The Hidden Powers Within or Team Rocket Johto

The Hidden Powers Within

or

Team Rocket Johto
by Talisha Hibdon

and Tiffany Garcia

Author note: This is an ongoing fic me and my friend FallenAngelZoey had started a while ago and it's being written slowly but surely. This is an Alternate Universe fanfiction. You have been warned. It takes place in the space of time between the fight with Ash and Gary (which Gary won! ^_^) and when Ash-tachi goes to Johto. The characters are not mine but are Nintendo's and Gamefreak or whatever moron thought Satoshi would be a good hero for the story ¬.¬. Don't sue. All you'll get from us are arcade tokens. As you can tell, me and my friend are huge Team Rocket fans (James is a babe!) so all Ash lovers may wanna rethink reading this. Only Melin and some other original characters that'll show up later belong to us, the authors. Please feel free to review!

P.S. Sorry this took so long to update. I've been really syked about the Lord of the Rings coming out and it's kind of taken away from writing on our pokemon fic. ISN'T IT THE COOLEST MOVIE EVER?!?! *blush* Ahem... Anyway, the pokemon language is shown in * marks while regular speech is shown in the usual " marks. Thanks for your patience!

Record 08:

Skill

"Oi, James. Dat was some good grub!"

It was getting late the next evening and we find our trio of so called "villains" sitting around the table of the cabin. Meowth had just finished his food and sighed happily.

"Meowth's right," Jessie poped another delicious bite of homecooking between her red lips. "You're a great cook!" James blushed a little and grew a big grin.

"Thanks Jess..."

"And I'M a great hunter!" Meowth gloated and stood up, putting a paw to his ear, "Now let's here it. Once more."

Jessie rolled her eyes but James looked undaunted as they recited in union for the hundredth time in 24 hours, "Thank you, Meowth, for the great tasting Pigeot you caught for us to eat."

Meowth smiled. "T'ank you," he bowed elegantly, "T'ank you very much."

"I'd still like to know how you pulled it off..." Jessie muttered, finishing her plate.

"Sorry! Dat's a trade secret," Meowth stuck his invisable nose into the air and crossed his arms.

James pulled out their sleeping bags and started to getting things ready for bed. "Well I have no complaints. Keep doing whatever you're doing and bring on the meat!"

"Uh-uh, Jimmy! Next time you can catch your own dinner! I ain't your servant! You ate the most of that bird anyway!"

"What's the matter?" Jessie teased, hopping behind a changing screen . "The Mighty Hunter Meowth doesn't think he can catch anymore big game? Shall he only be able to catch rattata from now on?"

"You ain't got clue! My abilities are beyond your simple mind's copasity to understand!"

"Careful, furball, you ego's dripping all over our nice wooden floor!"

"Well at least I have something to be egotisical about!"

"What's amazing is that your swelled head can hold such a puny brain!"

"MEOWTH!"

"RRAAAAARRR!!"

"SHUT UP!!"

Jessie came out from behind the changing screen in her pj's and with Meowth gaped at the jammie clad James, who glared at both of them while holding a pillow under his arm. "Sleep time! You quiet now!" With a frusterated grunt he flopped onto his sleeping bag and pulled it over him, ignoring the incredulous looks from his team mates. They weren't used to hearing such outbursts from the blue haired man.

Meowth suddenly remembered about Melin as Jessie crawled into her sleeping bag, pink jammies and all. "Ok, you two," she began as she turned onto her stomach, "Yestureday we crossed the borders of Kanto into Johto. Tomorrow we should be receiving our new assignment from the Boss."

"Right," James nodded the afirmative. "Johto is the start of new beginning for Team Rocket!"

Jessie turned on her side and stuck out her arm and raised it high. "For power!"

Meowth struck up his paw. "For glory!"

"For food!"

Meowth and Jessie looked at James and turned their backs to him to fain sleep.

"What?" James blinked, "A man's gotta eat!"

Soon the two humans were fast asleep. The moon was already rising high in the summer sky and a warm breeze blew in from the slightly opened window. Meowth peeked out of one eye to make sure all was well before getting up and sneaking their pokeballs out of their bags. He checked the slumbering couple again before dashing out the door into the forest.

Onward he pulnged deep into the trees, trying hard to ignore the gleams of eyes in the darkness of the branches above and the bushes on either side. This wood wasn't at all a pleasent place to get lost in after dark. Unknown creatures seemed to delight in staring at you until your fur was standing on end and your whiskers twitched uneasily, just as Meowth's fur and whiskers were then doing. A couple times he even managed to stumble over the occasional protruding root, narled and thick, and the cat pokemon began to wonder if the trees themselves were not shifting their roots just to trip him up and make him loose his way.

All at once a howl echoed across the forest, causing a chill to run up Meowth's spin. An answering howl came a second later and much closer this time. It was too close for Meowth's liking and he started to run about like a blind mouse, clutching the pokeballs to his chest. "I knew I shouldn'ta listened to that crazy albino lady. I'm gonna die out here because I was stupid enough to trust her!"

Now it's a pretty well known fact that if you are in a very thick wood and you begin to panic and run about without giving heed to where you are going, you are bound to get lost. That was Meowth's destiny. He tried to find any sign of a path that might lead him back to the main road, becuase at least then he'd be able to find his way back to the cabin. But he found neither path nor road nor cabin. Only more trees and eyes shining in the dark. And there was definetely no sign of Melin.

"Damn, where the heck is she?" Meowth hissed under his breath after searching in vain for a sign of firelight or a glimpse of white hair. The moon had climbed higher in the sky, from what he could see of it through the roof of the wood, and he wondered how much time had passed from when he had left his warm little bed in the Team Rocket hidout cabin. Suddenly his foot caught on another root and this time he did fall, flat on his furry face, the pokeballs of Team Rocket scattering and rolling away like marbles.

"Grrrr," he spat as he gathered them back up into his arms. "She could have at least told me where she was planing on training us! Stupid women."

"Who's stupid?" came a soft whisper near his ear, the warm breath tickling the wisps of downy fur in them. Meowth shreiked, flinging all the pokeballs into the air in his shock and causing many of the gleaming eyes to dissapear in fright of the sudden outburst. Whirling around and clutching his heart he beheld Melin, smiling wickedly, hands folded behind her back and eyes twinkling merrily.

He gaped at the women as she explained, "I was worried when you were late for your training, so I came to look for you."

At last Meowth found his voice again. "Geez, lady! Do you want to train me or scare me to death?!" His hair was still standing up stiffly on his back.

Melin giggled. "I've found a large open space where everyone will have plenty of room for training. Growlie is waiting for us there." Without making the slightest sound on the ground, she walked past him and out among the trees. Meowth gathered the pokeballs and followed with a grumble. They walked in akward silence for a moment before Melin spoke again. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you where to find me. I had forgotten how eaily a body could get lost in this place. I guess it was pretty stupid of me."

"You're damn right!" Meowth slashed through some bushes and stumbled into a clearing. There was her little campfire, Growlie curled up next to it and borrowing it's warmth. The feline greeted him and tossed the balls to the ground as he too flopped down next to the dog pokemon, glad for the comfort of it's warm light and even more glad to be away from the gleaming eyes of the wood. The pokeballs wiggled as they fell and Arbok, Weezing, Lickitung and Victreebell popped out.

*What's going on?* Weezing bobbed up and down in the air, looking curiously about them at their surroundings.

"Oh SURE! You come out NOW after the spooky part is over!" Meowth sniffed, supremely annoyed at his fortune.

*And I was sleeping so well...* Victreebell yawned. *I was dreaming about that ridiculous song Master was singing earlier. "The cow jumped over the moon" indeed!*

*Hey, it's you again,* Arbok noticed the girl.

*So are we here to train or what?* Lickitung demanded. Melin smirked.

"Well, yes we are," she started. "We need to work on bringing your attack up as well as your speed too. But first things first. I should like to know what are the skills you already know, and the best way to see that is to have a battle."

*Battle? Now?* Weezing asked, not really feeling like battling.

Meowth spoke as Victreebel opened his mouth wide in a yawn. "Well? Who's fightin' first then?"

"Ummm..." Her eyes fell on Victreebel. "Victreebel why don't you go first."

Victreebel stopped mid yawn and got a sweatdrop while Lickitung snickered at his expression. *Err...*

"Well?" the white hair female questioned his hesitation.

Victreebel was annoyed already at having his enjoyable dream interupted for training, and being chosen to fight first only succeeded in increasing his annoyance further. He hopped over to her and stared into her violet eyes. *So will I be attacking you then? Hmm? Human?* he replied suddenly looking hungry for human.

Melin looked unabashed and didn't break her gaze from Vic's as she detached without looking a violet and white pokeball which seemed to shine with the fire light . "Bronx GO!" she called, tossing it into the air. The pokeball opened and suddenly the blue stone canine stood between her and the plant pokemon, facing his opponant with a steady eye. The moonlight shone off the pokemon's back.

Victreebel blinked at the dog pokemon and took notice of it's huge stone paws with long claws bared. *What is that?* All the other pokemon looked at the strange creature with suspicion and wide eyes as it shook it's body, the large spikes of rock around his neck clicking against each other and a rumble from his chest causing the ground beneath him to tremble slightly.

Growlie spoke up at length. *It's one of my - er, I mean of the Growlithe and Arcanine's ancestors. They were supposed to be extinct millions of years ago.*

Meowth got a sweatdrop. "Great... more prehistoric pokemon...."

*And I thought we had left these kinds behind when we escaped all those Kabutops and Omnistars.* Weezing sighed.

Victreebel was still staring, deep in thought when suddenly he realized something. *Wait a minute! If that's an ancestor of the Growlithes and Arcanines, doesn't that mean that this thing is a fire type? You can't expect me to fight a fire type!*

Melin got a little evil grin. "Bronx, use agility followed by a tackle attack now!" The well trained pokemon dog leapt into immediate action and rushed forward at a surprising speed, aiming to take the plant pokemon down as speedily as possible for his mistress. Victreebel squealed as he rushed to dodge using TM Double Team James had taught him only a few weeks ago.

"Good! Now this battle is underway. Use any attacks you like and try to take my pokemon down, before he takes you down first," the trainer continued to smirk. This was going to be good.

Victreebel started using Growth in the meantime, but still looked too frightened to attack a fire type yet. *Y-you stay away, you dumb mutt!*

"You have to be ready for any type of pokemon. You never know what pokemon the opponent will pull out," she called to the grass pokemon. "Bronx, ember now!"

"Rrreeeeee!!!!!" he screamed in fright, trying to avoid the embers that flew at him and unconsciously unleashing a stun spore.

Bronx shook off the attack, appearing to be uneffected by the grass attack, and paused for a second. "Bronx Defense Curl!" came the command and the result was Bronx curling up into a tight blue ball of rock, spikes sticking out in differant parts. Victreebel used Growth again before unleashing a cloud of poison powder at the pokemon. It fell on the boulder and Bronx coughed, uncurling as the could of powder came toward him.

"Tackle now!" Melin shouted and the dog pokemon leapt to it's feet and rammed into a startled Victreebell, knocking him to the ground was a cry, but then it fell to it's knees and coughed. The poison was beginning to take effect.

Victreebel blinked at it as he slowly picked himself up from the dirt. *Um.. it worked?* When he realzed it was indeed working, he started laughing arrogantly and with some relief.

"Don't get cocky now! This battle is far from over," Melin smirked before reaching into a pounch that hung from her side and withdrawing a berry. "Bronx, catch!" She tossed it towards it and it leapt up to snatch it from mid air in it's mouth. After eating it quickly, it's state improved conciderabley and it no longer coughed. This was because the berry she had given him was a poisoncure berry, of course, and it cured him almost immediately.

Victreebel stopped mid laugh, mouth still wide open.

"Now Flamethrower!!"

*No fair!* he shrieked and cringed away from the flames.

"You have to be ready for anything," the pale trainer repeated with a knowing grin. Then all of a sudden, as if he was at least taking her advice, Victreebel was gone, leaving only a little doll behind.

"Chaaaaaa..."Arbok choked out as Lickitung gulped.

*Looks like he left a substitute...* the pink pokemon murmered.

*Never saw him do that before...* Weezing responded.

Interesting TM's James has chosen to give his pokemon, Melin thought. She watched as Bronx moved in to attack with some embers, but his attack bounced off the doll harmlessly. On top of that, a sudden downfall of a black, thick substance fell from out of nowhere and covered the stone dog from head to foot in a Toxic liquid. The pokemon reeled on it's heels, feeling the poison of the attack nawing into him once again.

He's doing a lot better than I thought, but I can do better still. "This is getting old, Vic! I got a million more poisoncure-" When Melin reached into her pocket for another berry, her face went blank. "Heh heh, ran out of poisoncure berries..." she laughed akwardly. All the remaining pokemon fell to the ground on their faces. "I knew I should have bought some more at the last town," she itched her head.

Arbok was the first to recover. *Oi! You can't use more than one item during a match! That's not fair!*

Melin turned her attention back to the fight as all rest of the pokemon reseated themselves. "Fine," she huffed, feeling slightly miffed. "I don't need any berries. Earthquake NOW!" Bronx lifted himself up on his hind leg and stomped on the ground with both paws. HARD. The ground quaked, the trees trembled, and the air shook as the earth cracked like a pie crust. The substitute was demolished into the depths of the earth and Victreebel instantly reappeared again.

*Uuhhhh... heh heh!* He waved a little. *Hi?* In an instant he was frantically whipping out his vines in mad vine whip. Bronx simply dodged them, managing to ignoring the burning of the poison in it's veins.

Melin's eyes sparked. Victory was within reach. "Now to end this! Magma hurl!"

Victreebel squealed and prepared to endure Bronx's final strike. *WAAAH! I'M GONNA DIE!*

To be further documented...