Chapter 281: The Ash-centric Theory and The Law of the Lever
"Hey, you dare to drink coffee right in front of us? You're not taking Team Rocket seriously at all, meow!"
Meowth, standing on the High Platform, was instantly enraged. He whipped out a button and slammed it hard. A large net dropped from mid-air, firmly ensnaring Ash's Mr. Mime. The more it struggled, the tighter the net constricted, bundling it up on the spot like a rice dumpling.
"Ahahaha! We, Team Rocket, will be taking this Mr. Mime, meow! Bye-bye!!"
Meowth pressed another button. A large hole promptly tore open in the top of the tent, and a hot air balloon shaped like Meowth's head appeared. The trio leaped up, landing in the balloon's basket. The hot air balloon immediately began to rise, dragging Ash's Mr. Mime below it. In just a few seconds, they, along with the hot air balloon, had completely disappeared high into the sky.
Everyone: "?"
Was this also part of the performance?
Brock, Misty, and Todd Snap also watched with dumbfounded expressions. Usually, whenever Team Rocket appeared to cause trouble, Ash was the first one to rush in. This time, Ash himself had been taken, and for a moment, they were at a loss.
It was as if the usual cry of, "Senior Brother, Master has been captured by a demon!" had suddenly turned into, "Master, Senior Brother has been captured by a demon."
Well, the Master was helpless in that situation. All he could do was stand there and chant sutras, praying that the demon would be alright.
"Oh well, it doesn't matter."
Soon, the three of them smiled relaxedly.
It wasn't that they were being fake friends; there was genuinely nothing to worry about. Never mind that Team Rocket had no real use for Ash. Even if they did try to do something to him, the one getting hurt in the end certainly wouldn't be Ash.
At their signal, the troupe leader, Ah Jin, announced that it was all part of the show and guided the audience to leave in an orderly manner. Everything went off without a hitch.
"Just now... was that Ash?"
Once all the spectators had left and the staff had begun to pack up, a middle-aged woman approached and asked Brock and his companions.
This woman was in her early thirties, with a graceful and beautiful appearance. Her long, brown hair was tied up and fell down her back, and she wore the clothes of a homemaker.
"You're... Ash's mother, aren't you?"
Brock and Misty had seen her a few times over the phone and quickly recognized the woman as Ash's mother, Delia.
The circus was set up just outside Pallet Town, so it naturally attracted many lively Pallet Town locals. Ash was supposed to have returned home yesterday, but Delia had waited all night without seeing him. Today, she decided to take a walk, happened upon the circus just as it was starting, and decided to put her son out of her mind for a bit to come and watch.
While the Mr. Mime's performance had been splendid, it gave Delia a strange, metaphysical feeling, as if she were watching...
...her silly son?
The group quickly explained what had happened, and the troupe leader, Ah Jin, also rushed to apologize to Delia. Unexpectedly, she simply smiled and waved her hand dismissively.
"It's fine, it doesn't matter."
As the saying goes, no one knows a son better than his mother. Delia knew perfectly well that Ash wouldn't be in any real trouble.
"Since you're all here in Pallet Town, please come over to our house and rest. You've always taken such good care of Ash. Brock, Misty, let me be a good host to you today."
Delia invited them with a smile, and Brock and Misty readily accepted. Todd Snap and Ah Jin also got to tag along to Pallet Town.
As for Ash, he was temporarily forgotten by everyone...
Somewhere on the outskirts of Pallet Town, Team Rocket's hot air balloon was parked beside a small wooden house.
Inside the wooden house, two humans and one cat were celebrating with champagne, while a Mr. Mime was bound to the wall.
"Today is a total victory for Team Rocket!"
"It feels so good not to see that little twerp!"
"I've finally discovered a pattern, meow!"
Jessie and James immediately looked at Meowth curiously.
Meowth took a delicate sip of champagne, an expression of high society on his face.
"I've discovered that no matter what we do, as long as that twerp isn't here, we can succeed. But the moment the twerp shows up, we fail!"
The words had barely left his mouth when a clap of thunder echoed from the sky, as if Meowth had just revealed the ultimate rule of this world.
"Hmm?"
"I think I'm starting to understand...?"
Jessie and James lowered their heads to ponder this, and it seemed to be true.
Before they ran into the twerp, they were the supervillains of Team Rocket, a name that struck fear even in Officer Jenny. But ever since their first encounter with him in Viridian City, they had been reduced to nothing more than comic relief.
No matter what they tried, as long as they made their move before the twerp showed up, or after he was gone, they could succeed.
But the moment they clashed with the twerp head-on, they were doomed to fail.
Expressed as an inequality, it was: World < Team Rocket < Ash.
"Whoa... It's like we've discovered the ultimate secret of this world."
The trio's eyes widened, all of them shocked and overjoyed at their own hypothesis.
But this was quickly followed by an immense sense of dread, as if the world itself held a deep-seated malice toward them...
"To hell with this world, meow."
"..."
In Ash's Soul Space, Red was also stunned by the Team Rocket trio's words and couldn't help but fall silent.
He was faintly beginning to sense the perverse sense of humor of this world's willpower. There were two rules he knew of so far, both of them ironclad truths that could be written into a textbook.
First, this world revolves around Ash.
This is known as "The Ash-centric Theory".
Second, give Team Rocket a lever and they could move the Earth, but Ash, and only Ash, could break that lever.
This is known as "Team Rocket's Law of the Lever".
*Snap*
Just as Red, in the Soul Space, was contemplating how the third rule might be a 'Third Law of Gravity' that prevented Pokémon with large bodies from being able to fly, the sound of ropes snapping echoed from the real world.
The figure in the Mr. Mime costume had already forcefully broken free from the ropes. Right in front of the Team Rocket trio, he took off the costume's head, revealing the face of a Super Pallet Towner.
"Idiot Team Rocket, you've got the wrong person! Take a look at who I am!"
"The twerp!?"
The trio was horrified. They had just been talking about how successful their mission was. They never imagined that the moment the twerp appeared, their prize would vanish, instantly dooming their plan to failure.
*Hiss...*
The three of them gasped in unison, thinking to themselves that the fundamental rules of the universe were indeed terrifying. How could it come true so quickly?
"Hmph, idiot Team Rocket!"
Ash flipped the trio off and dashed out of the wooden house. It took the three of them a few seconds to react before they scrambled to chase after him.
But they saw that Ash had already taken control of their hot air balloon and was rising into mid-air.
"Hey, twerp, you little-!"
"He's stealing our hot air balloon!!"
"You're the thief, meow!!"
From the rising hot air balloon, Ash promptly gave them the middle finger again and shouted back at the top of his lungs:
"You're the real thieves! Stealing from a thief is no big deal!"
Soon, Ash, piloting the Meowth hot air balloon, disappeared over the horizon without a trace.
The whole scene was strikingly reminiscent of Team Rocket's own getaways.
The trio: "..."
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(end of chapter)
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