Reborn Into Pokemon With An Odd System - Volume 1 Chapter 22
After walking for a good while they came upon a giant building. Max pointed at it “I assume that’s the Pokémon Center that you were talking about.”
She gave a long sigh and nodded “Yeah that’s the one, that stupid kid better pay for a new bike or he is going to get it.”
Max nodded and thought “Right, all he’s gonna get is a long life friend, seriously how lucky can this dude be.”
They arrived in front of the building and entered the automated doors. They found Ash looking at a turned off-screen. Before he noticed, Misty was already stomping towards the spikey-haired kid, Max couldn’t help applaud her speed.
“There you are!!! How dare you do that to my bike that you took without asking. Even if I was angry I was still thinking about forgiving you but then I found my bike burned to the crisp.”
Ash turned around surprised “Oh you’re that girl from the River, wait what are you talking about.”
Misty pointed at the bike and Ash followed her finger, “Wait is that Max?”
Max nodded and thought “About time idiot”
The kid ran towards him, completely ignoring Misty “What are you doing here?”
Max lowered the bike and pointed at Misty and smiled “Well I was pulled into the water by a pokémon and she ended up saving me.”
When she heard him she suddenly began blushing but then she snapped and looked at Max and then at Ash “How do you two know each other?”
The spiky-haired kid was the first one to answer “Max and I are friends, we’ve known each other for a long time. Were both from Pallet Town…”
He quickly turned around and looked at Max “I actually just got off from a call from Professor Oak, he said that the 2 other trainers have already passed through Viridian City. Oh yeah almost forgot to ask, have you caught any pokémon?”
Max shook his head “Nope not yet, but that’s something I’m going to change soon, why do you ask?”
The kid began to avoid Max’s eyes and shook his head “No reason I was just curious���.
He could tell that the kid was relieved but he wondered why, then it hit him “Oh yeah I heard something about the professor making a bet with Gary about you, does the number of pokémon have anything to do with it?”
Ash began to turn red “Shut up Max mind your own business.”
“Don’t talk to him like that!”
Both of them turned around surprised to see that the person yelling was Misty. Ash was about to say something to her but Max got him in a headlock and covered his mouth “watch it, Ash, she saved my life, even if she took something precious from me I’m glad I met her so I won’t have you talking to her that way. Now since you took her bike without asking and this happened while it was in your possession you have to deal with it.”
He slowly let go of Ash, the kid nodded and lowered his head “I’m sorry, can you give me some time? It’s just that at the moment I have no way of paying you for it.”
As soon as he had finished his sentence Nurse Joy got out of the ‘operation’ room with Pikachu on a stretcher. Ash quickly ran towards her and asked “How is he”
The pink-haired Nurse looked at him and smiled “He should be fine now, all he needs for the moment is some rest.”
Ash nodded and began to pet the small yellow ball of fur. Max walked up to Nurse Joy and brought out his hand “Nice to meet you, Nurse Joy, I want to thank you for what you did for my friend’s partner.”
The Nurse shook her head and gave him the handshake that he initiated “There’s no need, it’s my job after all.”
Suddenly the alarm started ringing and the voice of officer Jenny started talking “Your attention please, Our Viridian city radar sensors have detected an aircraft belonging to a gang of Pokémon thieves. If you have a pokémon in your possession exercise extreme caution.”
Misty, Ash, and Nurse Joy began to look at each other frightened but Max, on the other hand, looked at towards the window above while thinking “Of course they have aerial sensors, but no cell phones.”
A few seconds after the alarm something crashed into the window, then in front of them the snake-like figure of Ekans and the balloon called Koffing appeared.”
It started to fill the pokémon Center with its black gas and once it dissipated the figures of Jessie, Meowth, and James appeared and started doing their whole routine. The thing was that Max wasn’t listening to any of that, what grabbed his attention was Jessie’s hair. While they were at the part “Truth and Love” he began walking forward but was stopped by Koffing and Ekans.
The Trio also stopped and looked at Max annoyed “Brat don’t you know that you shouldn’t interrupt someone while they are talking?”
He nodded and raised his hands high “I just want to ask something, may I come closer.” The three of them hesitated but in the end, Meowth nodded “This little squirt can’t do anything to us so why to be afraid, come here and ask your question, but make it snappy we have a lot of pokémon to steal.”
Max nodded and began walking forward and stopped right in front of Jessie “I know this is going to sound really weird but can I touch your hair. I’ve heard a lot of Team Rocket and I was wondering if I could join you.”
The three of them looked at each other and began laughing “Right, look kid flattery will get you nowhere, now stop lying and go back.”
Before she could stop him he grabbed her hair and began to shake it, losing it up. Surprisingly it didn’t get tangled and stayed straight he nodded and gave her a thumbs up “There you go now you’re even prettier than you were, even if it sounds impossible”. She was left with her mouth open and blushing, behind him Max could feel a stare that he thought would burn a hole right through him.
He walked back to Misty, Ash, and Nurse Joy and then turned around and asked: “Why are you guys here?”
Jessie broke out of her daze and looked at Max “Well if you really heard about us then you would know that we are here to steal some valuable pokémon.”
Misty pushed Max behind her and yelled at Jessie “Then you’re in the wrong place this is the pokémon center for weak and injured pokémon!”
James nodded “That’s true but with so many different pokémon we are bound to find some strong ones.”
Meowth walked forward and yawned “Anyway we wasted enough time, now its time to steal ourselves some pokémon.”
Koffing started shooting out its black gas and Ekans tried biting them, they used the gas as cover and followed Nurse Joy to a room filled with pokéballs.
She went to the computer and began to transport pokéballs to the pokémon center from Pewter City but then the lights and the computer were turned off.
Misty looked around “Looks like they did something to the generators.”
Nurse Joy nodded “It’s a good thing that we have some Pika Power”
Almost as if that was the cue around 9 Pikachus appeared and began running on all fours on a machine that seemed to be collecting power from them. The transportation process began to restart and Max couldn’t help but wonder once more “How the hell do these people have this form of transport but not cell phones.”
That’s when Koffing exploded the door and came in knocking the pokéballs. Max was about to reach for his pockets and bring out Zweilous but decided against it “Team Rocket might get annoying but they are useful training Partners for Ash and this is how they become interested in Pikachu.
They began to gather pokéballs and try to bring out the pokémon inside them but just like expected they all had weak pokémon. Misty grabbed her pokéball and brought out Goldeen, the confused expressions on Team Rocket were priceless. Max pushed Ash towards the other door “Get out of here and go get help.”
The spiky-haired kid looked at the three of them and hesitated. Max gave him a thumbs up and winked “Come on man you know better than anyone that with me here you don’t need to worry about us.”
The boy nodded and began running away with the stretcher that Pikachu was laying down in. When Team Rocket saw him run away they ran towards the direction that had gone to but Max pushed the shelf that contained the pokéballs over slowing them down but they got up and glared at him in anger but Jessie quickly got their attention back “Quick we have to catch that other kid before he finds that pesky policewoman.”
Meowth and James nodded and began following her.
Max let out a relieved sigh and thought “I really have to separate from them soon or I’m going to completely mess up the main storyline. If I do that then there will be certain events that won’t happen as they should.”
He had nothing against changing a few things but if he got carried away then Ash’s luck might just run out and finally get killed for good. Misty looked at Max with a worried expression “Don’t you think we should go and help Ash?”
He shook his head and began picking up the pokéballs “Nah a man that I met once said that, Team Rocket doesn’t kill. For now, we should focus on sending the pokéballs out of here.”
Both Nurse Joy and Misty nodded and started to gather the pokéballs and put them in the machine. Just as they finished a huge explosion was heard and they ran to see what was going on, Max couldn’t help but smile when he saw Ash hugging Pikachu.
They looked around at all the damage and then at Pikachu, Misty pointed at it and asked: “Did he do all this.”
Ash nodded and stood up tall and proud “Of course he did hehe.”
After a few minutes passed officer Jenny showed up “Freeze! You two are under arrest.”
Max and Misty looked at her confused and Nurse Joy helped explain what was going on. As both an apology and thanks she found them a place to sleep that had 3 beds, and they gladly accepted.
When it was around 1 in the morning Max got up and wrote a note “I went to finish some unfinished business. I’ll be back at around 6” and then he teleported next to the destroyed pokémon center. After a few seconds, he felt someone pinching his arm, when he turned around he found no one but then Lance made himself visible “It’s about time you show up brat, I leave you alone for a few hours and you go and destroy a building? You better have a good explanation hahaha.”
