A Different Start

Chapter-28

Ash sighed as he walked out of the infirmary. Jerry had been a bit more helpful when it came to what the pokémon was. The engineer had described it as cat like in appearance and had a coin on its head. The only pokémon he could think of with that description is Meowth, but Meowth is white, not black. It could be that the poor cat is dirty, but when it comes to situations that he gets into it's not the case.

Ash decided to have Pikachu and Zoroark go with him down into the inner workings of the ship since they were both small, well his fox could change into something small, and Zoroark had a keen sense of smell that could help find the pokémon among the scent of the machinery. His other pokémon with the exception of a few would cause too much damage if they came down or were healing. Ash made sure to pack potions, bandages, food, water, and a few pokéballs in his bag before leaving the rest of his pokémon in his room with instructions not to make a mess. He also made sure to send Paul a message about what he was doing just in case Paul needed him for anything.

Zoroark, having disguised himself as a Rattata, rode on his right shoulder as Pikachu had claimed his left shoulder as his perch. The inner workings of the ship was tightly compact and hot because of all the machinery working to keep the ship going. The bottom of his shirt was already soaked in a few spots from how many times he's had to wipe his face to get rid of the sweat.

Ash walked up and down the rooms and hallways that Jerry had mentioned he had seen the creature in, but so far he had not seen the creature at all. He had however found what looked to be a nest. It had a few torn and dirty workers' uniforms and trash from what looked like food containers from the food places on deck. There were shed claws and whiskers as well as black fur all over the clothes. The only other objects he had seen was a small pile of coins that only confirmed what pokémon he was dealing with.

A deep growl accompanied by a hiss afterwards cut through the normal sounds of the machines working. Slowly turning around Ash was greeted to a peculiar looking Meowth. Its fur was completely black and that also included its nose and paw pads, but the koban coin adorning its head was still bright and gold. The Meowths' eyes also gleamed a bright amber as well as the creature stared at him with a scared emotion in its eyes.

Ash saw the Meowths' eyes hone in on his pokémon making the fur on the back of its neck stand along with the fur along its spine. Black claws flexed as the Meowth let out a warning snarl. He felt Pikachu tense up on his shoulder along with the disguised Zoroark, but Ash kept calm though. Him tensing up would give the Meowth the wrong message.

Before Ash could calm his own pokémon the Meowth leapt towards him making Pikachu smack the cat away with an Iron Tail while Zoroark changed his disguise to a Houndour. The disguised fox sent a Protect to surround his trainer while Pikachu engaged the Meowth. Zoroark crouched in front of Ash ready to defend his trainer in case the cat managed to get away from the mouse.

Ash simply watched as Pikachu darted in and out of range of those dark wicked claws as the electric type sent out charges of electricity to the cat in hopes to paralyze it. Pikachu knew better than to release a lot of electricity around machines after exploding a generator at a Center when another Pikachu startled him.

"Zoroark, release Protect and use Dark Pulse!" Ash ordered as he saw Pikachu get slashed badly by Meowths' claws. The disguised fox let out a bark and charged in between the cat and his pack mate as he released a Dark Pulse. Zoroark managed to push the cat back enough for their trainer to attend to his smaller pack mate.

Ash quickly applied a potion and bandages to Pikachu before telling the mouse to rest in his bag after grabbing one of the balls he had packed. "Move!" Ash yelled to Zoroark as he threw the red and white ball towards the cat. Thankfully the homing technology in the ball managed to smack the cat just perfectly on its shoulder. The teen watched silently as the ball jiggled once then twice before the ball broke revealing a pissed off cat.