"Keh heh heh!!"
Having reached an agreement, the Team Rocket Trio piloted their robot toward Sceptile, swinging several mechanical arms to grab him.
"Uh... why do their voices suddenly sound so inexplicably confident?"
"Never mind. Whatever."
Seeing the trio begin their attack, Xiaoyun did not give it much thought and quickly responded. "Sceptile, use Frenzy Plant! Bind those robot arms tight!"
"Scept!"
Sceptile's gaze sharpened. With a branch clenched in his mouth, he roared and plunged both hands into the earth.
Crack, crack!
The ground split apart, and countless thorns glowing green burst out, weaving around the mechanical arms from all sides.
The thorns gradually extended, winding around the robot bit by bit until it was wrapped like a giant rice dumpling, unable to move at all.
From Ash's battle with Team Rocket just now, Xiaoyun had noticed that the robot's defenses were indeed quite good. A head-on assault would inevitably consume a great deal of energy.
So Xiaoyun adjusted his strategy, having Sceptile restrain the opponent with Frenzy Plant first to make the next attack easier.
And Xiaoyun had made a slight modification to Frenzy Plant.
Since Sceptile could not learn Vine Whip and lacked control moves, he had divided this move into two components, attack and control, while training Sceptile.
One was summoning a large number of thorns on their own for a charging assault, as in the original series.
The other involved spreading the thorns out and combining them with Giga Drain, transforming it into a new move: Forest of Thorns.
With Giga Drain's enhancement, Frenzy Plant not only gained power, but could even absorb an opponent's stamina upon contact with the thorns, allowing it to both restrain and attack.
For reference, see Flower Tree World Advent.
"Darn it, we can't move, meow!"
Inside the cockpit, Meowth frantically worked the control levers, trying to shake the robot free of its restraints.
"Give up. Your robot can't break free of Forest of Thorns," Xiaoyun said.
It was just a shame that they had bound a machine this time and could not absorb its stamina. If it had been some heavy-tonnage Pokémon instead, they could have drained it dry in minutes.
Feeling that the time was about right, Xiaoyun continued, "Sceptile, use Leaf Blade! Attack the joints between the arms and body! Cut off every one of those mechanical arms!"
As Xiaoyun finished speaking, several sharp flashes of blades bloomed in the air. With the robot held firmly in place by Forest of Thorns, Sceptile easily severed all its arms.
They fell one after another like crashing stones.
"So... so strong!"
Nearby, Ash, who had recalled his two Pokémon, stared at the overwhelmingly imposing Sceptile before him. His pupils contracted, and he could not help exclaiming.
Meanwhile, he wondered whether his own Sceptile could do the same.
"Pika pi!"
The moment the arms were severed, the one holding Pika also began to lose control. Pika seized the opportunity and leaped to the ground.
"Pikachu!"
Seeing Pikachu break free, Ash hurried over to catch him and held him excitedly in his arms.
After several days, the boy and his Pokémon were reunited once again.
"What!!"
Nearby, the Rocket Trio stared at the rescued Pikachu and let out a collective groundhog-like scream.
They instantly felt an ominous, familiar atmosphere rising again.
"It's time to end this battle."
"Sceptile, prepare Solar Beam! Give them one final farewell ceremony!"
Xiaoyun ignored the trio's groundhog noises and had Sceptile send them a huge fireworks gift as a farewell ceremony.
"Sceptile!" Sceptile delivered his fireworks gift very quickly. After a rapid charge, the little yellow orbs on his back abruptly fired a white beam straight at the Rocket Trio.
Ding! Your fireworks gift has arrived!
Boom, boom, boom!!!
"Darn it! We finally caught Pikachu this time, and we failed again and again and again!" (Jessie)
"Boo-hoo, we even lost all the money from our part-time jobs, and the rare bottle caps I'd saved up for so long..." (James)
"It's all that brat's fault, meow~"
"What a horrible feeling!!!" ×3
"Wob~buffet!!"
Wobbuffet indicated that he had to join in whenever they got blasted off.
Watching the trio turn into stars, Xiaoyun diagnosed the cause: it was surely the robot's first time receiving such a huge fireworks gift, so it had become overly excited, heated up all over, and finally exploded.
Tsk, tsk, tsk. No composure whatsoever. Still too young (￣▽￣~).
"What an impressive young man. Not only was his command perfectly judged, but his Pokémon's strength was impeccable too."
Brock, who had watched the entire battle, could not help marveling at the boy's prowess in battle.
"Xiaoyun, you're amazing! Sceptile was so cool too!" Dawn jogged over to Xiaoyun and praised him, a hint of admiration in her eyes.
Xiaoyun readily accepted Dawn's praise. After all, who would refuse a cute girl's compliments?
"Take it easy, Dawn. That was nothing. Anyway, are you all right? You're not hurt anywhere, are you?"
"I'm fine. Thanks to you, Xiaoyun, you chased all those bad guys away before they could even touch me." Dawn indicated that she was perfectly fine and had not been hurt at all.
"That's good." After asking about Dawn's condition with concern, Xiaoyun turned his gaze toward Ash.
With everything over, Ash also came over with Pikachu in his arms, accompanied by Brock, and thanked Xiaoyun.
"Hi! Thank you so much for saving my Pikachu. I'm Ash from Pallet Town, and this is my friend Brock!"
Looking at Ash bowing in thanks, Xiaoyun smiled. "You're welcome. I think anyone else would have helped too."
"Besides, Pikachu is adorable. Dawn and I both really like him."
With that, Xiaoyun reached out and rubbed Pika's cheeks.
Mm, they still felt great.
Xiaoyun stared at Ash for a while, then said, "Hisashiburi da na-long time no see, Ash. You really don't remember me?"
Hearing Xiaoyun's familiar tone, Ash put what little brainpower he had to work and searched carefully.
Mm, his brain replied: no such person found.
That left Ash a little embarrassed. "Um... who are you?"
Silence suddenly filled the air. Behind him, Brock helplessly covered his face.
As for Xiaoyun, he had already expected this result. It would have been strange if that fool remembered. He had only asked casually.
After all, this guy could even forget Serena. It was perfectly normal for him not to remember Xiaoyun.
"Right. That's very much your style."
After pausing briefly, Xiaoyun broke the deadlock and gave Ash a little reminder. "I'm Xiaoyun, Hanyu Yun. When we were little, I went to the Kanto region for Professor Oak's summer camp. Ring any bells?"
"Huh! Xiaoyun? You're Xiaoyun?"
"The boy who beat Gary in an argument!"
With that little reminder, Ash finally remembered.
Time went back to the past.
Back at summer camp, whenever Ash got into an argument with Gary, he could never outtalk him.
Of course, he still could not now.
At the time, Xiaoyun, who had come to Kanto to learn, happened to pass by. He really could not stand Gary's smug "my grandpa is Professor Oak" attitude.
So Xiaoyun had gotten into a war of words with Gary. He had not really bullied the kid, merely used a teeny-tiny hundred million bits of theoretical knowledge to give him a little crushing defeat.
Who knew the kid's mental resilience would be so poor? Realizing he could not outtalk Xiaoyun, he had started shedding little pearls on the spot.
Eww~ shame, shame.
So if Gary were here, he would probably recognize Xiaoyun at a glance. That was some definite dark history.
"Well... as long as you remember. You can leave out the rest." The corner of Xiaoyun's mouth twitched.
He was happy that Ash remembered him.
But he did not like what Ash had said.
Dawn was right here. What did he mean, arguing? What arguing?
Was he that sort of rude person? That was an exchange of theories, an academic discussion, understand?
"Sorry, sorry."
Seeing Xiaoyun's face darken a little, even Ash realized he had let his mouth run away with him. He hurriedly changed the subject. "By the way, Xiaoyun, why are you here?"
"There's no rush to catch up. Let's head to the professor's lab first." Xiaoyun waved a hand and beckoned everyone back to the lab.
And just after they left...
A purple-haired boy arrived, picked up a piece of the machine's wreckage, and remained silent, seemingly thinking about something.