ETP019: Side Story: Ash vs. Gary

is the 5th chapter of Volume 4 of The Electric Tale of Pikachu.
==Synopsis==
Ash meets up with Bill, Gary and Prof. Oak. Oak and Bill show a gigantic Slowpoke, but it gets stolen. Ash and Gary track the thieves down, who are Team Rocket. Ash and Gary do their best to take back Slowpoke and capture it, but Slowpoke just stops the attacks.
==Chapter plot==
Before Ash started his journey on the Orange Islands, he came to the Pokémon Cutting-Edge Technology Research Center, where he wanted to see the latest inventions. Ash meets up with Bill, Oak and even his rival, Gary. As Ash and Bill stare at each other, Bill explains they discovered some data from the memory banks and pulled it out, which is actually a giant Slowpoke, but they do now know what it is thinking. Bill turns around and sees the boys are gone, so Oak believes only professionals can understand what Pokémon's pros and cons. Meanwhile, a gentleman and a lady have their eyes set on the giant Slowpoke.
Ash and Gary taunt each other, angering one another. Suddenly, an explosion is heard, so Ash and Gary go to investigate. They find out Bill and Oak were knocked out by two tourists, who stole Slowpoke. Gary proposes a contest: the first to capture the crooks wins. Ash accepts the challenge, so Gary promises on his grandfather's grave he will win this. Gary sends Arcanine to sniff out the thieves, so Ash sends Fearow to scout for these crooks. Fearow carries Ash, who spots the thieves, who are Jessie and James, but so does Gary. As Ash and Gary argue, Meowth arrives with a Venusaur machine, as he distracts the twerps when Jessie and James escape.
Meowth uses the bot to capture Pikachu, while Ash struggles to attack Meowth. Oak and Bill are amazed Meowth can speak human language, so they take it to do some experiments on Meowth. Ash sees Jessie and James escaped, but Gary runs off on Arcanine, telling the contest is not over yet, so Ash flies off with Fearow. Jessie and James contact their boss, for they captured the giant Slowpoke. The boss replies to dispose of it. James remembers this Slowpoke was one of Team Rocket's experiments gone failure, so they need to dispose of it without revealing it to the public. Still, James and Jessie feel relaxed when they see Slowpoke.
The boss thought the plan to soothe any human by creating the gigantic Slowpoke was flawless. However, the research team lost their will to dominate the world, even the boss himself was soothed. The boss tries to maintain focus that Team Rocket is evil, but remembers Slowpoke and goes fuzzy. Meanwhile, Ash found Team Rocket, but Gary got ahead of him. Jessie and James are in a trance, as they saw Slowpoke. Gary knows Slowpoke needs to be caught, as people would be too fuzzy to do anything, causing an anarchy. Even some workers stopped going to their jobs. Gary sends Arcanine to attack Slowpoke, though Slowpoke used Disable to stop Arcanine. Slowpoke also uses Ice Beam to freeze Arcanine, but freezes itself as well.
Pikachu goes to attack, but Slowpoke growls, preventing the attack. Gary sends all his Pokémon to attack at the same time, but Slowpoke puts everyone to sleep. Ash goes to catch Slowpoke, who swallows the Poké Ball and surfs off. Gary believes Slowpoke is a free spirit and cannot be caught. However, Jessie and James use the net to catch it, though Ash orders Slowpoke to use Headbutt, blasting Team Rocket off. Gary surfs off to capture Slowpoke, so Ash sends Squirtle, who uses Hydro Pump to push Ash's Poké Ball to Slowpoke before Gary's Poké Ball came. Ash catches Slowpoke, so Gary admits Ash has a few tricks.
Gary offers a picture of his sister, May, for the Slowpoke. Ash trades Slowpoke for the picture. Gary sees his Poké Ball is empty and demands his picture back. Suddenly, Ash and Gary notice Slowpoke evolved into Slowbro. Later, Bill and Oak are amazed by this gigantic Slowbro, though Meowth demands to be set free. Meanwhile, Gary and Ash bicker and propose challenges to each other.
==Gallery==