Ace Sanchez presents:
		
~ Evil Is The Spice Of Life ~

Pokemon and its associated characters are copyright by Nintendo,
Gamefreak, Creatures Inc, and 4Kids Productions.
			 
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Cerulean City sure was quiet at this time of night, Misty thought, as
she blew hot air into her cupped hands. She watched as the white steam 
escaped through her fingers and dissipated into the night air. Quite cold
as well, she added, shrugging her shoulders within her long-coat, trying
to get warm.

She tapped her left foot impatiently on the sidewalk and took another
quick look at the front of the video rental store. AJ was still inside
deciding what tape to get. She wished he would hurry. It was about twelve
midnight, so there weren't many other people around and the place looked
kind of spooky. All of the other stores had closed a long time ago. It
looked like this place was the only one around this part of town that was
open twenty-four hours.

She fingered Starmie's poke ball in her coat pocket. It was her only
pokemon that she had with her at the moment. But Starmie was enough
protection, she thought, if there were any hoodlums about. Which wasn't
really that likely come to think of it. Cerulean had never been that much
of a rough place.

But she still cursed AJ's sudden decision to go rent a tape. Especially
since it was the middle of the night. She was tired, since they had just
come back from their engagement party. But AJ had wanted to do a little
more celebrating when they got home. 

Maybe I should wait in the car, she thought. She looked at her car
parked on the street in front of her. It was a sleek, black convertible
that AJ had bought for her eighteenth birthday this year. Being Pokemon
Master certainly paid well. She touched her gold engagement ring with its
huge diamond on her finger. What a catch, her sisters had said. She shook
her head, feeling her long ponytail of red hair swish around on her back.

She shivered again. Yeah, I'll just wait in the car, she decided, walking
towrds the vehicle, her high heels making clicking noises on the cement
walkway. She opened the door with a clack and sat down in the passenger
seat before slamming it shut. Then she slid over to the driver's side so 
she could turn the engine on and listen to some music.

There was the faint sound of police sirens in the distance, so Misty
turned the volume higher. She wished AJ would hurry.

"Hey babe!" a masculine voice finally said over the sound of the music.
"I'm done."

Misty turned around to find her tall, green-haired fiance walking out of
the store holding a plastic bag full of tapes in one hand and a bottle of
champagne in the other. She thought he looked very handsome in that suit,
distinguished and mature.

"Finally," she groaned, tossing her red hair over her shoulder. She
reached over to the car radio and turned the music down.

AJ walked up the car and dumped the bag and bottle in the back, behind
the front seats. "C'mon let's blow this joint," he said, about to walk
around to her side. "Shove over, I'll drive."

Misty shrugged. "Okay." Then she blinked, noticing something. "Are those
sirens louder all of a sudden?"

Then she was cut off by the loud screeching of tires and she quickly
turned around to see what was happening. Dozens more of police cars began
arriving, each passing behind them on the road, their sirens flashing red
and on at full blast. They squealed to a stop and began forming a wall in
front of the closed bank a little bit down the road. Officers quickly ran
out of their cars holding hand-guns, and crouched behind them using their
vehicles as shields. A couple of Growlithe dogs, hopped out of cars also
and stood by their feet.

AJ ducked behind the car and Misty slid low in her seat.

"Must be a bank robbery or something," AJ whispered.

A woman police officer dressed in a short blue uniform, and with blue
hair, hopped out of the last car and stood behind it. Misty recognised
her as Chief Jenny, the head of the Cerulean branch of police.

Chief Jenny lifted a megaphone to her lips. "This is the Chief of
the Cerulean City Police," she shouted loudly, the megaphone amplifying
her voice to a hostile and authoritative tone. "We know you're in there,
Team Rocket! Come out with your hands up!"

Team Rocket? Misty thought wildly.

"Woah," AJ whispered, a little awed. "Team Rocket!"

Misty shuddered. The Team Rocket of today was much more brutal and
serious in their illegal activities than they had been in the past. The
crime syndicate had ceased being a joke for a number of years now, ever
since Giovanni had been caught and incarcerated. The new leader had taken
over with an iron fist and according to rumour, was much more evil and
effective than Giovanni had ever been.

"I'll give a count of five to come out with your hands up!" Chief Jenny
called out threateningly. "At the end of that five, we will begin
shooting tear gas bombs into the bank! Five ... four ... three ...
two ..."

Before she could finish, the large glass doors of the bank shattered with
a huge crash. Bits of glass flew everywhere and glittered in the light
given off by the moon and lamp posts, as a dark, man-shaped figure flew
through, spinning in a forward somersault. For a moment, Misty held her
breath, imagining that it was some sort of demon. Then as it landed on
the smooth cement walkway with a soft thump, Misty sighed in relief as
she saw that it wasn't a demon, but a guy dressed in a long black
trenchcoat and wearing a small backpack of matching colour. He began to
rapidly run along the footpath and towards the other stores on the
street.

"Stop him!" Chief Jenny ordered. "Wound to the legs if possible!" 

The police officers behind their wall of cars immediately opened fire,
the roar of their guns deafening.

Dust, bits of cement and other debris flew into the air obscuring Misty's
view of the bank robber, but the gun-fire seemed to miss him as he dived
into a forward roll behind a lamp post.

"Growlithe, Team Flamethrower attack now!"

At the order, the group of police dogs began shooting tongues of red hot
flames, but the robber leaped away, leaving the lamp post to melt
underneath the intense blasts of fire.

"Do you think I should help them?" AJ whispered to her as Misty watched
the man leap around, weaving through cover of street signs, clothing bins
and lamp posts as agile as a circus acrobat. He made the police look
ridiculous in their failed attempts to stop him with bullets or flame.

"Wha-what?" she asked, not paying attention as she tried to see if she
could get a good look at the robber's face. It was no good though, as she
saw that he was wearing a black pull-over mask, hiding the colour of his
hair and most of his face and leaving only a narrow horizontal slit
across the front for his eyes to see through.

"I was saying that since I'm Pokemon Master, I should help," AJ stated.
He sounded excited. "And it might give me some free exposure for
tagging a member of the infamous Team Rocket!"

Misty crouched lower in her seat at another loud wave of gunfire. She
looked behind at him. "Better not, this looks dangerous."

"Dangerous is my middle name..." he said condescendingly, as he reached
toward a poke ball on his belt. Then a loud crack of thunder exploded
from behind, startling her. AJ widened his eyes as he turned his
attention back on to the action. "Woah!" he exclaimed.

She turned around and gasped. The bank robber had somehow shot what
looked like the biggest Thunderwave she had ever seen, directly at the
police. It hissed and crackled fiercely as it rushed across the ground
gathering speed and height.

"Duck!" Chief Jenny cried as she dived away her vehicle. Her officers
obeyed immediately.

The yellow electricity was a large, jagged tidal wave of pure destructive
power as it came splashing forward in imitation of a true tsunami. When
it hit the line of police cars, there was a brief flash of light and then
an explosion. Misty closed her eyes from the intense flashes of fire and
lightning.

"Holy!" she heard AJ from beside her shout out. "That was some 
Thunderwave! I think it came out of that backpack he was wearing!"

Misty blinked and rose higher in her car seat to see over the door. She
immediately searched through the wreckage of burning cars with her eyes.
Officers were all scattered about the road, most of them unconscious.
However the Chief of Police was kneeling and shaking her head, apparently
having escaped any serious injury.

"Where did he go?" Misty asked, feeling a little scared.

"I don't know, I had to look away when the cars exploded-argh!" AJ
yelled.

She immediately turned around and saw the bank robber in question
standing at the kerb beside her car. He looked even more menacing
close-up, with his black coat and pull-over face mask. But he seemed
somehow like a young man, she just knew it. There was a mischievous gleam
in his light brown eyes and seemed shorter than average height like if
she stood up she'd be able to look him in the eye. There was also
something about him that made her stomach feel funny. Then she gasped as
she saw AJ slumped on the ground next to him, with blood trickling down
his forehead.

"What have you done to him?" she asked, shrinking back in her seat.

The robber's eyes in his mask seemed to glitter in amusement as
he stepped closer. "What does it look like, lady?" His voice was low and
throaty. It sent a shiver down her spine. The robber lifted his hand.
In his grip he had the plastic bag of videos that AJ had borrowed. He had
somehow grabbed it from the car without their noticing it. Through the 
white plastic she could see the tapes and covers all broken up inside. "I
bonked him on the head with this," he continued unashamedly. It looked
like he was smiling underneath the mask.

"Put your hands up and stand away from the vehicle!" Chief Jenny's voice 
called out from behind them.

Misty turned around, her loose ponytail flipping over her shoulders. 
Chief Jenny was standing up and aiming her gun at the bank robber
behind her. She looked pissed off, lips tight, as she cocked her
gun with a click.

Then Misty twisted back around to see what the robber would do next. He
had lifted his arms in an apparent gesture of surrender. He still held
the bag of broken video tapes in his right hand.

"Slowly drop the bag!" Chief Jenny shouted.

"You mean ..." the bank robber said, "like this?" With break-neck speed,
he threw the bag of tapes at her. Chief Jenny's gun exploded but the bullet
was harmlessly stopped by the bag, before it smacked into her gun and
forced her to drop the firearm with a rattle.

"Thundershock!" the robber continued, turning sideways, and yellow
electricity exploded out of the top of his backpack. Chief Jenny squealed
as it slammed into her and propelled her backward to fly through the air
in a high parabolic arc. She landed in a tangled heap upon another police
officer about fifteen metres away, who was just about to stand up.
They both fell over each other with shocked shouts, the two of them stuck
together and resembling a badly-made sandwich.

Thundershock? Misty thought incredulously. 

She was interrupted out of her thoughts as a thump in the seat beside her
announced the bank robber's presence within the car. She felt something 
gun-shaped poke her in the side and turned her head and saw
the member of Team Rocket or whoever he was, sitting next to her in the
passenger seat.

"Now drive, lady!" He poked her in the side again to emphasise his order.

She was frightened, but it didn't stop her temper from flaring. "Will you
stop poking me, alright? Jeez!" She twisted the ignition and the powerful
engine roared to life.

"Drive south-east towards, woah!" he said startled when the inertia from
the rapidly accelerating car kicked in as she stomped on the accelerator.
The tires screeched as the car took off at breakneck speed. Misty didn't
care about how dangerous her driving was, she just suddenly felt so
angry. Something about this guy just really rubbed a raw nerve with her.

The main road in front of her began to blur as the car sped up. Separate
buildings to the sides of the road began to look like continuous grey
walls. The wind was chillingly cold as it flew past her face and
blew her hair back like a flag caught in a tornado.

"Lady, are you crazy?" the guy cried over the wind. She felt the gun that
was poking her, leave her side.

"And so what if I am?" she challenged, not bothering to take her eyes off
the road, even a little, to look at him.

For a moment he didn't say anything. Then amazingly, he laughed. A deep
throaty chuckle. "You're funny, lady! You remind me of someone I once
knew when I was a kid..."

The laugh made her feel all funny and angry at the same time. She whipped
her head around to glare at him. "Yeah? Well you remind me of someone I
once knew too! And he was annoying, just like you!"

"Lady, watch the road when you're driving! Oh holy pokemon, look out!" He
suddenly reached over and wrenched the steering wheel to the side with
his arm.

The car swerved with the smoking of rubber and Misty turned to see 
them just dodge a huge red semi-trailer that was travelling in the 
opposite direction on the road. But she lost control over the car as it
began spinning around wildly like a grounded frisby. And then there was a
crunching sound as the car flew over a gutter and smashed sideways into a
store-front stopping their wild slide. Misty's teeth clacked together as
she was jerked sideways by the inertia knocking her into the robber. 
Broken glass rained over them like a sudden hailstorm.

When the rain of glass stopped, she expelled a breath and sat up to 
assess the damage.

The robber was sprawled on the crunched door of the car, covered in
little sparkly shards. He was groaning with his gloved hand rubbing his
forehead.

Now this was her chance, Misty thought wildly. She reached inside her
coat for Starmie when suddenly there was the sound of electricity
crackling next to her, followed by the cracking of thunder.

"Pika chu!" came out of the top of the man's squashed backpack. The
robber cried in shock as yellow electricity crackled around him for a few
seconds then stopped. He sighed, his body smoking, as he slipped out of
his backpack and a familiar looking pokemon stuck its yellow head out of
the top.

Misty felt frozen as if an Ice-beam had shot her.

"Heh heh, sorry Pikachu," the robber said, scratching the back of his
masked head in embarrassment.

It seemed her heart had leapt into her throat. "A-A-Ash?" she stammered,
somehow squeezing the name out of her lips.

At the sound of the name, the robber stiffened, then turned to look at
her incredulously. His light-brown eyes were as wide as saucers within
the mask. Then abruptly with one smooth motion he pulled it off and
ripped it away, throwing it out of the car. Long strands of night-black
hair were pulled upwards at the motion, then fell, a lock of it falling
across his left eye.

It was him alright. Even though it had been five years, she could still
recognise the cute boyishness of him in the pert nose, the large eyes
almost like a girl's, the smiling mouth...

The robber pulled out a black baseball cap from his bag, and plonked it
on his head to complete the transformation. It was Ash, only, cuter with
the maturing of age. The hat cinched it, as it was an exact twin for the
Pokemon League cap he always wore, save that it was fully black and had a
white 'R' stitched on the front instead of an 'L'.

"Hiya, Misty!" He smiled at her.

Misty slapped him across the face.


*** End Teaser

Ages for the fic:

Ash: 16
Misty: 18

Taking the manga ages here. For this romance I want to write a younger
man, older woman type story. Because there is just about hardly any
romances like this. Misty will try to convince herself that she likes
older men, but well, Ash is too cool ^-^.

Like the story? I'll be finishing it after I finish PMaster.

~Acey ^_^

Email: jsa@fl.net.au
WWW: http://jsa.users.fl.net.au