Bayleef - Tan Chapter 3

"Bay?" Bayleef's voice slowly began to rouse Ash from his forced slumber. "Bayu! Rii Bay Urii!!"

"Ugh..." Ash managed as he slowly opened his eyes. He tried to move but suddenly felt a sharp pain rush through his head, causing him to flinch and fall back, gripping his head tightly. "Ow..."

"Bayu!" Bayleef called out in a worried tone.

"Ah, I'm fine, Bayleef..." Ash grunted, smiling at her in his usual, gutsy way. "I think I must've just hit my head on something when they pulled us away."

There was a pause as the two stared at each other, Bayleef's eyes almost quivering with worry for her trainer. It was only now that Ash realised just how close she was to him; her breath pushed heavily against his skin and his eyes began to peer down towards her chest, where his mother's apron seemed to be waging a losing battle to stop Bayleef's chest from falling out.

"...Are you okay?" Ash coughed, awkwardly looking away as quickly as he could.

"Bayu..." Bayleef said, nodding; the leaf on her head tickling Ash's nose. "Bay!"

Suddenly the Grass-type grabbed Ash around the torso against and snuggled up against his chest, breathing a deep and contented sigh.

"I..." Ash stuttered, putting his arms around her comfortingly. "I'm glad you're okay."

The two of them stayed in motionless silence for a moment until two voices could be heard arguing in increasing volume from nearby.

"Jessie if you think for even one more second about how you're gonna convince the boss that YOU came up with this plan then I'm gonna-" Meowth began before being interrupted by his taller companion.

"You're not gonna do anything, furball!" Jessie spat, shaking her fist menacingly at the cat-like Pokemon which was currently glaring at her. "The boss is obviously going to give ME the promotion because I am the one who so clearly deserves it the most."

"If there's anything you deserve it's a dose of Fury Swipes!" Meowth snarled, baring his sharp claws for all to see.

James simply remained motionless, sitting idly nearby his two companions in crime and breathing a bored sigh as he listened to them continue to bicker and argue. He had grown used to their quarrelsome ways by now - indeed, anyone would have after so long. How many years had it been now? Four? Five? Ten? He had long since lost count about halfway through their adventures in the Johto region.

"Everyone knows the boss would much rather have a cuddly Meowth at his side than an old crone like you!" Meowth yelled at the top of his lungs.

"Unlike you, Meowth, I have an intrinsic knowledge of what men want and it isn't you!" Jessie retorted angrily.

"Oh my, my, my!" a spectral voice seemed to weave through the air, bringing a disquieting sense of calm to the scene. "What a highly amusing scenario."

Jessie, James and Meowth all looked up in unison towards the source of the voice to see a ghostly Pokemon floating beside a large tree branch, its face beaming with ethereal delight.

"Who asked you!?" Jessie answered with a snap. "You're a little early for Halloween, y'know. What's with the witch's hat anyway?"

Suddenly the smile the Ghost-type Pokemon wore turned into a frown and it began to lower itself down to be at eye-level with the feisty redhead.

"Nobody." it breathed in her ear. "Nobody makes fun of my hair."

"Jessie!" Meowth mumbled uneasily. "Dat ain't no costume clown - dat's a Mismagius! It's a Ghost-type Pokemon!"

"And a strong one, at that." Mismagius chuckled, her smile returning as she hovered up back to her original position amongst the tree tops, turning to face Jessie as she did so. "I was just curious as to what you thought the reason was that your boss would give YOU a promotion above everyone else in your team."

"Oh, please!" Jessie groaned. "It's painfully obvious! Everyone knows that no man can resist a woman with such a beautiful complexion and irresistible demeanor!"

"Haha, oh boy!" the Mismagius managed as she burst into a fit of hysterics. "Oh... Oh my... That's... That's priceless, it really is."

Jessie's face began to slowly turn a deep red as her anger began to overwhelm her once more.

"And what is so funny about that, you little witch!?" she roared, waving her clenched fist towards the Pokemon.

"I hate to tell you this, lady," Mismagius began, smiling confidently as she floated back near to the human, well aware that her ghostly form would keep her from any material harm, "but the only reason a man would want you around is because of your boobs."

"Wh-what!?" Jessie stammered in surprise, her wide eyes a perfect duplication of the shock which had painted both James and Meowth's faces as well.

"Come on, ask any man and he'll tell you the same!" Mismagius continued, hovering over towards the net where Ash and Bayleef were lying in a state of confusion.

Ash and Bayleef both watched the Ghost-type as it began to circle their prison slowly, its eyes sizing up the boy carefully.

"Hey, kid." she finally spoke up before giving him a side-on view of her ethereal body and thrusting her chest out for him. "Who do you think has the better chest - me or the redhead?"

"WHAT!?" Ash spluttered, shuffling as far away from the ghost as he could.

"Are you kidding me!?" Jessie shouted, immediately marching up next to Mismagius. "No man would choose a Pokemon over me - not even this twerp!"

Suddenly Jessie leaned towards the net and gave Ash a wink.

"Come on - you'd much rather have this, right?" she whispered softly.

"Uh...!" Ash coughed, his face turning an intensely bright red.

"Bay!" Bayleef protested angrily, quickly turning to Ash and attempting her own pose to draw his attention.

"Bayleef, what are you-!?" Ash managed, but he soon found himself smothered against Bayleef as she once again grabbed him forcefully and refused to let him go.

"Dammit..." Mismagius groaned. "I made her human body way too good. I can't compete with a set like that!"

"Alright then, missy!" Jessie growled, sounding clearly exasperated. "The only way we're going to settle this is with a Pokemon battle!"

"Oh, please." Mismagius retorted, holding her nose up in disdain. "I don't battle."

"You're a Pokemon!" Jessie pressed. "That's what you do!"

"Actually I'm a contest Pokemon." Mismagius giggled, conjuring up the image of a small vanity mirror in front of her with which she checked her reflection. "A Pokemon of my caliber can't afford to mess up her hair by throwing a clumsy Shadow Ball."

"Seviper!" Jessie cried, launching a Pokeball towards the Ghost-type. "Come out and use Crunch!"

From the released beacon of light emerged a long, slender, snake-like Pokemon coloured with black and purple scales and bearing large, venomous fangs. It rattled its tail angrily at the ghost before leaping towards her, the extreme potency of its poison seeming to spill out into the air around it.

Mismagius narrowly avoided the Poison-type Pokemon's attack by quickly moving to the side at the last second. She immediately proceeded to hover high up towards the forest canopy where she continued to watch the action unfold.

"I'm not done with you yet, witch girl!" Jessie screamed at the amused Pokemon. "James - send your Chimecho in NOW!"

"Jessie!" James whispered in a worried tone, using hand signals to indicate his pleas for her to be quiet. "Keep your voice down or they'll spot us!"

"Shut up, you wimp!" Jessie snapped back. "If you're not man enough to take that thing out then I'll just get Meowth to do it for you!"

"Hey don't go volunteerin' me to do yer dirty work!" Meowth protested before entering a hushed, mumbled tone. "She'd probably just use Attract on me, anyways..."

"Alright, Sevi-" Jessie's instructions were soon cut off by the distant rumbling of approaching footsteps. But these didn't sound like ordinary footsteps - they were far too loud. "Wait... What was that?"

The entire group held their breath as they listened intently to the footsteps which were slowly becoming louder and louder until suddenly a large, towering Ursaring tore through the trees nearby. The huge bear-like Pokemon let out an immense roar towards the humans and Pokemon which were located on the ground before charging towards them, thrashing about in defence of its territory.

"Crap, we've gotta get out of here!" Jessie squealed in terror, quickly returning Seviper to its Pokeball and dashing away from the enraged Ursaring as fast as she could.

"Wait!" Meowth and James called after their cohort in unison. "What about the Poke-girl!?"

"Forget that!" Jessie returned, still continuing to frantically charge through the thick, wooded area of the laboratory gardens in her desperate attempts to escape. "Which do you value more - a promotion or your lives!?"

"She makes a good point, Meowth..." James conceded with a heavy sigh.

"Just so long as she tells the boss this was all her idea!" Meowth agreed, grabbing the last of their belongings and charging off after Jessie with James in tow. "It looks like Team Rocket's dashing off again!"

With Team Rocket now gone the Ursaring turned, its sharp fangs gleaming under the light of the afternoon sun as it approached Ash and Bayleef, who were both still trapped inside Team Rocket's net.

"Don't worry, Bayleef..." Ash tried to calm the Grass-type Pokemon down as he reached towards his belt. "I'll just send out Grovyle to-"

There was a slight pause and Ash swallowed nervously as he realised that there were no Pokeballs strapped to his waist.

"Oh no!" he yelped, causing Bayleef to eye him nervously. "I left my Pokeballs in professor Oak's kitchen!"

By now the Ursaring was standing directly above the two prisoners, its eyes glaring down towards them as it prepared to strike, issuing one final, ear-splitting roar before launching its attack.


~*~*~

A flock of Pidgey hurriedly took to the skies as the loud echo of a Pokemon's cry resonated throughout the vicinity. Birch, Oak, May, Max and Pikachu all stopped in their tracks at this sound, nervously eying its source which lay directly east of their position.

Pikachu's ears perked up as the small, electric rodent attempted to pick up any other sounds which could point to what the disturbance was. Cautiously the creature sniffed the ground, trying to detect either Ash or Bayleef's scent.

"What... Do you think that noise was?" May asked nervously, her voice quivering with worry as she spoke.

"Sounds to me like one angry Pokemon." Birch suggested, taking a step deeper into the more heavily wooded areas of the forest. "Judging by the gruffness in pitch I'd say it's probably an Ursaring."

"An angry Ursaring!?" May echoed, her alarm obvious for all to see. "Professor, what if it catches up to Ash and Bayleef!?"

"Let's hope that doesn't happen." Oak answered bluntly, quickly following Pikachu as the Pokemon began to follow the source of the disturbance.

'Ash...' May thought to herself as she passed through the thickets of the forest. 'Please be safe...'


~*~*~

Ash wearily got to his feet; blood slowly trickling from his mouth as he panted heavily, his eyes on the Ursaring which continued to approach. The Pokemon had split open the net and continued to attack both Ash and Bayleef. Bayleef had attempted to halt the creature's progress but her human form proved much more restrictive than her natural body and she was not able to conjure up her traditional batch of Razor Leaf and Vine Whip attacks. For all intents and purposes she was nothing more than another human in this Ursaring's way, and yet she continued to defy it in protection of her trainer.

"Bayleef, get back!" Ash insisted as Bayleef snarled at the oncoming creature, refusing to concede an inch of her territory.

Bayleef's body was heavily bruised and her pride slightly more so, but she still refused to let her trainer down. Fortunately her agility was still high enough that she was able to evade the enemy's more serious attacks with only minor injury.

"Bayleef, come on, we've got to run!" Ash continued to press the Grass-type who ignored him completely. "I'm not going to let you get hurt anymore!"

Suddenly the bear-like Pokemon roared once again and began to charge an orb of orange light from its paws. Ash immediately recognised the attack as being a slowly charging Hyper Beam and quickly reacted.

"Bayleef, no!" he yelled, leaping towards the Pokemon and shoving her across the forest floor and out of danger.

The Hyper Beam tore through the dirt of the forest like a sharp blade cuts through paper, narrowly missing Ash as he managed to roll to safety with Bayleef in his arms. Bayleef paused for a moment until the two of them came to a stop, Ash leaning on top of her, a look of sincere worry in his eyes as he checked if she was okay, not even seeming to notice that the vast majority of her clothing had been torn and loosened.

"Bay!" Bayleef's smile quickly dissipated as she angrily scolded Ash in her own language. "Bayuriifu, Bay Bay!!"

Quickly she shoved Ash to the side and charged at the weakened Ursaring, leaping towards the Pokemon and throwing as heavy a punch as she could muster straight at its head. The Ursaring noticed this attack all too quickly and dodged to the side before swinging its mighty paw into the Grass-type's gut, causing her to wince as she was sent flying into a nearby shrub.

"Bayleef, no!!" Ash cried, quickly hurrying over to see if she was okay.

"B... Bay..." Bayleef managed as she slowly tried to get to her feet before Ash stopped her.

"I'm not going to let you get hurt, Bayleef!" Ash insisted, his voice taking on a much firmer tone now. "You're in no condition to fight!"

"Bay!" Bayleef protested angrily, struggling against her trainer's grasp as he slowly raised her up in his arms, grunting slightly at her surprising weight.

Ash got to his feet and began to run as fast as he could through the forest, the presence of the angry Ursaring all too prevalent on his mind as it began to give chase, roaring and uprooting trees in its wake.

"I sure wish I had a Pokeball to put you in right about now..." Ash muttered to himself as he rushed through thickets and brambles, trying his best to protect Bayleef from any harm as he went.

"Bay!" Bayleef snapped at the comment. "Bayuri Bay Bayuriifu!!"

"I'm not gonna let you get hurt, Bayleef..." Ash continued, his breathing becoming more and more ragged as he dashed towards what he hoped would eventually lead to a clearing where he could illicit some help. "I'm your trainer and you're my responsibility!"

Ash's eyes lit up as he suddenly began to see an emerging light in front of him. The branches of the forest began to give way and it was soon obvious that the two of them were heading towards one of the many large, vacuous fields which littered professor Oak's laboratory grounds. Ash's heart was pounding as he ran as fast as could, though he couldn't seem to get rid of the feeling that the Ursaring was slowly getting closer and closer behind them.

The pounding footsteps of the grizzly Pokemon suddenly stopped, though Ash refused to look back as he just kept dashing towards the fields, hoping that their attacker had finally decided to end the chase. Ash soon realised how wrong he was, however, when an intensely bright orange beam of light cut through a part of the forest, narrowly missing Ash but dislodging enough of the ground beside him to cause him to lose his footing and tumble headfirst to the floor just as they had reached the clearing.

Bayleef flinched as she felt her body crashing heavily against the soft grass followed by the weight of her trainer who fell directly on top of her. Ash groaned slightly as he slowly got to the floor, their eyes meeting briefly before the moment was broken by the loud footsteps of the Ursaring which continued to walk towards them, snarling angrily at their continued efforts to elude its wrath.

"I don't know why you're so angry, Ursaring..." Ash snarled, getting to his feet and moving his arms to the side so as to form a fence between the Ursaring and Bayleef. "But I'm not letting you hurt my Pokemon!"

"Bay?" Bayleef whispered to herself as she heard her trainers words. "Bayu..."

"You can do what you like to me, but you'll never get to Bayleef!" Ash yelled, staring directly into the Ursaring's eyes. "Now run, Bayleef! Get out of here and head to the lab!"

"Bayu!!" Bayleef protested in disbelief. "Bayurii, Bay!"

Suddenly the Ursaring let out an immense roar which seemed to rumble across the land for miles. It raised its enormous paw and began to swipe towards Ash as incredible speed. Ash shuddered as he watched the attack come towards him but before he could react he felt a powerful force shove against him, pushing him out of harm's way.

As quickly as he could Ash opened his eyes to check his surroundings. He saw Bayleef lying on top of him once more, concern obvious in her eyes as she looked over him, her hands softly caressing his face as she did so.

"Bayleef..." Ash murmured, only to be interrupted when Bayleef began to squeeze him as tight as she possibly could.

"Riifu!" Bayleef said in a relieved tone of voice.

Ash slowly began to put his arms around the Pokemon, and it was only then that he noticed the reason that neither of them had been hit by the Ursaring's attack.

Standing just a few feet away from them was a large, monstrous Pokemon covered with plates of shining armour and steel. Ash immediately recognised the creature as being an Aggron, a large, powerful Steel-type Pokemon that was considered a rather rare sight - especially in Kanto. It then slowly dawned upon the boy that this Pokemon must belong to a trainer of some description.

Ursaring snarled at the Aggron, which still had a tight grip on the bear's wrist, refusing to let go. The tension in the air began to grow around the two menacing Pokemon as they glared at each other, preparing to do battle.

"Come on, Bayleef, we've got to get back to the lab right away!" Ash exclaimed, taking hold of the Grass-type's hand and helping her to her feet.

"Bay!" Bayleef agreed. "Bay?"

"What's wrong?" Ash stammered as he watched Bayleef turn on the spot and stare towards the horizon where four shapes began to move closer towards them.

"Ash!" came the familiar voice of May from across the field as she, the two professors, Max and Pikachu came sprinting to the clearing where both Ursaring and Aggron had already begun to engage in their battle.

"Haha, May!" Ash called, delighted to see his friend after all he had been through.

"...Bay..." Bayleef sighed to herself, watching as Ash ran over to greet the girl before silently slipping away.

"Ash, I was so worried about you!" May exclaimed, rushing over and hugging Ash as tight as she could. "I knew you didn't have your Pokemon with you, so..."

"Pika!!" Pikachu exclaimed, excitedly hopping up on to Ash's shoulder and receiving a quick pet from its owner.

"Are you okay?" Max questioned. "You're not hurt, are you?"

"You guys got here just in time," Ash explained, motioning towards the two towering Pokemon which continued to battle fiercely over their territory, "this Aggron saved us."

"Ah, yes, of course!" Professor Oak laughed as he watched the two battlers with interest. "That Aggron belongs to one of the trainers who store their Pokemon here with me for safekeeping. Its trainer is travelling through the Johto region right now and so this Aggron has become fiercely dedicated to protecting this lab's grounds; much like your Bulbasaur, Ash."

"Well whoever its trainer is he must be pretty strong..." Ash pondered, a smile crossing his lips as he began to think back to his own journeys through the Johto region and all the strong rivals he met there.

"Aggron are renowned for their protection of natural environments and habitats for smaller Pokemon," Professor Birch added, walking to the side of professor Oak so that he could get a better view of the action, "so this Ursaring's destruction of the forest must have triggered its defences into action."

"Well my money's on Aggron!" May commented, smiling to herself. "Everyone knows that trained Pokemon are generally stronger than those in the wild."

"Heh," Ash chuckled, "and you want to keep your Hoenn pride strong, huh?"

"Well, that too." May admitted, coyly winking at her friend.

Sure enough their expectations were true as it soon became obvious that the Ursaring was no match for the sheer power of the Steel-type Pokemon, which moved with surprising grace and agility, dodging blows and delivering rapid punches, eventually sending the Ursaring flying back towards the forest where it tumbled over into unconsciousness.

"Great job, Aggron!" Professor Oak called out as he watched the victorious Pokemon head towards the forest where it began to attempt to rectify the damage caused to the area by Ursaring's actions. "Well, it's beginning to get late... What say we all head back to the kitchen for a well-deserved meal?"

"Ugh, you're right, professor..." Ash grumbled as he clutched his stomach. "I'd forgotten that I haven't even had lunch yet..."

"Bay!" Bayleef squealed, suddenly appearing beside Ash where she held a large pile of oran berries in both hands, offering them to her trainer excitedly.

"Wow, Bayleef, thanks!" Ash mumbled as he reluctantly reached forward to take one before Bayleef quickly snatched her hand away. "Hey, what gives? You can't tease me like that!"

Bayleef grinned at her trainer, then picked up one of the berries by its stalk and moved it slowly towards Ash's mouth.

"Wow, Ash..." Max giggled. "Do you treat ALL your Pokemon as well as you treat Bayleef?"

"Uh...!" Ash coughed as he tried to swallow the berry Bayleef had just fed him without choking due to embarrassment. "What do you mean by that!? Bayleef and I are-"

"Um, yeah, I'm really hungry, too!" May interrupted suddenly, her eyes fixed on the grass beneath her feet. "I wouldn't mind helping out in the kitchen, professor."

"I would..." Max grumbled. "If May's Purple Surprise is anything to go by her cooking won't be anywhere near safe for human consumption..."

"Nobody asked you, Max!" May snapped, grabbing the boy by his arm. "Come on, we're heading back to the lab."