
   “Yeah, yeah.. As much as we all want to beat the living snot outta that skirt-chaser, we do have a job to do, remember?” Meowth pointed out with a fanged grin, as I wondered how the heck Jessie knew where I lived.
   “Who are you?!” Aisu then demanded, still somewhat weary from the chase.
   The trio, whom dropped what they were doing for a moment as they stared at her with a blank look, broke down into hysterical laughter.
   “‘Who’ are ‘we?!’” Meowth sneered. “Where have you been living, under a rock?!”
   “Heh heh..yeah, good one!” James brushed a tear of laughter from his eye. “Now, if you don’t mind, may we introduce ourselves?”
   My heart sank; I knew what was coming, and I was damn well sick of it.


   “Oh shut up already!” my temper got the best of me during the opening remarks of the infamous Team Rocket “motto.” Not surprisingly, they were pretty offended.
   “Don’t you ever interrupt the motto!” Jessie hissed, almost blood-red in the face.
   James huffed, crossing his arms and pouted like a schoolgirl.
“Yeah! That’s rude!”
   Aisu crouched to the ground in a sort-of backing away manner, even more puzzled and startled than ever. It must have been either her weakness or fear that got the better of her; I could see her almost tremble out of the corner of my eye.
   “All right..” I was now getting very annoyed at them. “What do you want?!”
   “Your lunch money,” Jessie gave me an unenthusastic look, switching to the usual sarcasm. “What do you think?! Your stupid Pokémon!”
   “But the lunch money might be a nice bonus..” Meowth then muttered to James with a smirk.
   Aisu flinched, straining to peer up at the cackling figures poised above her. Her gaze shifted into an odd glare, and forced herself to stand in front of Ryouki as she clutched her side in apparent pain.
   “..You..c-can’t...” she panted through gritted teeth, trying her best to keep upright. Those words had barely been uttered, however, when she then slumped to the ground and remained motionless.

   Somehow, I remained still.
   My urge to rush to Aisu was halted, as I found myself staring at her Vaporeon Ryouki. It was hissing fiercer than ever, bounding a conciderable distance in front of Aisu with teeth bared; its back hunched very threateningly and all fours spread into a wide pouncelike stance, claws and all.
   It took me a few moments to sink in the picture; then it finally hit me.
Her Vaporeon..protects her...
   Thinking slightly clearer, my rage quickly built upon itself. Before I knew it, I found myself foolishly charging at Jessie, James, and Meowth. I only had time to slow down, before Jessie forcefully knocked me to the ground with a single outstretched arm.
   “What?! I didn’t touch her!” she growled. “She probably had an aneurysm or something!”
   I must’ve been stunned for a moment, since I didn’t catch any more of the sneers that they muttered. All I remember was one of them pulling out what resembled a Pokéball, but of a bluish-gray color, and disappeared into the thick blue smog that burst from it. I could feel the smoke stinging my throat, making it harder and harder for me to breathe. Steadily my eyes clouded with the blurred image of blue and gray, my mind plunging into a swirling sea of patchy raven..


   “..Brock! Wake up!”
   The next thing I knew, Ash was shaking me back to consciousness. I could tell that he didn’t have a clue of what had happened, since he bore a puzzled and even frightened look.
   “Uhngh..” my head pounded; either Jessie really did some damage when she pushed me down, or that smog got to my head. I held a hand to my throbbing temple. “..Wha..?”
   Ash appeared more relieved, since I was awake. “Are you all right?”
   “..I guess,” I pulled myself into a sitting position, my head stinging worse than ever.
“How long was I out?”
   “I don’t know; we found you two about a half hour ago.”
   You two.. A feeling of dread filled my stomach.
   “Wait a minute..what about—”
   “She’s fine,” Misty spoke up about an arms’ length from my right. She had spread a coat over Aisu like a blanket; she was still somewhat passed out. “She probably just fainted, or exaustion.”
   The more I became reaccustomed to the sunlight, something rattling my mind came more into focus. There seemed to be something else missing..
   “..R-Ryouki...?” a quiet, shaking voice spoke in the midst of my swirling thoughts.
   Feeling as if I had just been hit by a bus, I instinctively reached for the belt where I kept the Pokéballs containing my Pokémon. All of the blood in my face seemed to drain as I realized with a jolt, that there was nothing there. They were gone.

. . .

   Evening fell under a relatively somber mood.
   I could hardly concentrate on my cooking, since I kept staring into the horizon. The oranges and violets sweeping over the sky like graceful watercolor brush strokes; some last bits of pure daylight becoming absorbed into the ebon rising to become the night’s sky. It seemed more beautiful than I generally noticed every other night.
   But then again, I was still reeling from smog inhalation.

   As Misty was curled up beneath a tree with her favorite novel, with Togepi at her side, Ash found some entertainment in playing Poker with Pikachu. I, on the other hand, was preparing another one of my stew specialties. And Aisu, I noticed with a cold feeling in my stomach, was continuing to stare into the sky without uttering a single word; she hadn’t said a thing since the incident.
   “Aisu,” I finally decided to say something. “Don’t worry about it! We’ll get your Pokémon back first thing tomorrow! Those morons can’t hide forever!”
   She finally turned to face me, misty-eyed. “I..hope so..”
   As she turned back into her transfixed stare, I got up and sat down next to her.
“You’re really attached to Ryouki, aren’t you?”
   She slowly nodded. “Ryouki..was the only one who kept me company..out here it is so lonely..and I’m too weak to defend myself...”
   Her words trailed off, even as she didn’t seem to be choking back any more tears. As she spoke, her voice was very quiet, and almost even monotonous. Though by now I should have been used to her general aloofness, I became baffled by how distant her mood was.
   “Um..I guess I should probably get back to making dinner,” I scuttled back to the pot and resumed stirring the steaming contents. “Maybe if you eat something, you’ll feel better.”
   Aisu lowered her head once more, eased a bit and nodded.
   By this time, a quarrel had erupted between Ash and Pikachu about who supposedly cheated who in their card game; this quickly turned into a full-fledged wrestling match, which soon enough had a very frustrated Misty trying to pry them apart as she loudly murmured curses. As I was used to this by now, I hardly payed attention; but I did catch a fleeting smirk upon Aisu’s tearstained face over the commotion.

. . .

   I awoke with the first few strands of blinding early morning sunlight in my eyes, the chirping of the various wild Pokémon beginning to grow louder as they awakened. The mist was particularly thick that morning; there were many more droplets glistening in the weak daylight, gleaming bright as if they were tiny crystals.
   I sat up, rubbed my eyes, and pulled the sleeping bag covers away. Still half-asleep, I reached for my watch and noticed that the blankets that I set out for Aisu to sleep in were in a disarray and abandoned. I didn’t realize that anything was out of order until I glanced down at the time. It was still fairly early in the morning, six-thirty, and it was even still significantly dark compared to normal waking hours.
   I felt my heart quicken when I felt that something wasn’t right. I lunged out of bed and shook Ash awake.
   “Aughh..what?!” obviously drowsy, he brushed some loose strands of messy black hair from his eyes, and squinted in the early daylight to look back up at me.
“Some of us are trying to sleep!”
   “Aisu’s gone!”
   Ash scowled, and pulled the sleeping bag’s covers over his face. “She’s probably out for a walk or something! You can find her yourself!”
   “I know she would have told me first!” I was getting quite peeved at his lack of even a remote feeling of suspicion.
   He didn’t say anything more, save for some muffled groans as he turned away. I was now irritated, groggily standing up to pull on my jeans. I only bothered to throw on my orange shirt, leaving my vest as I slipped on my shoes and started deeper into the forest. However, I had barely even taken a few steps when something twisted my stomach into a block of ice; my heart seemed to stop, a lump filling my throat.
   There was a distant, blood-curdling scream.