(AN: Ehh... Sorry for the late update. The first of the two-week mid-semester exams rolled out today, and I was busy preparing for it. I thought that I would have been able to publish yesterday, but reality hits hard. Today is Friday, and the exams will continue from Monday onwards till Thursday for the practical. The next week will be theoretical. I MIGHT be able to squeeze in some chapters for the next week, but not the next week. No promises. I also need to make an app in two days while also preparing for the exam. As an apology for not being able to release yesterday, I will try to publish two chapters today.)
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Turning their heads towards the direction of the screams, they saw two people and a Meowth stumble out of the bushes into the clearing.
Gaining their bearings near instantly, they pointed at each of the other groups.
Taking a pose, the people looked at Ash and Ronin and spoke to them.
"Well, well, well, look if it isn't the twerp."
"At long last, we have finally met again."
"Prepare for trouble."
"And make it dou..."
"You!"
"Hey! It's rude to interrupt your elders when they are speaking! Didn't your parents teach you any manners?"
"Did they also teach you how to crawl out of bushes like rejected stunt doubles from a trash-tier reality show?"
The three 'trash-tier stunt doubles' were left speechless and flustered. While they were scrambling to come up with a response, Ronin looked at Ash as if he were insulted.
"You know them?!"
"Unfortunately. They are the thieves I stopped when they were attacking the Viridian Pokémon Center to steal Pokémon."
"Wait, they are thieves too?!"
"You also know them?!"
"Yes..."
Team Rocket was now looking at them with smirks, and haughtily Jessie said, "See, even no names know us, we are that infam..."
"THEY ARE THE MASOCHISTS WHO HAVE BEEN DISTURBING THE BEEDRILL NESTS AROUND THE VIRIDIAN FOREST AND RUNNING AROUND LIKE HEADLESS PIDGEYS HURTING AND DISTURBING THE POKEMON EVERY SINGLE DAY FOR THE LAST WEEK!"
Team Rocket was left speechless, their mouths hanging open in response to that statement.
"H-hey, we were just staking out the Viridian Forest for that twerp!"
"You guys hurt your brains from the shock back then so bad that you turned into masochist stalkers?!"
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'Man. Ash, your luck with strangers is so bad that you were assaulted, nearly killed, and framed, got involved in an attempted murder, nearly got mugged, and you got masochistic thieves as stalkers before even the first week of your journey even finished.'
'...My luck and life sucks. No need to rub it in, Roshi.'
'It sure does, man. It sure does.'
'Now, why would they go around disturbing Bee...'
That thought derailed anything else while he concentrated back on the present scenario.
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Turning slowly towards Ronin, Ash asked with a hint of fear, "Did you just say they were always being followed by angry Beedrills?"
Hearing him, Ronin's face also paled at where he was going. Team Rocket's frantic look back in the direction they came from was all the proof they needed to know what was coming.
Meowth looked in one direction and exclaimed, "Hey, there's that Pikachu and another Pokémon!"
James looked in the direction and said, "An Eevee?! That's a rare Pokémon!'
Jessie took out a Poké ball and excitedly exclaimed, "A rare Pokémon on top of a powerful and rare Pikachu?! Now that's a haul!"
Meowth said, "And a ticket for our promotion, too! Attack!"
Team Rocket started running towards Yellow, Pikachu, and Eevee and called out their Ekans and Koffing.
Pikachu prepared himself for battle. Eevee did too, but was shaking a little in place. Yellow's eyes were wide open with the pupils shrunk. She was also breathing heavily while shaking a lot as if in fear.
"Ekans, Poison Sting!'
"Koffing, Smog!"
"Metapod, Electroweb! Eevee, Swift! Pikachu, Thunder Shock!"
Metapod used Electroweb on Team Rocket, which stopped them at their place and shocked them. Ash's command snapped Eevee out of his funk to ground himself to the place, and he used Swift to disperse the incoming Poison Sting. Pikachu used Thunder Shock to hit and ignite the poisonous inflammable gas of Koffing, igniting it and causing an explosion.
"Team Rocket's defeated agaiinnnn!"
Bling!
Team Rocket had been blasted off.
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After a few moments, they heard a buzzing sound from beyond the trees of the clearing, which continued to get louder.
Following the sound of the explosion, the Beedrill had arrived.
They numbered in dozens and were angrily searching for someone. They started flying towards the nearest group they could find. Yellow's group.
Ash called out Spearow while carrying Metapod in his arms, and Pidgeotto flew above him.
"Metapod, String Shot, Eevee, Swift, Pikachu, Thunder Wave, Pidgeotto, Gust, Spearow, Whirlwind now!"
Metpod's diffused String Shot combined with Pidgeotto's Gust and Spearow's Whirlwind spread evenly among the Beedrill, making them slower and having a hard time flying due to their wings being covered in a thin layer of String Shot, and the relatively strong winds generated by the combination of Gust and Whirlwind, which were pushing them back.
All of the above helped in Pikachu using Thunder Wave continuously to paralyze them for a few seconds, where they became victims of Eevee's Swift.
It was still not enough. There were too many Beedrill.
As Ash was not running in the direct path of the Beedrill, he reached Yellow first.
She was still shaking and generally out of it. Ash began to shake her out of whatever trance she had fallen into.
'She is showing signs of PTSD! Being attacked again must have made her relive the moments of being attacked!'
'But she was doing it from the moment she saw Team Rocket? Why would she... No.'
'They are criminals. I will not put it past them.'
During their internal talking, they did not notice that some of the Beedrill had taken off-course and followed their path. His Pokémon were too busy trying to fend off the majority.
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Hearing a buzz far closer than it should have been, Ash turned around and froze with shock as he came face-to-face with a few Beedrill who were going to hit him with their stingers.
The Stinger was barely two meters away from his face.
He heard his Pokémon stop their attacks and call out.
The Beedrill's buzzes grew louder as they called out their name.
He felt something jump out of his hand.
With the stinger being a meter away from his face, he saw Metapod leap in front of him with a determined and scared look in its eyes.
"METAP..."
CRACKKKK...