POKÉMON IMAGINARY TALE: TEAM ROCKET CAPTURES PIKACHU!

By WileE2005

DISCLAIMER: Pokémon and all characters and trademarks are owned by Nintendo, Game Freak and Shopro. This is simply a work of fanfiction.

Welcome to an imaginary story that is not actually part of Ash's quest to become a Pokémon master! As our imaginary tale unfolds, we find Ash, Misty, Brock and Pikachu stopping at a small Poké Mart in a small town on their way to the next gym…

In the Poké Mart, Ash and Brock had just gathered up the potions, antidotes, Pokéballs and other supplies they needed for their journey. Misty approached them, holding her baby Togepi Pokémon and Pikachu by her side.

"Got everything we need?" Misty asked the two.

"Sure do," Ash said with a pleased grin on his face. "We've only gone two thirds of the way through the Johto region, and I am still hoping to catch some more new Pokémon I've never heard about!"

So, they went to the check-out counter to ring up their purchases. But they noticed something strange; the two cashiers looked strangely familiar. Despite wearing the usual Poké Mart cashier uniforms, one of them, a female, had shiny magenta hair tied in a bun and familiar blue eyes behind her spectacles. The other, a male, had a purple bob hairdo under his cap and equally familiar green eyes.

"Hi, what can we do for you?" the male said in a strangely familiar, almost campy-sounding voice.

"We'd like to purchase these," Ash said as he placed the items they were buying on the counter.

"Sure thing," the female said, grinning a familiar smile.

"Hmm," Misty thought as the female walked away towards the back shelves for a bit. "There's something not quite right about those shopkeepers."

"What do you mean, Misty?" Ash asked.

"They look and sound faintly familiar," Misty said with a suspicious look on their face.

"Yeah," Brock realized. "Like we met them before… more than once."

The female returned holding a greenish-yellow orb on a lanyard, announcing, "We noticed you have a Pikachu. You're in luck, because today we're having a special on light balls! They can double your Pikachu's special attacks!"

"Wow!" Ash exclaimed. But then he also turned skeptical and asked, "Are you sure?"

"Trust us," the male replied with a cheesy grin.

"Hmmm," Ash thought, now noticing the two cashiers did seem rather familiar.

"In fact," the female added, "we can put it on your Pikachu right now!"

And with that, the male reached out, now wearing rubber gloves, and grabbed Pikachu right off of Ash's shoulder!

"Hey, wait!" Ash exclaimed.

Misty then realized something. "That's it!" she said.

"Now I recognize them!" Brock added.

"Yeah!" Ash exclaimed. "They're Team Rocket! I should've known!"

Sure enough, they were right. Jessie and James had just finished stuffing Pikachu into some kind of container, and then turned to face our heroes and whipped off their cashier costumes to reveal their silvery Team Rocket uniforms, laughing with glee.

Jessie shook out her flowing magenta hair and said, "You found us out, so prepare for trouble!"

James evilly smiled and added, "So hear us out, and make it double!"

"To protect the world from devastation," Jessie began.

"To unite all peoples within our nation," James said.

"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket, blast off at the speed of light!" Jessie exclaimed as she and James struck a pose.

"Surrender now, or prepare to fight, fight, fight!" James finished.

Meowth popped out of the cash register and added, "Meowth! That's right!"

Then Jessie's Wobbuffet came out from behind the counter and exclaimed, "Wobbuffet!"

"We already know who you are," Ash pointed out.

"And we already knew it was you," Misty added.

"So why say that motto again?" Brock asked.

"Be quiet, twerps," Jessie retorted.

Over at another side of the shop, a male trainer opened a storage closet and found the real cashier, a young man with brown hair, bound and gagged. "Look," the trainer announced. "Here's the real cashier!"

"You can have him," James said.

"We don't need him," Jessie added.

"Because we got THIS!" Meowth proclaimed, holding up Pikachu inside some kind of glass-and-plastic container.

"PIKACHU!" Ash yelped.

Inside the container, Pikachu looked at Ash, and tried to shock his way out with a Thunderbolt attack. But it didn't work, and Meowth laughed as he stood there, unfazed.

"It's made of glass and plastic," James explained, "so it can't conduct electricity."

"Thus, allowing us to handle Pikachu safely without getting shocked!" Jessie added.

"And now it's time to am-scray!" Meowth said as he noticed the real cashier being untied. So he, Jessie and James rushed out the front door with Pikachu in a frenzy.

"Nooooo!" Ash cried out as he, Misty and Brock ran after the trio.

But Team Rocket anticipated this and were able to quickly leap into their Meowth hot-air balloon and fly away.

"Go, Onix!" Brock called out as he tossed the Pokéball containing Onix, who emerged from the ball with a roar. "Grab the balloon!" Brock commanded.

But Jessie let out a confident laugh as she pulled a cord, causing a jet engine placed right under the balloon to fire, accelerating their getaway! "We anticipated this, too," Jessie announced.

"So you can't catch up to us!" James added.

"Bye-bye, now!" Meowth mockingly said and waved as they took off with Pikachu.

"Now what'll we do?!" Ash cried.

"Simple," Brock said as he got out another Pokéball. "We can still have our flying Pokémon track the balloon, and we'll follow them." And with that, he let out his Crobat.

"Great idea," Ash said, immediately cheering up. "Go, Noctowl!" He let out his shiny Noctowl.

"Follow that balloon!" Ash, Misty and Brock commanded, and the two Pokémon flew off in the direction of the Meowth balloon, with Ash, Misty and Brock running below them.

…

A short while later, Jessie, James and Meowth had just made it to the temporary Team Rocket headquarters not too far from where the Poké Mart was, located in an abandoned converted warehouse. As the trio carried Pikachu, covered by a drape, over to their boss Giovanni's office, they all had happy grins.

"This is our lucky day!" Jessie said.

"The boss will be so happy he'll give us a big promotion!" James added.

"And I'll be top cat again!" Meowth exclaimed!

They arrived at Giovanni's office and buzzed the doorbell. The doors unlocked, and the Rocket trio entered with a flourish.

"What is it now?" Giovanni asked, sounding a little annoyed as he stroked his Persian Pokémon.

"Your long wait is over, boss," Jessie gushed.

"We finally caught you something," James said.

"Something that'll make you appreciate us even more!" Meowth added.

"This had better be good," Giovanni warned them.

And with that, Jessie and James whipped the drape off of Pikachu's container as they both sang "Ta-daaaaah!"

"What is this?" Giovanni asked them, not amused.

"Only the rarest Pikachu in the world!" Jessie announced.

"How could a Pikachu be rare?" Giovanni questioned them.

"It's exceptionally powerful," James replied.

"Yeah," Meowth added. "It's thwarted all of our previous attempts at trying to steal Pokémon, so we thought maybe you'd like it!" He opened Pikachu's container, and Jessie and James lifted him out to hand to Giovanni.

"It doesn't look very special to me," Giovanni said, sounding a bit more peeved. "It looks like a regular mundane Pikachu!"

Pikachu didn't like how Giovanni looked. He seemed very sinister. So, with a cry of "Pika… CHUUUUUUUUUUUU!" he electrocuted Giovanni, Jessie, James and Meowth.

After the shock finished, the four were soiled quite a bit from the electricity. "You see?" Jessie and James both asked Giovanni in slightly dazed voices.

But Giovanni didn't buy it. "YOU IDIOTS!" he shouted at them. "I expect some rare powerful Pokémon from you bumblers, and you bring me THIS?!"

"But boss, it's power…" Meowth tried to explain.

"WHAT power?!" Giovanni insisted. "It's no different from all the other Pikachu out there! I have no use for it!"

"But, boss…" Jessie and James both began.

"GET OUT OF MY OFFICE!" Giovanni interrupted.

And among hearing that, Pikachu made a run for it out of the office and down the hall.

Meowth started running after him, exclaiming "Quick, we can't let it get away!"

Jessie and James walked behind Meowth. "Let it go," James glumly said.

"We finally capture Pikachu, and we STILL fail," Jessie sadly added.

"It can go back to the twerps, for all we care," James moaned.

And as all three slumped down the corridor, they sadly said in unison, "Looks like Team Rocket's messing up again…"

Pikachu was able to open the doorway out of the hideout. He heard someone familiar and trusting approaching, and so he ran in the director of the sound. Sure enough, he saw Ash, Misty and Brock approaching, following Crobat and Noctowl towards the hideout. With an overjoyed "PIKA!" Pikachu began bounding towards his friends.

"Pikachu!" Ash happily exclaimed as he let Pikachu leap into his arms, and they hugged and laughed together.

Misty giggled and commented on the sight, "That's so sweet."

Brock grinned and said, "I kind of had a hunch Pikachu could escape from the clutches of Team Rocket. It's pretty capable and smart."

"Togi, togi, brrrrri!" Misty's Togepi trilled in agreement.

"Well, guys," Ash announced to Misty and Brock, "we'd better get back to the Mart and purchase those items."

As they walked off, Misty said to them, "I still don't know why Team Rocket wants Pikachu…"

"Yeah," Brock replied. "It's not like Pikachu is a very rare or powerful Pokémon or anything."

Ash and Pikachu just laughed among hearing that.

END