Memoirs of a Pokemon Master CHAPTER 10 The psychic ranch hand
"They'll never sell." - Trey LaJaunie
We woke up the next morning and headed out towards the ranches. The sun was bright and the sky was clear. The wind was blowing comfortably. The recent badge battle had put me in a very good mood. There was an extra spring in my step as we followed the path. Soon we came upon a peddler selling pokemon goods.
"Can I interest you in some home made potions young man?" He asked me. "I also carry only top of the line pokeballs."
"Okay. Lets see what you got." I said.
The man reached into a large bag.
"Let's see." He said. He produced a pack of underwear, a 1/35 SOLDIER, "Where did that come from?" he asked as he continued to search the bag. He pulled out a large q-tip, a large set of tongs with hands on the end, "I got those on my trip to an island. Can't remember the name of it though." he said as he continued to search the bag. He pulled out a deck of cards and pocketed them with an evil look, he pulled out a kazoo which pikachu immediately picked up and started playing it, then the man finally pulled out some potions and some odd looking pokeballs.
"Uhh, what's with the cards?" Andrew asked.
"Oh those are pokemon playing cards. No one is supposed to know about them. I was able to make a deal with the people at a company called Nintendo." He said. He let Andrew see the cards. I took a look too.
"They'll never sell." I said.
"You never know young man." He said as he took the cards back. "These potions are super potions. They have twice the power of a normal potion."
"And what about the pokeballs?" I asked.
"They are great balls." He said. "They have a better catching rate than regular pokeballs."
"I'll take 'em." I said as I looked down at pikachu who was still playing the kazoo. "And the kazoo too."
I paid the man and we moved on. Pikachu played the kazoo as we walked. I could tell Andrew was getting annoyed by the noise but he didn't say anything. We walked on. The day pressed on and soon we were getting bored. Pikachu even stopped playing the kazoo. We eventually came across a small collection of trees. We sat down on a fallen log to rest. Pikachu instantly fell asleep as I looked up into the tree tops. Andrew sat there obviously enjoying the silence. I saw that there were apples in one of the trees so I picked a few. I gave one to pikachu and tossed one at Andrew. It hit him in the head. Andrew was startled but was thankful for the snack. I was about to announce that we would set out again when I heard a rustling in some bushes behind us. Then I heard some voices.
"Squirt?"
"Squirtlesquirt!"
"Squirtlesquirtle!"
Pikachu and I looked into the bushes and startled three unsuspecting squirtles.
"SQUIRRRRRTLE!" They all yelled as they scrambled to get away.
Pikachu saw this opportunity to get another pokemon and zapped one. It fell to the ground and quickly got up and turned to face pikachu.
"Squirtle!"
"Pika!"
"Squirtlesquirt!"
"Chu! Pikachu!"
"Squirtlesquirtsquirt!" With that the squirtle launched itself at pikachu head first. Pikachu reacted before I did and dodged away.
"Pikachu! Thunder bolt! Now!" I yelled.
"Pikaaaaaaachuuuuuuuu!" Pikachu yelled as a large bolt of electricity shot from his cheeks and slammed into the squirtle. The squirtle tumbled towards a tree and hit it dead on. But then the squirtle got up, much to the surprise to me and pikachu, and launched another attack. But this time it shot a stream of water at pikachu. Pikachu wasn't expecting this attack and was slow to respond. The water hit home and pikachu was sent back a ways. The squirtle then launched itself at pikachu head first again. But pikachu had recovered his bearings and was able to dodge the attack.
"Pikachu! Quick attack!" I yelled.
Within a second pikachu was landing quick hits all over the squirtle. Then when pikachu was going to make a second wave of attacks the squirtle pulled its head, arms, and legs into its shell and launched itself like a bowling ball at pikachu. Pikachu dodged away and shot a blast of electricity at the squirtle. Finally the squirtle lay still. I pulled out one of the great balls the peddler sold me and I threw it at the squirtle. The ball hit the squirtle and pulled the squirtle inside. The button turned red and the ball shook for a moment then lay still. I picked up the ball.
"Yeah! I caught a squirtle!" I yelled.
It was late in the afternoon when we arrived at a ranch. Pikachu had taken up playing the kazoo again. A young man riding a rapidash came up to us.
"Hey. Where are you headed?" He asked. The rapidash neighed.
"We're heading towards Lavender town." I said. Pikachu went up to the rapidash.
"My name is Jason Thayer. I'm a ranch hand here." He said. Pikachu got closer to the rapidash and the heat from the rapidash caused the kazoo to melt. Tears leapt into pikachu's eyes.
"You don't happen to know of a pokemon center around here do you?" I asked.
"Well, there is no pokemon center but I can ask the owner of the ranch if you can stay the night. We have a pokemon rejuvinator in the main building." He said.
"That would be great." I said.
"Great. It's always good whenever new folks come around these parts. I'll show you to the ranch." He said. Then pikachu let loose with a thunder shock on Jason and the rapidash.
"Pikachu! What on earth possessed you to do that?" I asked. Then I noticed the melted kazoo. "Oh. It seems your rapidash melted the kazoo I bought him. Sorry about that, he usually doesn't do that unless provoked. I guess he thought the rapidash..."
"That's okay." Jason said. "Pokemon do that sometimes. Come on."
He led us to the main building of the ranch. It took a little convincing but we were allowed to stay in the ranch as Jason's guests. After dinner we found Jason outside with his rapidash and a ponyta. I had never seen such pokemon so I pulled out dexter.
"Ponyta. The fire horse pokemon. Its hooves are 10 times harder than diamonds. It can trample anything flat in little time. Rapidash. The evolved form of ponyta. Also the fire horse pokemon. Very competitive, this pokemon will chase anything that moves fast in hopes of racing it." Dexter said.
"Wow a pokedex. You guys are really pokemon trainers huh?" Jason said.
"Yeah. How about you?" I asked.
"I raise ponyta's and rapidash's." He said, then he looked around and whispered, "But you know what I really like to do? I also train psychic pokemon."
"Psychic pokemon?" I asked.
"Yeah. Check this out." He said and he tossed a pokeball on the ground. A sleeping abra appeared. I had never seen abra before so I pulled out dexter.
"Abra. The psi pokemon. Using its ability to read minds, it will identify impending danger and teleport to safety." Dexter said.
"Wow." I said.
"Yeah, but the only attack that abra knows is teleport. I can't win any battles by running away all the time." Jason said as he called abra back.
We went back into the house to get some sleep. But it was short lived. I heard some noise coming from outside our room and pikachu and I went to investigate. Jason and the owners seemed to be panicking about something.
"Hey. What's going on?" I asked.
"Someone has stolen all the rapidash!" Jason said.
"Well what are you waiting for?" I asked. "Lets go get them! I have an idea of who did it."
Jason and I got into a jeep and followed the tracks left by the rapidash. We followed the trail until we found all the rapidash running after something. We caught up to them and Jason leaned out the window and began to call for his rapidash. The rapidash slowed to the same pace as the jeep.
"Take the wheel!" Jason said.
"What?" I said. "I can't even drive yet!"
"Just take it!" He said. Then he climbed out of the jeep and onto the rapidash. He began to catch up with the entire group of rapidash. He then herded them around and back to the ranch. I saw in the distance as the rapidash went away another jeep. I could see a red letter R on it. I knew what I had to do.
"Hold on pikachu!' I said as I put the jeep into overdrive. I floored it and the jeep went forward. Apparently team rocket didn't notice that the rapidash were missing. I got closer to them and then they noticed me. They tried to get away but I kept following. I got closer and closer until I was right on their tail.
"I saw this on tv once pikachu! Hold on!" I yelled. I floored it and hit the back bumper of team rockets jeep. I used the jeep to push their jeep at a weird angle. They couldn't keep their balance so their jeep began to roll. I stopped as they began to roll. The rolled until they hit a tree. Pikachu jumped up to the hood of our jeep and shot a blast of electricity at their jeep. The jeep exploded and Lilly and Kirby were launched into the air. As they flew I heard a familiar cry.
"Looks like team rockets blasting off again!" They cried as they flew.
Jason rode up to us on his rapidash.
"Who was that?" He asked.
"That was team rocket. They're a nasty bunch." I said.
We made our way back to the ranch. Jason told us that he would be able to take us to Lavender, then to Celadon, and as far as Fuchsia city. He said we would head to Lavender in the morning. So we slept. I slept extremely well knowing that I had busted up team rocket once again.