Chapter 123

She loved Bug-type Pokémon the most, especially Caterpie—yellow, chubby, and cute beyond words.

"That's right, Bug-type Pokémon are very cute. They can also pollinate flowers." In order to grow brilliant flowers in her gym, Erika even specially raised a group of Butterfree.

"It should be Heracross that did it," Ash said.

"That's amazing, to be able to analyze what Pokémon did it just by the bite marks," Erika looked at Ash with admiration.

"That..." Erika's flattery made Ash feel embarrassed. He didn't have the ability Erika described; the reason he was sure it was Heracross was because he had already seen them.

On a big tree a hundred meters in front of them, a large group of Heracross were lying there. They were frantically eating the sweet tree sap.

Heracross were Bug-type Pokémon as precious as Scyther. Ash was tempted. Just as he was about to go and catch a Heracross, a large group of Pinsir suddenly rushed toward the Heracross group.

"Are they going to fight?" Misty was a bit worried.

She might not like Bug-type Pokémon, but she also didn't want to see them get hurt.

"They won't fight."

Erika knew Heracross too well. Don't let their burly appearance fool you—they are stronger than anyone, but in reality, they are cowards. Unless absolutely necessary, Heracross generally won't take the initiative to fight.

Sure enough, as Erika expected, by the time the Pinsir rushed to the tree, the Heracross had all run away.

The Heracross were all gone. Ash was also preparing to leave, but at this moment, another Heracross crawled out from the branches of the big tree. The newly appeared Heracross was very confused. Where did its companions go?!

119: Dark Ash's gifts, all the girls have them!!!

Surrounded by six Pinsir, Ash thought this Heracross would be beaten to tears, but the result made everyone's jaws drop.

Forced into a corner, the Heracross fought back passively, and it beat all six Pinsir away.

"Hiss." At this moment, Ash's eyes were already glowing. Such a powerful Heracross, he absolutely couldn't miss it.

Just as Ash was preparing to catch the Heracross, a forest ranger jumped out and gave Ash a long lecture. In short, it was: don't catch this Heracross.

"Is this a protected area designated by the League?" Ash looked at the ranger, Forester, in surprise.

Forester: "No."

"Then does the League have regulations against catching Heracross here?" Ash continued to ask.

Forester: "Neither."

"Then I can catch the Heracross. As for what you said about the forest losing its balance if I catch it, I don't think so. Ecological balance isn't that fragile." Ash was a person with his own opinions; he wouldn't be led astray by someone else's few words.

Bugsy: "That's right, I was almost led astray by Forester. How could the balance of the forest be so easily destroyed?"

Whitney: "Luckily, the Heracross Ash caught was a glutton and took the initiative to follow Ash, otherwise..."

Gary: "Ash is still too naive; others can bluff him with just a few words."

Ash didn't catch the Heracross immediately, of course, not because he was interfered with by Forester, but because it had just gone through a fierce battle, and catching it now would be taking advantage of it.

He took a Super Potion out of his backpack, applied it evenly to the Heracross's wounds, and then supplemented it with the power of Aura. The wounds began to scab over at a speed visible to the naked eye.

After healing the Heracross, Ash wanted to challenge it to a battle, but who knew that Heracross had no interest in battling at all. After the big battle, it was starving, and filling its stomach was what it cared about most.

Before it even had time to say a word to Ash, who had healed it, Heracross flapped its wings and flew quickly toward the front.

"What do we do now?" Erika was a bit confused.

"Sigh." Ash sighed helplessly. "Follow it, I guess."

Following Heracross all the way, Ash and the others arrived at a huge canyon.

Heracross could fly and easily reached the other side of the canyon. Just as Ash and the others were preparing to use the suspension bridge between the canyons to get to the other side, they suddenly discovered that the bridge had been cut by someone with a knife.

There was no other way, they could only let Charizard take action. After five consecutive round trips, Charizard finally brought everyone to the other side of the canyon.

After half an hour of searching, Ash and the others finally found Heracross. At this moment, it was confronting a huge Pinsir.

"Why is there such a huge Pinsir?" Erika exclaimed.

"Why is there such a huge Pinsir?"

"Since you've asked so sincerely..."

Lance: "Team Rocket?! How did they come to Johto too?"

Steven: "Don't ask, asking means it's the bond—the bond unique to Team Rocket and Pikachu."

Diantha: "Dark Ash isn't as naive as Ash. You say, if Team Rocket keeps acting recklessly, will he beat them to death?"

Cynthia: "Don't talk about Dark Ash like a demon. When has he ever beaten anyone to death? At most, he'll beat Team Rocket until they're half-paralyzed."

Meowth: "James, I'm so scared, meow."

James: "Nothing to be afraid of. We are Team Rocket, who travels through the galaxy. Cheer up for me."

Jessie: "That's right, that's right, there's nothing to be afraid of at all!"

Meowth: "If you're not afraid, Jessie, why are you shaking, meow?"

Jessie: "I, I, I'm shaking with excitement! Excited for us in another world moving toward the great Team Rocket cause."

After the opening remarks, Jessie stared at Ash for a while and said: "Hey, you guy look very familiar. Have we met before?"

"It's you?!" Seeing Ash again, James exploded. "Tell me, was it you who told my whereabouts to my dad and mom?!"

Just a little bit, just a little bit more and he would have been caught back.

"So it's an acquaintance of Jessie and James, meow?"

"A, a talking Meowth?" Nana stared with wide eyes, simply unable to believe the scene she was seeing.

This world was too crazy; even Meowth had started talking.

Enemies are especially jealous when they meet. After discovering that the person coming to make trouble was Ash, Jessie and James exploded. They controlled the giant Pinsir robot and rushed toward Ash.

Erika, Nana, Brock, and Misty scattered, only Ash remained in place, motionless.

"Master, what are you doing? Run!"

Nana thought Ash had been scared silly. She wanted to go back and call Ash away. Misty stopped her and said with a light laugh: "Just enjoy Ash's performance."

Performance?

Nana was full of question marks. What performance?

Jessie, James, and Meowth confidently controlled the Pinsir robot and punched toward Ash. In their view, Ash was simply looking for death.

Their Pinsir robot had driven away all the Pinsir nearby. Ash, with his mere flesh and blood, actually dared to resist their perfect masterpiece.

"Meowth, just beat him half to death, don't take his life," James hesitated for a long time before saying.

Although they were the evil Team Rocket, they still had to have some bottom line. Besides, Ash hadn't reached the point of being rotten to the core.

Jessie said indignantly: "Hmph, this guy made us stay in the detention center for so many days, we must teach him a good lesson!"

"Don't worry, leave it all to me, Meowth."

Ten minutes later.

The Pinsir robot was lying on the ground, having lost the ability to operate.

Jessie, James, and Meowth were firmly tied together by Ash with a rope.

The fight had been over for five minutes, but Jessie, James, and Meowth still hadn't walked out of the battle just now.

"What on earth is going on here? Meow!!!"

Meowth had lived for so many years and had never encountered such an outrageous thing.

"It's simply too amazing, Master, it's simply too amazing!!!"

It wasn't just the Team Rocket trio who were shocked; Nana and Erika were also stunned by Ash's operation.

A punch directly punched a hole in a robot made of steel. Are you sure this is something a human can do? Even Charizard's Fire Punch isn't that terrifying, right?

"Can you teach me this? Can you teach me this, Master!" Nana looked at Ash excitedly.

Bruno: "Teach? This thing depends on talent. If you aren't born with it, you won't have it in this lifetime. There's no way to practice it."

Brawly: "Junior fighters break wood, intermediate fighters break bluestone, top-tier fighters break steel."

Bea: "If only I were as amazing as that."

Bea was drooling with envy. If she had Dark Ash's strength—no, even half of it—that would be enough to bring honor to her ancestors.

Diantha: "Although it's not the first time I've seen Dark Ash's battle, every time it's so shocking, it's just like filming a movie."

Valerie: "Even movies wouldn't dare to film it so exaggeratedly, right?"

Caitlin: "Movies need logic, reality doesn't care about logic."

"We were wrong, spare us."

From the mouths of Jessie, James, and Meowth, Ash and the others finally figured out the whole story.

The Pinsir robot was made by them to collect the sweet tree sap on the trees, and finally sell the sap to make a fortune.

The balance of the forest was also destroyed by them. It was precisely because they drove all the Pinsir away that the Pinsir went to the other side of the canyon to compete for territory with the Heracross.

"Our plan was perfect. But we didn't expect to fall into your hands. Kill us or cut us, do as you please, meow."