466: Two Degrees of Separation
Dodgy Synopsis
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470: Pikachu o Sagase! 202-ban Doro!
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But as Dawn did all this, Ash Ketchum was arriving in Sinnoh with Pikachu and Aipom, only to find out that Team Rocket had come with him. Grabbing Pikachu they tried to fly away in their Happy Buddha Face Meowth balloon, only for a disagreement to cause an explosion and send them blasting off again and Pikachu falling towards inevitable death in the forest far below. Now with Ash cut off from Pikachu, we're facing....
Dawn jumps off of her bike and rushes about in the fields playing with Piplup, before settling down on a rock and pondering what to do next? Piplup just stares at her so she decides that it's agreed upon then, it's time for them to catch their first Pokémon!
She spots a Buneary and checks it out with her Pokedex, learning a little about the fluffy long-eared rabbit-like Pokémon. She orders Piplup to use Bubble beam, delighted to watch it doing as she says - she's a REAL trainer and everything! But Buneary jumps aside, then dodges a Peck and knocks Piplup out before jumping onto Dawn's face and knocking her aside, leaving them both humiliated and dishonoured!
She tells Piplup to keep its chin up, saying everyone makes mistakes the first time around. She pops it into the basket of her bike and rides on through the forest telling it all about Pokémon contests as the bike seat pokes out between the legs exposed by her short skirt and creating some very disturbing imagery.... she looks more like a Bjorn than a Dawn!
She spots a Burmy hanging from the tree branches, a wormlike Pokémon surrounded with leaves it apparently uses as protection from the cold. Piplup jumps the gun and attacks it with a Bubble beam attack, knocking loose its leaves and dropping it to the ground. But as Burmy starts regathering leaves around itself, Dawn doesn't press the attack, instead watching the process enraptured as Piplup squeals at her to order a fresh attack dammit!
She grabs out her Pokeball and prepares to toss it, only to realise the Burmy is gone, and she stumbles to her knees in horror. This time it is Piplup that tries to comfort her, and she decides that she is allowed to make mistakes just like Piplup! The Pokémon doesn't seem too impressed with this description, but then a shuffling sound in the bushes gets both their attention and they turn and see Pikachu stumble warily out onto the road and collapse. Dawn checks it out with her Pokedex and learns it is an Electric Pokémon, and despite knowing that Piplup isn't the best match-up, she decides the hell with it and tells Piplup to use Bubble beam. It blasts at Pikachu which.... blasts a Thunderbolt directly through the attack and completely negates it! Piplup tries a Peck Attack, and even though Pikachu is screwed over from its fall, it blasts Piplup with Thunderbolt and sends it crashing back into Dawn's bike, frying it!
Pikachu sighs and scratches it head while Dawn twists around and snaps angrily at it for beating up her Piplup and frying her bike. She tosses a Pokeball at Pikachu which bounces off of its head, surrounds Pikachu in a red glow and..... dissipates. Dawn realises Pikachu belongs to someone else as it turns and runs for the bushes, only for Seviper and Dustox to appear to block its escape! Cacnea leaps out on Pikachu's side and they surround it as Meowth slides in and snaps at Dawn that they're his,"Pikachu Crew!"
Dawn is amazed, a talking Meowth!?! She checks out Meowth with her Pokedex as Jesse, James, Mime Jr and Wobbuffet jump into the scene, cracking a few puns at Dawn's expense... and promptly get thunderbolted by Pikachu! They're used to that kind of damage though, smiling through the pain and telling Dawn that Pikachu will only blast the fuck out of the "closest of friends". They send their Pokémon in at Pikachu, attacking the completely outnumbered little mouse... and then Piplup tries to even things up a bit by firing of a Bubble beam and knocking them aside. Dawn rushes to Pikachu's side, and James demands to know if she thinks she's their mum, and Dawn falls into the trap by asking who THEY are.
"Make it a double dose of the real scoop!"
"An evil as old as the galaxy."
"Sent here to fulfil our destiny."
"Wif Meowth dat's me!"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
"Jesse!"
"And James!"
"Meowths da name!"
"Wherever there is peace in the universe," opens Jesse.
"Team Rocket!" cries James.
"Is dere!" adds Meowth.
"To make everything worse!" they all finish together.
"Wobbbbbbbbbb-uffet!"
"Mime mime!"
Dawn has never heard of them and they pratfall in horror, then James asks if maybe she at least knows WHERE they are... and discovers they're in Sinnoh, which shocks James so much that he actually SWEARS!
"That's why she doesn't know a bloody thing about us, there's no Sinnoh Team Rocket branch!"
They figure they'll set up their own branch here (like they failed to do in Hoenn) while Dawn reiterates that she doesn't believe that Pikachu is theirs, asking why it isn't in its Pokeball. Meowth snaps that if she keeps quacking her gums will get cold, and Jesse says that stealing her Pokémon will shut her up, and sends Seviper in to Wrap up Piplup, which Bubble beams it in the face and jumps out to Dawn's side. Jesse snarls that this isn't too bad for a little kid, but she'll show her why Team Rocket is feared by lots of little kids all over the Kanto Region! All of their Pokémon leap in, only to be smacked by a mix of Bubble beam and Thunderbolt, and they're sent blasting off again!
Dawn, Piplup and Pikachu celebrate, but then Pikachu collapses and Dawn says they better find a Pokémon Centre and fast. They take it to Nurse Joy, who tells them that Pikachu is exhausted but should make a full recovery. Dawn heads out to call her mother, whose giant bouffant hairstyle is too large to fit into the viewscreen. She congratulates Dawn on her choice of Piplup, which poses proudly when it hears the news before Dawn warns it about getting a big head. The two start arguing (well, arguing on Dawn's behalf and squeaking on Piplup's), much to her mother's amusement. A short while and multiple pecks later, a battered and bruised Dawn (thanks to Piplup's pecking) calls up Rowan and tells him all about Pikachu and Team Rocket. The stern-looking man "hmmms" as she tells him she is hoping to find Pikachu's trainer, even if it means she'll miss the first Pokémon Contest... after all, there'll be plenty more! He tells her that is sound thinking, telling her it's the mark of a good trainer, which is surprisingly kind words coming from such a stern, stern man.
Meanwhile, Ash and Aipom wonder through the forest looking for Pikachu, and get found by an Officer Jenny who offers them a ride. Surprisingly she chides him for "doing her job for her", saying he should leave the police work to her and she'll take him to meet Professor Rowan.
Ash meets Rowan shortly after, the stern Professor glaring at Ash with the uncompromising look of The Old Testament God, ready to bring down the thunder.
But instead of destroying Ash where he stands for violating the laws of aging, he tells him that he has Aipom's Pokeball. Ash or Jenny must have mentioned Pikachu to him, because he's figured out that the Pikachu that Dawn found is Ash's, and tells the dim young boy about her and how she saved Pikachu. Contacting Nurse Joy, they learn that she has already headed out looking for Pikachu's trainer, and Ash rushes out with Aipom to find her.
Meanwhile, Team Rocket stagger through the forest moaning over getting their asses handed to them by a "twerp who could out-twerp the twerps" and then James spots..... his second Summer College! The one his family used to go to when the other needed cleaning!
They head through the gates and inside, James opening the curtains as Meowth, Wobbuffet and Mime Jr leap onto a couch and Jesse giggles over what a headquarters this place would make. James heads through a door into a child's room marked with clouds and rainbows painted on the wall. He squeals with delight when he spots a chest with his very first bottlecap collection inside, put together when he was only two! He opens it up and discovers inside a hidden Pokeball! Apparently it has been locked in there for years, the Pokémon inside trapped in a horrific limbo between life and death. James calls the Carnivine inside out, but can it still be sane after all these years of solitude? Well judge for yourself, Gentle Dodgers, judge for yourself!
It bites onto his head and grabs his chest, crying out in delight as Jesse leaps aside. Her stomach rumbles in protest (or she farts, one of the two) and James staggers with the Carnivine still gripping onto his head over to a nearby intercom and puts through a call to Jeeves, the Cook/Butler who apparently had been living inside of the summer cottage all alone as well, left inside like the cast off toy of a petulant child.
Shortly after they're gobbling down on a meal, but James soon loses his appetite when he learns Jeeves has informed the family of his presence. In fact his Mother and Father are coming immediately to meet with him, as well as.... Jessebelle! James is horrified, while Jesse chows down, grins and asks,"Jessebelle? Who?"
"Oy vey, James' bride to be," sighs Meowth, proving at least one member of the trio pays attention to what is going on in everyone else's lives. Jesse apparently had forgotten all about Jessebelle and her insane insistence of proper etiquette... as well as the fact they had identical facial features! But James could never forget, and imagines her rumbling towards him holding up her skirt so it doesn't drag in the mud, exposing pretty legs whose charms are completely lost on him before rearing over him and roaring demonically.
After lunch, Meowth and Wobbuffet play a Pokémon fighting game in front of a widescreen TV, watched by Mime Jr. But James can't relax, he moans that he can't remain here with Jessebelle on her way, much to their dismay since they were enjoying a brief life in the lap of luxury. But James says it'll be the end of them as a team if Jessebelle gets her claws into him, and so they agree to "return" to working for Team Rocket, having only been "out" for maybe 45 minutes now. Meowth puts through a call to Giovanni on the big screen television, and Jesse proclaims that they have conquered Hoenn so now they're going to do the same to Sinnoh. James mutters that Hoenn conquered them and Jesse angrily has to slap a headlock onto him and cover up his mouth. Giovanni growls at them that they'd best do better than their usual fare, then cuts them off. Team Rocket celebrate this semi-encouragement (well he didn't scream at them, that must mean he loves them, right!?!), while back in Kanto Giovanni turns about in his chair and strokes his Persian's head, asking someone to remind him exactly WHO those three actually are.
Meanwhile, Rowan has contacted Dawn and told her that Ash is on his way to find them. Dawn, Pikachu and Piplup head out to retrace their steps and meet up with him... which would be a lot easier if she still had her bike, causing Pikachu to scratch its head in embarrassment. While this is going on, Ash and Aipom stagger on up the road, only for a big truck to pull up ahead of him and the door to open, and out steps.... Brock! Yes he's reunited with Ash, and proudly points out the large-breasted Southern gal driving the truck, Claudina, declaring that the two of them are on the road to happiness to true love!
He tells Ash that their reunion will be short-lived, it was great meeting him again but he has his own road to travel now! And then Claudina takes a call from her boyfriend, ignoring the horrified Brock as she tells him she'll see him soon, then says a happy goodbye to Brock and thanks him for making her lunch and dinner! She drives on, leaving him alone with Ash on the side of the road... and that's when things get disturbing.
Brock raises his right arm up and clenches his first, showcasing once again what we all know, one of his arms is a lot more muscular than the other! It shakes and twists back and forth in a jacking motion as he grits his teeth, cries and proclaims,"All right Ash, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, and these two men are gonna do it with or without a good woman at their side!"
Ash - who as usual just doesn't get it - agrees happily and says this is what he likes to hear, and while a million yaoi fangirls perk up their ears, Brock asks what happened to Pikachu. They head on down the road through the forest as Ash explains how Team Rocket grabbed Pikachu and now some girl named Dawn has it, and says he is heading to the Pokémon Centre and Nurse Joy to find out where she is. Brock likes the idea of meeting up with Nurse Joy again, and we get to see another side of Brock, the way HE thinks he looks.
As they move on, Aipom bumps into a Starly and they start arguing angrily as Ash checks it out with his Pokedex. Brock suggests he capture it so they can look for Pikachu from above the trees, which is a hell of a way to start a relationship really but okay! Ash tells Aipom to help him catch it, and it smashes Starly with a Swift Attack and.... pisses it off! It uses Whirlwind back while Aipom tries to push through with a Focus Punch, only to get hit with a Quick Attack and then Wing Attack before Aipom comes back with a Focus Punch directly in Starly's belly, and Ash adds insult to injury by throwing a Pokeball directly into its face, knocking it silly and allowing him to capture it!
But he can't get too excited as he realises Pikachu isn't here to celebrate with him, and Brock has to remind him that he caught it to help him FIND Pikachu. He calls it back out, and he and Brock rush after it as it flies ahead, while elsewhere Dawn is running with Pikachu and Piplup the other way. But there's a third person too, a young man who looks maybe a little older than Ash (although every kid is either 5 or 10 in the Pokémon world!), standing on a hill with an Elekid watching Ash and Brock running. And Elekid stands next to him, and the kid smirks and makes reference to the Starly that Ash just caught - if it was THAT easy... then who would want to catch it anyway!
Ahhhh, Gentle Dodgers, meet the jerk, we have a feeling we'll be seeing A LOT more of him in the future!
| BEST QUOTES |
 "We've been after Pikachu for so long... we're trademarked!"
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