"Arboooook!!!"
The purple-banded serpent exploded out of the ground, venomous fangs bared.
"Weez—iiiing!" The double-headed gas ball soared up, belching out paralyzing fumes.
Their target: Ash.
As members of an evil organization, they weren't going to hold back.
Why wouldn't they target the Trainer directly?
In a wild ambush, knocking out the Trainer was far more efficient than taking down all their Pokémon.
Once you grabbed the Trainer, their Pokémon would be… shall we say, easy to handle.
That was why Jessie and James favored Poison-types.
The attack came suddenly.
But it wasn't a problem.
Because Pikachu had already noticed.
"PIKA——CHU!!!"
Whether it was a mouse's instinctive reaction to snakes, or Pikachu's sense for malice being especially sharp—
The instant Arbok broke the surface, Pikachu's tiny body had already launched, turning into a golden bolt that split the air, beating them to the punch.
"Zzzla——KRA-BOOM!!!"
The raging lightning no longer formed thin whips—
It blew out into a full stormfront of electricity.
Fast fast fast.
Way too fast.
Several bowl-thick pillars of golden light thrashed like enraged dragons, smashing into the path of Arbok's lunge and the edge of Weezing's noxious cloud.
"Arbok!!" Arbok's whole body went rigid with paralysis mid-pounce, its angle thrown wildly off.
"Weezing!!" Weezing's poisonous gas ignited early, erupting in a blast.
The purple cloud bulged and then blew outward, engulfing Weezing and half the bushes they'd been hiding in.
In an instant, numbness and scorching heat washed over all three Rocket members.
Weezing's poison gas definitely was toxic—but it was also extremely flammable.
This was one of those things the games never let you do.
You could not set enemy gas on fire in a turn-based battle.
Jessie, James, and Meowth hadn't planned for this either—the original idea was just to use Weezing's smog as cover.
They had not expected Pikachu to be this fast.
Weren't Pikachu supposed to be as common as stray dogs by the roadside?
Team Rocket might have access to data from the Viridian Pokémon Center—
But they had no access to Pewter Gym's internal records.
Very few people knew yet just how outrageous Pikachu's performance had been that day.
"Now!" Brock's roar crashed down like an avalanche, cutting through Team Rocket's screams.
He reacted as fast as lightning. The moment Pikachu intercepted the ambush, a Poké Ball was already flying from his hand.
"Onix! Block them!"
"ROOOAR!!!"
The massive gray rock snake slammed into the ground in front of Ash like a moving mountain.
Its huge body cut off Team Rocket's greedy line of sight in an instant—and walled off the spreading poison gas.
This Onix was one Brock had raised himself, not the one registered as a Gym Pokémon.
It was important to note that Weezing didn't only vent Poison Gas—it could also produce Smog.
Poison Gas was simple: just toxic fumes. Smog was trickier, its composition depending on what the Poison-type had been consuming, producing a kind of personalized toxin mix.
Poison Gas would ignite easily.
Smog usually wouldn't.
That was the main difference.
"Poison Gas lights up like dry kindling," Brock muttered under his breath. "Smog… not so much."
"Ash!" he shouted.
"Ash!"
Only now did Ash fully snap out of it. His eyes went razor cold, his voice dropping with suppressed fury.
"Misty!"
"Leave it to me!" Misty's orange hair flared as she snapped a Poké Ball into the air.
"Goldeen—maximum range! Water Pulse!"
Splash. Splash.
Two Goldeen dropped into shallow puddles by the roadside, tails beating furiously.
"Wha—SHHH!!!"
The water they whipped up didn't form simple waves.
What was the optimal way to deal with toxic gas?
A professionally trained Water-type specialist had her own answer.
One Goldeen's Water Pulse churned the river water into supersaturated vapor.
When that vapor mixed with the airborne toxins, it condensed midair and fell as contaminated rain.
The other Goldeen took the straightforward route.
A muddy surge reared up as if an invisible hand had dragged it skyward, crashing in a heavy wall of water at Jessie, James, and Meowth—who were already coughing on their own gas, vision blocked by Onix's wall of stone.
"Waaahhh!"
"Help, nya!"
"This feels terrible—!!!"
Their classic Team Rocket screams were thoroughly swallowed by the wave.
In the wild torrent, you could just make out Jessie's red hair, James's blue, and Meowth's tail thrashing around helplessly.
Their faces had turned an ugly shade. They were suffering from their own poison.
Water-type attacks couldn't neutralize toxins—
But the sheer volume of water did dilute them.
Still, if Team Rocket had one thing going for them, it was toughness.
Staying alive was their greatest talent.
"You lot. State your names," Ash said.
His thoughts were complicated.
On one hand, he was angry.
On the other, there was a weird feeling like unlocking an achievement.
As Ash, getting targeted by the Team Rocket trio felt… bizarrely normal.
That didn't mean it wasn't annoying.
Should he just take them out?
But Jessie and James had complicated backgrounds. Killing them outright would cause trouble.
Wait.
Right.
There were bounties on these clowns.
They'd get paid every time he turned them in.
And with who they were, Giovanni would definitely bail them out—or at least make sure they didn't die.
So was this really trouble?
No.
This was walking prize money.
Once he flipped that mental switch, Ash felt a lot better.
"Cough, cough… Since you're sincerely asking!"
Jessie struggled upright in the filthy puddle, her red hair plastered wetly to her face.
Her skin was tinged an unhealthy color, but her eyes still burned with stubborn fire. She forced herself to puff out her chest.
…It really looked more like the wired, manic phase of poisoning.
Apparently, whatever toxins Weezing had brewed up weren't lethal-grade.
"We'll grace you with our answer!"
James hauled himself up next, trying to strike a suave pose—
And immediately choked on leftover water, hacking and dripping sludge, white uniform smeared with mud.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
Jessie threw an arm to the sky, fighting through waves of dizziness. Her gestures shook with every movement.
"To unite all peoples within our nation!"
James forced the line out, his voice bubbling oddly in his throat.
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
Jessie's pitch spiked, tinged with a kind of feverish intensity.
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
James attempted a charming smile, but his mouth twitched.
"Jessie!"
She forced herself ramrod straight. freeze-frame.jpg
"James!"
He wiped muddy water from his face. freeze-frame.jpg
"Team Rocket! Blast off at the speed of light!"
They shouted together, clearly short of breath.
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"
The unison line cracked halfway through.
"Meowth, that's right—nya!"
Meowth popped up from the water, weakly raising a paw. Its tail still dripped, green eyes trying and failing to widen properly, whites of its eyes tinted sickly blue.
Clap, clap, clap.
Ash started applauding.
Classic scene: achieved.
He couldn't help a tiny spark of excitement in his chest.
Especially when a system prompt chimed:
[Achievement unlocked: First Encounter with Team Rocket]
Brock and Misty watched him clap and felt utterly speechless.
Dude. This is Team Rocket.
Kanto's chronic headache.
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