Vanish

Chapter 10

Ash tried to concentrate on breathing the next morning. He hadn't gotten one wink of sleep the last night, which helped him develop one hell of a headache. And then there were still all those cuts... And he just learned that Team Rocket was going to take his other pokémon to their boss today... Once they got back from wherever they went...

I can't let them take the others away... And they're too weak to break out on their own. And I don't think I can get out of these ropes myself... I've tried all last night and it didn't work... Unless... Ash's mind was struck with an idea.

"Hey, Grovyle..." Ash pushed his back up to Grovyle's cage. "Do...do you think you can use a weak Leaf Blade attack to cut through my ropes?"

"Vyle...gro...," Grovyle whispered, not looking so well. Nonetheless, the leaf on his right arm glowed and turned into a small blade, and he carefully used it to slice through Ash's ropes like butter.

"Thanks, buddy," Ash said, beginning to work on the ropes around his ankles. "I'll get you out, and then we can go to the pokémon center to get you guys better." Sliding the ropes off his ankles, he grabbed the keys to the cages from the table just ten feet away from him, ignoring his body's protests.

Five minutes later, Ash and his pokémon walked out of Team Rocket's base. He would have returned his pokémon to their pokéballs, but he couldn't find his backpack that held the pokéballs inside the base, so he assumed that the bag had fallen off outside.

He might have taken about ten steps onto the grass before he heard a snap of a twig behind him.

"Ah ha!" James exclaimed loudly, jumping behind Ash and pulling a thin but strong rope around his neck, making Ash gasp for breath. "Jessie told me that you'd pull something like this!" He looked to the pokémon. "You better get back inside, or I'll kill you twerp..." And to demonstrate, James pulled the string so hard, Ash grabbed for it on reflex and tried to get it off.

No such luck. But James did loosen up as the pokémon seemed to begin to obey.

You can't make my pokémon do anything..., Ash thought angrily, jabbing James with his elbow as hard as he could.

James yelped, and for a second, the string pulled tight again, and Ash almost blacked out.

After jabbing more forcefully, Ash managed to squirm free of James's grip. "This is for all you've done!" And Ash punched James right in the jaw, driving the Team Rocket member into a tree and into unconsciousness.

Grabbing his backpack, Ash took the pokéballs out, gave his pokémon a look that said, 'don't worry', and returned them.

Ash was about one or two miles from the nearest town when he stopped in his tracks, realizing that he still looked...pretty bad.

Looking down to the blood stained shreds that used to be his shirt, Ash decided he better do something about that before he went to the pokémon center. It was his pokémon who needed help, not him, and he was sure that if Nurse Joy saw him like this...well, he was sure that it wouldn't help him in any way.

Still walking pretty fast, Ash suddenly pulled off his backpack and held it close to his chest. There...now no one will ever notice... Yeah, now I better step on it. And with that, he began to walk a little faster.

Twenty minutes later, he handed over his pokéballs to Nurse Joy. "And um...I'd like a room, please."

"Okay." Nurse Joy smiled at him. "For how long?"

"Just for a day, please." Inwardly, Ash was pleased that Nurse Joy didn't seem to notice that he was hiding his chest, or the cuts on his leg-but she wouldn't be able to see those from behind her desk.