Chapter Five: My Ally Hoopa's Ring



Benga's POV



"Run for your lives!"



I hear Shu yell this, and I scamper. Hoopa floats after me, and Terra grabs me just before I'm about to go under the couch. I try to shake myself free, but she holds on tight to me, fleeing for the back door.



What the fuzz is going on here?



My questions are answered when Gary throws open the back door and we see a LARGE SCALY MASS wrapped around the outside. A large green scaly mass, with black markings.



My eyes seem to lie, but the nose knows. I rear back and puff my fur up, hissing. SNAKE! Big green scaly scary SNAKE!



Hoopa pulls back, and her own floating snakes each grab a ring from around her horns. "Ally-Hooparing!" she yells as the snakes throw the rings, which grow larger and show the outside through them, like frames around paintings.



Only with these frames, the outside is real. The smells are real, and the breeze is real. And it takes Terra a moment or so to comprehend it, but she and the male humans escape through the rings quickly. Pikachu quickly follows.



We are outside. I squirm in Terra's arms; I'm not usually allowed out here without the assault on feline dignity that humans call a leash. But then I see what the humans see.



The Big Green Snake has wrapped around the entire house. A few feet away from it, a pair of humans in white outfits are standing. One of them has ridiculous headfur. It looks like a plane contrail.



"We know you're in there!" Big Hair says. Her voice is clearly female. "Now come on out, or you'll face severe consequences!"



"Um, Jessie?" the other human says. His headfur is much less prominent, reaching only to his chin. "How can they get out if Rayquaza is blocking the doors?"



"We just did, doofus!"



That was Gary, charging straight at the two humans, grabbing the male in a flying tackle and pummeling him with his fists. "You're gonna pay for stealing my Pokemon!"



The male human screams, and Jessie quickly yanks Gary off him. "Get away from James, twerp!" she yells, throwing him to the ground.



Shu yells an order to Pikachu, who charges forward to zap Jessie with a Thunderbolt. Only it doesn't zap her. Jessie's wearing a bracelet with an odd gemstone on it, a gem that redirects and absorbs the electric attack, throwing it right back to Pikachu.



Pikachu doesn't look hurt, though. If anything, she's even more raring to fight. And Shu sees this. "Kachu, SWIFT!"



Star-shaped rays fly out from Kachu's tail, striking Jessie and James. James cries like a baby. Jessie not so much. "Okay, then, let's see how you like THIS!" she shouts. "Rayquaza! Knock this twerp sideways!"



I feel Terra shake in terror. "They have Rayquaza," she gasps. "They're not supposed to have Rayquaza! Benga, what have we gotten ourselves into?"



The big green snake rears up its head, and I notice for the first time that it has horns. And arms. Thin useless arms, in proportion to its body at least, but given how unnaturally large it is, even its arms are huge. The snake charges forward, straight towards Shu.



And then a ring appears in front of it. An enormous golden ring, larger than any I've ever seen before.



"Alley-Hooparing!"



Rayquaza flies straight through the ring, and its head sticks out through another ring maybe seven feet away. Not realizing where it is, it chomps down on its own coils. It screams in pain. I will remember that scream for the rest of my nine lives.



Terra starts running. Fleeing. Away from the snake, away from our new friends, away from all of this. But there's nowhere to run to, and I know it.



I try to squirm out of her arms. My wish was to protect her, and somehow, some new instinct inside me says that I can't do this while she's holding on to me. I burn inside. My very essence is fire. Fire to protect.



But she can't understand me, not like Shu does. She doesn't hear my meows, or else she doesn't care. Does she think she's just doing what's best for me? I don't understand.



So I bite her. I'm not proud of it. But I do.



She yelps, and her arms loosen. I squirm from her grip, take off running towards Rayquaza and Jessie and James and whatever else is happening. She shouts my name, but doesn't follow immediately.



"Meowth! Dat ain't roight!"



Something charges at me, a cat the color of cream with a bright shiny thing on its head. Its claws swipe at me, and I dodge, spitting a fireball. It's an instinctual move, an instinct I'd never had before the Unown changed me.



The flames engulf my attacker, who jumps back in pain. "Oi! Ya gonna pay fo' dat!"



It takes a moment for me to realize it's speaking English. Cats can speak English? I've tried to speak English, but never quite mastered it. What an interesting accent it has. But it's trying to kill me, so I can't complement it just yet.



It shakes off the flames and charges again. I dodge, but not perfectly. Its claws strike against my face, and I yowl in pain.



Then Terra is there, tackling my attacker directly. The cream cat yowls, flailing its clawed limbs rapidly. Terra yells at it to get away, get away from her cat... I don't think I belong to anybody, but I understand the sentiment at least.



I leap at the cream-colored cat and bite down hard on its tail. It yowls, but I don't let go. I tug hard, trying my darnedest to pull it away from my human. Nobody scratches up Terra!



Terra yelps and lets Cream Cat go, and he drops on top of me, flailing wildly. I lunge onto his back and get my claws into him. It's a flailing furry frenzy, and everything around me seems like a black haze.



Because it is a black haze. The smell of smoke is everywhere, and by the time I realize it and sneeze, Cream Cat has me flat on the ground.



"An' don't EVAH try dat again!" he yowls at me. Still in English.



Then he thumps me on the head, and I black out.



---



I wake up to feel something wet sprayed on me. Unlike water, it actually feels good, and it brings back energy to my muscles. I sneeze, then yawn, then stretch my legs out a bit. I feel so much better now!



"What the heck just happened?" Terra asks.



"Your little Alley-Hooparing just tied Team Rocket's Rayquaza in knots, is what happened," Gary says. "I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes. Those two Rocket goons lay down a smokescreen with Koffing and flew off on rocket packs powered by that weird crystal they had that absorbs energy. They brought their other Pokemon with them."



"Weird crystal?" Terra asks.



"You saw it, didn't you?" Shu asks. "It absorbed Kachu's Thunderbolt attack and shot it back out at her. If she didn't have Lightning Rod as an ability, they could have done some serious damage to us with it."



"But why would they bring a Rayquaza to Pallet Town?" Terra asks. "Especially after everyone had already been kidnapped!"



There's an awkward silence.



"Weeeeeell..." Gary says slowly, purposefully dragging the word out. "You might want to ask Shu about his 'Pokemon friend' that was SUPPOSED to show up again. The one that chased Team Rocket off the first time."



"Of course she didn't arrive yet!" Shu snaps. "She's still looking for where Team Rocket kidnapped the citizens off to!"



"Whoa, whoa, slow down here," Terra says. "She? Who are we talking about here?"



There's another awkward silence.



"My dad," Shu says slowly, "miiiiight be friends with Giratina."