Ball Master Chapter 20 (Patreon)

Pocket Monster parody: Patreon Reward

Chapter 19 

Chapter 20 Fossil Fools (Road to Ecruteak Arc)

Butch and Cassidy received a call from Giovanni. “Biff and Cassidy reporting sir!”

“It’s not Biff it’s Butch!” The greenette snapped.

“Quiet!” Giovanni snapped, making the two flinch. “I have an important mission for you two.”

“Yes sir!” The two bowed.

“Some grunts have heard some rumors I want you to investigate!” Giovanni gave them high priority missions usually, so these rumors must have had some credit to them.

“We won’t fail you sir!” Cassidy said.

“See that you don’t, I’m surprised at your failure to retrieve a single Girafarig.” He looked over some reports. “It says here you’ve obtained a new recruit, report.”

“He’s a skilled trainer of Fighting types. He’s agreed to assist Team Rocket in our goals, all he asks is for a Fighting type pokemon of his own.” They were putting him through his paces.

Anthony had gone through the ringer. Butch had his Primeape and Hitmontop fight him directly. Even Raticate got to use him as a punching bag. Anthony was able to teach them Bulk Up which gave them a boost to their ATK and DEF.

He had to prove himself as a grunt, so he went through conditioning which included running around while Houndour, Tentacruel, and Cloyster attacked him with moves.

“We have Drowzee keeping an eye on his mind, he’s loyal, but we’ll make sure he’s completely loyal to Team Rocket.” Butch said. After putting him through hell they did a mind scan to make sure he wasn’t planning revenge, he wasn’t. He just wanted to do the P-1 tournament so bad he was really willing to sell his soul to the devil for a chance to be a champion.

“Very well.” He pressed a button.

On the video screen showed a map with a red x. “I want the two of you to go to this area and find a particular lake.”

“What mon are we searching for?” Giovanni clicked a button.

“I’ve had some researchers look into the local legend, of a Lake that had been blessed by Suicune. In this lake one can find ancient water Pokemon.” A picture of Omanyte and Omastar appeared on the screen. “These Fossil Pokemon would be highly valuable to Team Rocket, not just to increase our numbers, but studying these rare monsters would advance our research.”

“Understood sir!” The call was about to end.

“Sir, may we have total authority over this mission?” Cassidy asked.

“Explain.” Giovanni laced his fingers together, looking curious.

“Just in case Jessie’s group crosses path with us, we don’t want them to interfere. If you give us total authority and they defy us, they’d be punished for interfering with Team Rocket.”

“Their group is busy with another mission. I’ve received word they’ve made progress. If it’ll set your minds at ease you may have authority, but know that I expect results.”

“Yes…” She bit her lip. ‘Those fools making progress on a mission?’

The call ended. “I can’t believe those losers are handling a secret mission for the boss and...getting results?!” She fumed.

“We can’t slack off or those idiots are gonna surpass us!”

“Not to worry, if those losers try to interfere they’ll face punishment from the boss. We can even get rid of them free and clear!”

“So that’s why you wanted authority on this mission.” It was a privilege usually only granted to Rocket Admin.

Cassidy hadn’t forgiven them for their interference in the Orange Islands. They had made a complaint against them to Giovanni, but the trio played dumb and they had no proof. The official report Jenny made didn’t mention them so Giovanni dismissed it.

“First the Breeding Center, then our Drowzee scheme, those fools are making a mockery of us!” Her hatred burned bright. “I’ll make them pay!” Somewhere Jessie sneezed.

Giovanni wasn’t too worried about the potential captures, just the confirmations of the rumors were enough. ‘Once I find them, Team Rocket will claim all Johto’s legendary pokemon!’

-x-

Professor Oak was visiting Johto. A scientist friend had contacted him about a discovery. So it took him a few days but he came out and since Ash was nearby he called him up.

They were on the road to Ecruteak City anyway. “Oh Ash who are your new friends.”

“Oh Professor, this is Kojiro and Musashi!” He introduced the duo. Meowth wasn’t pleased.

It was just a few days ago they had helped out some researchers with their Sudowoodo problem. Meowth wanted to amscray and be done with it. It was after Ash’s battle with James that it happened.

“Say Kojiro, Musashi, you two are heading to Ecruteak City right?”

“We are!” Jessie crossed her arms. “Ecruteak is where my next ribbon is!”

“And where my next gym battle is!” James said.

“How about we travel together?” There were gasps all around.

“Well uh…” James was for it but Jessie wasn’t sure and Meowth was fully against it.

“It’ll be fun and we can do some training on the way there!”

‘Training ehh?’ Jessie smirked. “Just a moment we need to have a meeting.” She grabbed James and stepped away from the group.

“You can’t be considering this!” Meowth hissed.

“I think it’d be a good idea.” James said.

“It’s more than a good idea!” She smirked.

“Have you two gone crazy!?”

“Not at all, those twerps beat us at every turn. If we get close to them as Musashi and Kojiro we can learn their secrets and use them to get the ribbons and gym badges!”

“That’s so sneaky!” Meowth approved.

“Plus if we hang with those guys we can get those tasty meals they are always having!”

James was happy, he wanted to spend more time with Ash. There was something changing in him, something good.

Though Meowth agreed to the plan at first, hanging with the twerps meant no talking. A small price to pay for the free meals. He tried to rationalize traveling with the twerps as getting stronger for the benefit of Team Rocket, but something was bugging him.

The group traveled together and they got a call from Professor Oak. It was a short detour that took them to a Fossil Dig Site. A man named Foster had built his research center nearby, and it was like a Study Park where people could come and learn about ancient pokemon.

Meowth saw some in the interaction area, but became disappointed when they were revealed to be animatronic. Even the fossils they discovered and “treasures” they found had more historical value than actual value. James was enchanted by a Helix fossil.

“Omanyte are a fascinating Pokemon, I’ve always wanted to study one.” Oak confesses, patting “Kojiro” on the shoulder.

“That’s why I called you!” Foster said. He led the group through the interaction area and there were some Omanyte buried in the sand.

“Such detailed robots!” Oak praised.

“Except…” The scientist tosses out some pokemon food and the group is shocked to see them eat it!

“They are real!” Ash, Oak, Brock, Misty, James, and Jessie gasped.

“Yep, the only real fossil pokemon here in fact.” There was some Omanyte and Omastar.

“They are so cute!” Misty gushed. “Hey look, this one is off a different color.” She pointed at one of the Omanyte and it was purple instead of blue.

Ash, James, and Jessie had met these living fossil pokemon in the past. They were much nicer than the ones they met last time. One Omanyte crawled up James’s body and rested on his shoulder.

“Where did you find them?” Samuel was stunned.

“Believe it or not they found us.” Foster explained that when they tapped a water source to build and use water for fossil cleaning. They showed up one day. Foster, not being a complete idiot stopped the pumps, and the Omanyte have been giving them water to use since.

“How do they do that?” The Omanyte on James’s shoulder cooed and wiggled his little tentacles. Above his head a cloud formed and it began to rain.

“We do collect the water from Rain Dance, but some even fill up our tanks with other water moves.”

“Astounding!” Oak said. “Where did they come from?”

“I have some theories about that. There’s rumors of a lake nearby, some believed it was blessed by the Legendary Suicune!”

“Suicune?” Ash questioned.

“One of the three great legendary beasts of Johto. You can find out more about them in Ecruteak!” Foster explained. “My theory is that this blessed lake has been preserved for so long its the perfect home for Omanyte and Omastar!”

‘If we can get these Omanyte back to the boss, we are sure to get a promotion.’ Meowth thought.

Foster has been keeping the discovery a secret, but knew Samuel’s love of Omanyte so called him up. The place was great and they had a bunch of assembled pokemon fossils already. One constructed piece was of a massive Kabutops. Foster didn’t have an explanation for why this specimen was so large, but he believed it was most likely an Apex predator and more powerful than regular Kabutops.

-x-

While the gang got to play and interact with the fossil pokemon. Cassidy and Butch were on the hunt for their source. It took them some time but they found the blessed lake, not only was the source super clean and clear, but the surrounding area was flush and healthy. The water itself tasted so pure and refreshing. “Looks like we found it.” Butch said.

“Good!” Without missing a beat, Cassidy chucked a bomb into the lake.

Boom!

“Omastar!” The sudden attack angered the pokemon inside. In their rage the skies darkened and it began to rain heavily.

“Heh, bring in the mech!”

Dark clouds spread across the sky going as far as to reach the dig site. The Omanyte and Omastar sensed danger. “Oma Oma Oma!” A bunch of them ran off, using Swift Swim to boost their speed.

“This looks bad!” Ash gasped.

“Omanyte wait!” James gasped as his new little buddy surged out.

“Oma Oma!” The shiny Omanyte bounced up and down.

“What’s wrong little guy?” It tugged at her hand.

“Guys I think it wants us to follow!” It bolted out and everyone gave chase Foster got everyone into his van and Omanyte* guided the way.

Butch and Cassidy were using their water pokemon to battle the Omanyte and Omastar. The weakened mons were thrown into cages. “I feel like those losers!”

“What do you expect, the boss had to bail us out, so he took it from our pay.” Their mech was also strong, knocking out the Omanyte that challenged it.

Eventually their Rain Dance faded and the monsters with swift swim lost their boost. “Let’s wrap this up Biff!”

“It’s Butch!” They called out their monsters and began to overwhelm the fossil pokemon.

When the reinforcements arrived they were quickly captured. The one that had liked James was the last one left. He tried to set up a Rain Dance but could only manage it for himself.

“What a little runt!”

“Stop right there!” Ash shouted as the group arrived in the van.

‘Oh crap its Cassidy and Botch/Bech!’ Jessie and James thought. Butch got the weirdest annoyance in the back of his mind.

‘I knew this was a bad idea!’ Meowth thought.

“It’s you pests again.” Cassidy was annoyed. “Why don’t you get lost while we fry this pest first.” She had Tentacruel use Poison Sting.

James saw the little Omanyte and rushed to protect it. He managed to grab him and dive out of the way. “I got you!” The Omanyte hugged him.

“Who the heck was that?” Butch gasped.

“Oma!” Omanyte* jumped and pointed.

“Look!” Misty gasped. “They’ve captured the Omanyte and Omastar!”

“Sure did kiddo, we’ll be taking these back to the boss.”

“Not gonna happen!” Ash said. Ketchum and Brock jumped out and went for their balls.

“Not so fast twerps!” Cassidy pushed a button and the mech fired an electric net. It zapped the two and brought them down.

“Pikachu run…” Ash got out.

“Pika!” He obeyed, zipping off in the direction Kojiro went.

“Don’t worry we have nets for all of you!” A few more clicks of the button and the nets were fired.

Omanyte* got Misty out of the way with an Aqua Jet. Jessie and Meowth were caught as were Oak and Foster. “Stop this, you can’t do this!”

“We can and we have!” They locked up Ash and Brock in one cage. Jessie and Meowth in another, and Samuel and Foster in  the last. Each of them were tied together and their monster balls were confiscated.

“Hey those are mine!” Jessie was pissed as they even took their empty monster balls.

“Save it, what’s mine is mine and what’s yours is mine to!” Cassidy said.

‘Oh Arceus please tell me I don’t sound full of myself like that.’

“You can’t take our Pokemon!” Ash struggled.

“We are Team Rocket, we can and we are. You can keep the Meowth, we have enough of those mangy things.”

‘Why you!’ Meowth had to bite his lip to keep himself from cursing. There was a string of colorful insults going off in his brain.

“Only two twerps left.” Butch said.

“Let’s forget about them and finish up.”

“We aren’t gonna catch them?”

“No, let’s just drain this lake and get out of here.” The mech slipped a pump into the water. “I’m sure the science wizs back at the base can study this water’s properties.” She smirked.

“Stop it!” Ash glared at them.

“Besides we got their monsters as a bonus.” Their balls were locked in the mech, with Raticate guarding them.

“This is bad!” James was panicking. ‘What am I gonna do, this is a win for Team Rocket but…’

“Oma…” Omanyte whimpered. James rubbed his shell.

“We’ll help them!”

“Pika pi!” Pikachu was excited to help.

Misty found them. “We need a plan.”

“There’s two of them and two of us, even odds but they have hostages.”

“I’ll take them on and try to hold them off, you sneak around and free the Omanyte and Omastar!” James suggested.

“You sure?”

“Not really but I’m gonna do my best!” He gave her a thumbs up. He was nervous, if he blew their cover it’d be over in more ways than one. ‘I’ll just have to make it happen and hope for a miracle.’

Pop! Sudowoodo popped out of his ball. He was backing him up and with a positive cheer from Pikachu and Omanyte the bluenette was ready. James nodded. “Let’s move!”

Meanwhile…

“This is bad Jessie…” Meowth whispered. “If the boss finds out about this he’ll have our heads.”

“Quiet, our covers are not blown yet. I still have an ace up my sleeve.” Jessie said.

“What ace?” Sure enough...Pop!

Wobbuffet came out of his ball. He saw the balls and gathered them up before sneaking out of the mech.

-x-

“Hold it right there!” James said.

“Who are you?” He tensed as Butch glared at him.

“I’m Kojiro and I’ll stop you and rescue my friends!”

“Look at this fool thinking he’s a champion of justice or some nonsense.” Cassidy and Butch laughed at him.

“Houndour show him what we do to heroes!” Houndour charged at James.

“Growlie I choose you!” Out came his own fire type and it was a clash of the puppers.

“Ugh Drowzee get that fool with Confusion!”

“Sudowoodo, use Sucker Punch!” In a flash Sudowoodo* charged in and hit Drowzee with a super effective move. He was heavily attack and special attack invested so his defenses were poor. Sudowoodo* knocked him out and did a little dance.

“Drowzee return!”

“I’ve never seen a Sudowoodo like that!” Butch gasped. “Cloyster attack it with Water Gun!”

“Tentacruel get that fake tree with Poison Sting!” The two water types ganged up on Sudowoodo*. He ran around dodging attacks. “He’s a slippery one!”

“Pika!” Pikachu’s cheeks sparked.

“Oh use Thunderbolt!” James ordered and Pikachu obeyed. He zapped Cloyster into Tentacruel and ended up zapping them both.

The Team Rocket duo had their guards up so Misty was waiting for an opening. It came with a surprise.

Wobbuffet came out of the mech and landed on Raticate. The normal type got pissed and chased after the Psychic type who ran to get the balls back to the trainers.

“What the heck?” Cassidy whipped around to see her Raticate chasing Wobbuffet. “What are you doing get that thing!?” She had it use Bulk up, the rat monster growing larger from the move’s effects. “Now Quick Attack!”

“Wobbuffet use Counter!” He got hit and dished back double the damage.

“No Raticate, you can’t lose to some stupid blob!”

“An opening!” James declared. “Omanyte use Water Gun, Growlie use Flame Wheel!”

Omanyte hit Houndour with a super effective water type attack, once it ended Growlie became a burning wheel of fire and slammed into Houndour. “Get those losers Primeape, Hitmontop use Bulk Up!” The two surged with fighting energy, their muscles swelling.

“Thanks Sudowoodo use Mimic!” He did and began to flex with energy gaining strength and bulk.

“Damn!” While Butch was focused on James, and Cassidy was now focused on Jessie. Misty and Omanyte* went to free  the captured mons.

Jessie called out Diva to work on breaking them out of the cages. “Butch I can use some help over here!” Her Raticate tried to hit Wobbuffet again only to be countered and he was launched back and slammed into the mech wrecking it.

“I got my hands full!” Growlie and Omanyte hit Primeape with Flamethrower and Hitmontop with Water Gun, with a surprise Feint Attack from Sudowoodo* that knocked Primeape out.

When he turned to yell at Cassidy, out of the corner of his eye he saw Misty. “Damn twerp!” He sent Hitmontop after her, but Omanyte protected her with a surprising attack.

Wink! Hearts flew out and circled him and he became charmed. “You’re a girl!” Misty gasped and the purple mon blushed.

With the balls and monsters returned and freed Cassidy and Butch were in some serious trouble. A barrage of Water Gun and Hydro Pump sent them blasting off. “Not again!”

Jessie flipped the switch returning the water the mech stole. “You two are fine trainers!” Oak praised.

“Oh well thank you!” The two blushed.

“Are you two sponsored by anybody?”

“No we aren’t…” Oak nodded.

“Let’s fix that. Here!” He gave the two Pokedex! “Any extra Pokemon you catch you can send to my lab and I’ll look after them for you. I can guarantee they’ll receive the best care.” As a bonus he gave them each six empty monster balls.

As the tensions cooled down Foster realized his discovery was bigger than he knew. “I’ll have to contact the Rangers and see if we can get this area marked as a monster preserve.”

It seems the Omastar and Omanyte had their own plans. Using dig they connected the lake to the lab, so the fossil mons who wanted to get to know humans could live there but still see their family, and the ones wanting to remain in nature would stay in the lake.

As for two little Omanyte they knew where they wanted to be, one with “Kojiro” and the other with Misty. The two gushed both really loving the Water and Rock type. “I got a special ball just for you!” She used one of her Lure Balls and caught it, with a single jiggle. “Welcome to the team Shelly!”

“Shelly?” Misty struck a pose before rubbing her cheek against her new monster.

James caught his in a regular Monster Ball. Jiggle...Jiggle...Jiggle Ping! “Ahh I caught an Omanyte!”

Foster and Oak approved since the two mons seemed attached to the two trainers. “Maybe over time I can offer an adoption center and find good homes for the Omanyte that want to know humans more.”

“That sounds like a wonderful idea.”

They called officer Jenny and had the mech taken away, and got the process going for getting the lake protected. Ash and the disguised Rockets left the area saying farewell to Oak.

The trio hung back.

“This is bad!” Meowth whispered. “If the boss finds out what we did he’ll have our heads.”

“Stop panicking Meowth, what we did was keep our cover and we got to stick it to those jerks I say its a win win!”

“I got a bad feeling!”

James was too busy gushing over his latest catches, he had a Shiny Sudowoodo and an adorable Omanyte.

-x-

Later that night Anthony came by and got a water sample. Giovanni wasn’t pleased that they failed to capture a single Pokemon. “However, the Sample you provided proved the lake was blessed by Suicune.” Anthony stood beside Butch and Cassidy. “Our plan can continue thanks to this, the loss of a few fossil fish is peanuts compared to what we are really after.”

As a reward, Giovanni gave Anthony a Pokemon of his very own. “Use it to bring Victory to Team Rocket!”

“Yes sir!”

To be continued...Castle Training

The gang comes across a castle turned medical facility. Ash thinks its a great time to try and rest up and recover. While the girls enjoy the spa treatments the guys get to experience other things