You people are crazy, Pink was not meant to be anything, she was meant to be a reference to the Canceled Pokemon Pink, and just to show there where more people in Pallet town that where going to be trainers other than the main three.
But now I ended up making actual art for her, and I need to figure out what the heck I'm going to do with her.
Anyway back to chapter.
--
With the help and very harsh criticism of Lara, Green learned how to control Tauros enough that they weren't going to fall off. After some trial and error and Growlith helping out, the herd seemed to imprint on Ash's Tauros and follow it.
With Lara guiding the way Green was able to lead the herd back to a nearby stable where some breeders were quickly setting up a temporary holding pen until they could get them back to their normal pen.
Brock and Yellow also helped out when they got out of the webs, and Misty was stuck and being held by Beedrill, and Psyduck was being dangled upside down, "Hey don't leave me with this thing, get me down!!"
From behind a nearby windmill, Dario was watching the scene with a scoff, "Those idiots, I spent good money just for them to fail, I know I shouldn't have paid them half upfront."
But as he saw the now injured Lara his mood improved, "Well at least Lara is out, so it seems like those rockets were good for something,"
"Good for what exactly?" A voice rang from behind him, when Dario looked back he saw Ash twirling a pen in his hand and looking at him with Pikachu on his shoulder.
"What! Since when were you here?"
"Since you admitted to causing the Tauros to rampage, and purposefully causing harm to Lara, along with teaming up with Team Rocket."
"How did you know I hired Team Rocket?!" Dario said, starting to sweat.
"I didn't but you just said it yourself, so now I need to put you under citizen's arrest," Ash said as he stopped twirling the pen in his hands.
But Dario scoffed again, "So what it's your word against mine, and you have no real proof."
"Actually it's your word against yours,", Ash pushed the top of the pen as it played a recording.
[-it seems like those rockets were good for something.]
"So let's make it easy on ourselves and not do something you'll regret," Ash said, looking unimpressed at the older kid.
Dario grits his teeth and pulled out 6 Pokeballs, "Give me that pen!" As he did he released all of the Pokeballs revealing a Squirtle, a Wartortle, and 4 Blastoise.
Ash and Pikachu raised their eyebrows and looked at each other, "You wanna take these?"
Pikachu shrugged and walked up rolling his non-existent sleeves.
[5 seconds later.]
All the turtles were on the ground twitching with electricity, Dario's eye was also twitching as he gritted his teeth and ran at Ash like a madman.
"I'm not going to let anyone let me down. INCLUDING YOU!"
As Dario ran at Ash the only thing he saw was a fist going to his face before he was swept to the ground. Yep, Ash punched him in the face and probably broke his nose.
After Ash probably knocked out a few of Dario's teeth, he pulled him up and held his hands behind him, and started walking out towards the town. Where people were starting to gather again.
Ash gave a quick glance and saw the familiar sight of a blue-haired girl, "*Whistle* Officer Jenny! Over here I got one for you!"
The Officer Jenny of Fuchsia heard his voice and looked in Ash's direction seeing him holding Dario she quickly ran over demanding an explanation.
"Long story short, Dario here is behind everything, he hired Team Rocket all so that Lara would get injured."
Officer Jenny raised her eyebrows, "I hope you have some evidence because that's a pretty big claim, especially for a family heir."
Dario immediately started opening his mouth yapping about how he was innocent and this was set up, and bla bla bla. Ash rolled his eyes and pulled out the recorder he had and pressed it to play.
[How did you know I hired Team Rocket?!"]
It was clearly in Dario's voice, and the fact that he was still talking confirmed it, Jenny pocketed the recorder and took Dario off of Ash's hands leading him off, but Ash did tell her about the pile of Turtles behind the windmill.
After that was done he saw everyone gathered around the town's border and since he had some eyes on him since he just handed Dario over to the police he went over there to meet up with everyone.
"How's the situation going?" he asked as he approached them looking over at Lara.
Brock was the first to answer, "Well to be honest not all that well, Lara is injured and doesn't seem like she will be able to handle this herd or race."
Lara looked over at Ash, "I saw what you did, I should've known he would have tried something like this if only I had been more careful."
Ash knelt down and asked to see Lara's arm, "It's not your fault, but we can leave that for later, if you don't get better is there anyone who can help you with the Tauros or the race."
Lara's arm was much worse than a simple sprain, it had some swelling with discoloration near the shoulder, there was probably some kind of fracture, and worse case, some light lacerations.
Lara shook her head, "The only person available to tend to the Tauros is a newcomer named Hayden, as for the race, no I was the hope for my town to win."
Ash sighed and gave a serious look to Lara, "The great race is in 3 days, I can do something so you can participate, but I promise you it will hurt."
Lara looked shocked and had to think for a while, making everyone look at the scene, eventually, Lara took a breath and looked back at Ash, "Do it, I'm the only hope for my village, the pain will only be temporary."
Ash sighed and pulled out Clefairy, they were also in public so he gestured for people to look away as he gave Lara something to bite on before gesturing for her to look away also.
When he made sure that no one, at least no one important, was looking he took a breath and quickly pulled Lara's arm to force it back in place, getting an audible Grunt from Lara.
He used Aura the whole time to heal with Clefairy also helping out, when he thought it was enough he stopped using Aura and made it look like Clefairy was doing all the work.
"Alright it's done," Ash said as he gave Lara a splint, "You'll feel some pain, but you'll feel fine after tomorrow, but unfortunately I can't legally give you a prescription for some painkillers."
Lara looked at her arm and gave a smile, "It's alright, you did what you could, all I can do now is hope it was enough."
Ash nodded as Clefairy finally stopped using Heal Pulse making everyone think she was the main helper, anyone who didn't know that is.
Lara and Ash got up, Lara immediately walked over to the Tauros to start guiding helpers as Ponyta walked next to her looking guilty.
Ash also saw his Tauros and Green to the side so he walked over, also making prolonged eye contact with Misty who was still being dangled in the air, he smiled and kept walking.
"Hey! Don't leave me here!" Misty tried to yell to no avail, so she sighed and looked over at Psyduck, "How's your headache coming."
"Psy-sy-ys-sy ╮(. ¯ ﹏ ¯.)╭" Psyduck said, he was fine since MIsty insisted on giving him Headache medicine.
"Nooooo!"
As Ash walked up to Green he saw that she was petting his Tauros under the chin, "Let me guess, 'Look my Tauros is so attached to you,'"
Green looked over at Ash, "Well when you can guess what I'm going to say it takes all the fun out of it."
Ash rolled his eyes and parched Tauros as he gave him a Red Pokéblock as he scratched the back of his ears and returned him to his Pokeball.
Ash then looked over at Green, "So what now, are you going to leave and see if you can beat Gary from getting the 6th badge?"
"And miss this opportunity, as if, so it looks like you're stuck with me until the festival is over," Green said, poking Ash on the nose.
Ash didn't humor that with a response, he just turned around and walked away.
–
A few hours later everything was finally settled, the Tauros were sent back by a boy with a Red Bull hoodie and a headband with horns. Lara took the chance and guided him on how to tend to them in her absence.
Janine also went up and greeted everyone, since they met on the ship, she gave her thanks for helping with Team Rocket and told them to enjoy the rest of the festival.
Eventually, they did let Misty down and Ash returned Beedrill, she wanted to yell at them, but at the risk of Beedrill coming out again she stayed quiet for now.
And that's how the day ended, the rest of the races were canceled but the Slowpoke race was still going strong, if it kept going at its rate they might just finish in 2 days.
So after everything was said and done they went to check in and finally rest, well for Brock, Misty, and Yellow to rest since they spent most of the day hanging on to a rock rhino who at top speeds could reach 56 km/h, but you would have to work for it.
Anyway, the point is they went to sleep for the night.
–
{The next day}
Everyone was sitting down near the site of the race, it was about midday and it was time for the Rhyhorn race, and Brock was in the line setting up Rhyhorn with the saddle looking nervously at everything.
Lara was also with them since she had some newfound free time, "Do Y'all think your friend can win?"
"Who Brock, absolutely not," Misty said bluntly
"Hey, just because it's probably true doesn't mean you have to say it," Ash scolded Misty.
Lara had a dumbfounded stare, she was expecting a lot of things but that was not one of them, "Do you not even have any faith in your friend?"
Ash leaned back, "Look, there is faith, then there's optimism, Brock over there this is his 3rd time actually riding that Rhyhorn, he doesn't know what he's doing, don't get me wrong he's probably gonna get in the top 5, but he's not winning."
Lara looked over at Yellow in hopes of even a crumb of positivity, "What about you, you have faith right?"
Yellow looked down and fidgeted her fingers, "Well, I hope he will if that means anything."
"That's good enough!" Lara said as the announcer started speaking.
[Thank you, everyone, for coming, we apologize for the inconvenience yesterday but we are back on track, it's time for the Rhyhorn race, #42, if everyone is ready we will start.]
As all the racers got into place and strapped themselves in, Brock was nervous but took a breath in an attempt to calm himself down.
A flag started waving as the announcer said [3…2…1….Go!] the announcer said as the flag was waved and the race Began.
—
{A few minutes later}
The race was neck and neck, Brock was in 4th and was trying to see if he could find a way to pass the others.
Suddenly Rhyhorn started glowing and growing causing it to go onto two legs and start running even faster moving through 2nd place then 1st and crossing the finish line, it evolved into a Rhydon.
This was not Brock's Rhyhorn, this was the guy in 3rd place's Rhydon, Brock still finished in 4th.
But thankfully due to the rules of the race, he was disqualified since this was the Rhyhorn race, and Brock was moved to 3rd