"Whirr! Whirr! Whirr! Whirr!"
The bicycle wheels spun furiously, groaning under the strain.
But every lamp connected to the bike blazed to life.
"Pika-pika!"
Pikachu let out an excited cry.
"Meowth, what's it saying?" Jessie asked, completely lost.
Meowth didn't get a chance to answer before Ash's voice rang out.
"Pikachu says you've got a lot of nerve!" Ash shouted, pedaling like mad and gasping for breath between words. "It says how dare you underestimate it, and now it's going to show you what it's really made of!"
With every turn of the wheels, arcs of blue electricity crackled along the bike frame and gathered into Pikachu at the front.
The tube that had been feeding power into Pikachu's body was yanked free, repurposed as a receiving antenna.
Pikachu's body began to glow, wrapped in a blazing golden light that grew brighter and brighter, far surpassing even the combined voltage of the entire Pikachu herd from before.
Every viewer in the livestream held their breath.
"Is this... is this human-powered electricity generation?"
"Ash's legs are going so fast they might actually catch fire!"
"Is Pikachu about to evolve into the god of thunder?!"
"That's impossible, Meowth!" Meowth's instincts were screaming, the raw energy filling it with primal dread. "What kind of voltage is this?!"
The veins on Ash's forehead bulged as he pushed even harder. He screamed toward Pikachu: "Pikachu! Show them what you've got! Let's go!"
"Pika..."
"CHUUUU!!!"
With a long, thunderous cry, torrents of blue electricity surged through the wires and flooded into Pikachu's body.
Then, rather than striking Team Rocket directly, an enormous bolt of golden lightning erupted with Pikachu at its center and shot straight up into the sky.
BOOM!
The terrifying current tore through the roof in an instant. The deafening blast shook the walls of the Viridian City Pokémon Center to rubble, and the shockwave reduced everything around it to dust.
A column of smoke and debris surged into the sky, swallowing the moonlight.
Somewhere in that churning cloud of destruction, Team Rocket had already been launched skyward and vanished entirely.
For a moment, the chat went completely silent. Then it erupted.
"Holy crap! Did the Viridian City Center just... cease to exist?!"
"That's supposed to be Thunderbolt?! That was a nuclear weapon!"
"When Pikachu goes off, nothing survives. That power is absolutely terrifying!"
"Is Nurse Joy okay?!"
The camera cut to the sky above.
A large Meowth-shaped hot air balloon drifted lazily through the air. Jessie, James, and Meowth were draped over the edge of the basket, battered and disheveled but miraculously still in one piece.
"Those rotten little brats," Jessie fumed, gritting her teeth as she tried to fix her wrecked hair.
James stared down at the smoldering ruins below, his expression thoughtful. "That Pikachu... it might be a truly extraordinary Pokémon. Even the Charizard we encountered might not match it for raw power."
Meowth's eyes lit up and it threw out a new idea. "Then how about next time we change the plan and go after that Pikachu specifically, meowth? If we bring it to the Boss, we're definitely getting a promotion and a raise, meowth!"
"Exactly!"
"Brilliant idea!"
Jessie and James agreed immediately, their eyes glittering with renewed excitement.
"Then it's settled, meowth!"
Meowth pumped its paw in triumph to seal the deal.
That paw went straight through the balloon.
A rapid hiss of escaping air filled the silence.
The three of them looked at each other. Nobody spoke.
Then, tangled up in the deflating balloon, they began to spiral.
"What an awful feeeeeeling!"
With that signature line delivered, the trio spun off like a pinwheeling shooting star and vanished into the night.
The chat exploded again.
"Hahaha! Meowth, are you secretly working against them?!"
"They got blasted off, but somehow I feel like they're definitely coming back."
"They're clearly the main recurring villains of this show."
"I don't hate them exactly, but I still don't really like them either. I hope Misty takes care of them soon."
The smoke gradually cleared to reveal the Pokémon Center reduced to a heap of broken stone and rubble.
Ash crawled out from the wreckage, coated in soot and ash, clutching Pikachu protectively against his chest.
"Cough... Pikachu, you okay?"
Pikachu was still a little weak, but its spirit was high. It poked its head out from Ash's arms. "Pika!"
Just then, the camera panned to the far edge of the ruins.
A girl with short orange hair came sprinting over, breathless. She skidded to a stop and stared at the total devastation in front of her, completely stunned.
"Oh my gosh... what happened here? Was there an explosion?"
She didn't linger on the shock. She started frantically digging through the rubble, searching for something.
"Wait, my bike... where's my bike...?"
She rummaged through piles of ash and broken stone until she finally stopped, crouching down near a cracked section of wall.
Her hands trembling, she pushed the bricks aside.
Lying quietly in a pile of blackened debris was a twisted, unrecognizable wreck with barely half a wheel remaining.
Her beloved bicycle.
She stared at that half wheel. The horror on her face froze for a moment, and then a wave of visible, incandescent fury rolled off her.
"You little JERK!!!"
She spun around and screamed at the sky.
"HOW DARE YOU DO THIS TO MY BIKE! THIS IS UNFORGIVABLE!!!"
"That guy is buying me a brand new one! I will make sure of it!!!"
The frame froze on her face, flushed red with rage but absolutely crackling with energy.
The viewers had no idea who she was, but they were immediately drawn in.
"Who is this?! Where did she come from? Is she always this intense?"
"What do you mean intense, that was her bike! It's got half a wheel left. That's rough."
"Ash, you are so done. First you blow up the Pokémon Center, then you wreck her bike lol."
"She's actually really cute though. Why is she already furious?"
"Ash, run while you still can!"
Dan the Demon King watched the scene and couldn't hold back a laugh.
Meanwhile, on screen, Ash had already said goodbye to Nurse Joy and was walking out of the rubble with a newly reinvigorated Pikachu, narrowly missing Misty, who was behind him.
"Pikachu, where should we head next?"
Ash stretched lazily and looked out at the road ahead, his eyes full of anticipation, completely unaware of the trouble he had just set loose behind him.
"Pika-pika!"
Pikachu hopped onto his shoulder. The two of them walked off together, their silhouettes perfectly at ease with each other.
The narrator's warm, steady voice came in right on cue.
"Ash and Pikachu have sent Team Rocket blasting off again and set out on a brand new journey. What challenges await them around the next corner?"
Watching that warm, gentle scene, Dan the Demon King felt the last of his worries melt away.
Still delivering. Quality is absolutely holding up.
But wait, that's it already?
There was a lot packed into this episode. Misty, Nurse Joy, Team Rocket... the world keeps getting richer.
He was just about to say something to his audience when those dreaded words reappeared on screen.
"To be continued..."
Dan the Demon King: "..."
The chat:
"Nooooo! Not again!"
"Now it's my turn: WHAT AN AWFUL FEELING!!!"
"Is the production team actually evil?!"
"I need Episode 3! I need to see the orange-haired girl make Ash pay!"
"Wind Animation, I hate you!"
"Production team, come out here and take your punishment! I wasn't done watching!"
"How long until the next episode? I can't wait to see Ash get chased down."
That question sparked an immediate wave of agreement, with dozens of people flooding the chat with the same thing.
"Seriously, how long until Episode 3?"
"A show this good probably takes a while to make. I just hope it doesn't take too long."
"Maybe it'll drop soon. The last one came out pretty fast, right?"
While the update timeline debate raged on, a few sharper-eared viewers noticed something.
"Actually, did anyone else feel like the voice acting sounded different this episode?"
"Yes! Especially Pikachu's cries, and that final scream from the girl. They sounded so real."
"The last episode was good too, but there was a slight digital quality to it. This episode just sounds right."
Dan the Demon King had been quietly watching the chat, and he nodded slightly when he saw those comments. He typed out his own take.
"Yeah, it does feel noticeably better than before. Did they actually spend money on real voice actors? This doesn't sound like AI dubbing."
That comment set off another wave.
"The Demon King himself is weighing in!"
"Seriously? There are still anime studios out there paying for real human voice actors?"
"The emotion in the voices is real, you can feel it. AI always sounds so flat in comparison."
"They're spending money on voice acting too? This studio is putting every credit where it counts."
Viewers' opinions of the production team jumped up another notch. Studios willing to sweat the details like that were genuinely rare in today's market.
"You don't think they're running low on budget, do you? The visuals in both episodes are good but not top of the line. What if they run out of money and the quality drops later?"
"I've been thinking the same thing. If an anime this good gets abandoned, I'll be devastated."
"Should we... donate something?"
"Yes! A crowdfund! Give them money so they can keep going and maybe update faster!"
That suggestion sent the chat into a frenzy. The viewers transformed into a flock of fiercely protective hens, terrified that this newly hatched masterpiece might be killed off by budget problems before it could spread its wings.
"We're donating! We have to! For Ash! For Pikachu!"
"I'm putting in fifty!"
"A hundred from me! This anime is worth every bit of it!"
And no sooner was it said than done. Viewers scrambled to find a tip button. Gift animations started popping up across the livestream, none of them individually massive but relentless in volume, scrolling past faster than the eye could track.
Dan the Demon King watched the outpouring with a blink of surprise, then he didn't hesitate. He pulled up the gift menu himself.
He typed in a number without a second thought and hit send.
"Thank you to user [Dan the Demon King] for the Super Rocket, valued at 100,000 credits!"
A pillar of golden light erupted and consumed the entire screen, the dazzling effect holding for several seconds.
The chat froze for a single stunned beat, then roared back louder than ever.
"A hundred thousand?!"
"The Demon King is something else! What a legend!"
"So this is what life looks like when you have real money. Just casually dropping a hundred grand."
"Let's go! For Pokémon!"
Dan the Demon King smiled at the flood of praise.
"I think this anime is worth it. Everyone else, please tip responsibly."
But before the amazement had even settled, the stream was rocked by another announcement.
"Thank you to user [Mystery Person] for the Ultimate Galaxy Super Rocket! 500,000 Alliance Credits!!!"
The entire screen turned red. The effect ran for a solid ten seconds or more before it finally faded.
Dan the Demon King stared at that username and went very still.
500,000 credits.
That was not a small number. On this platform, someone who could drop half a million on a whim wasn't some ordinary wealthy kid. That was serious, top-tier money.
The chat completely lost its mind. Comments were flying past too fast to read a single one.
"WHAT. 500,000?! Who IS that?!"
"The mystery high roller has arrived!"
"The guy who just did a hundred grand just got one-upped!"
"Thank you, legend! Does this mean they'll update today?! Half a million has to cover like several episodes, right?!"
Dan the Demon King looked at the increasingly unhinged chat and shook his head with a tired smile.
"Hard to say. The quality speaks for itself, and that doesn't happen fast. A production this polished, realistically, a single episode takes days to prepare. You can't rush that."
"Let's all be patient and wait. No need to spiral."
"Fair point, The Demon King's right. Good things take time. As long as the quality stays like this, we'll wait as long as it takes."
"Exactly. Great food is worth waiting for."
While the livestream buzzed along happily, Kairos's phone vibrated.
He picked it up and checked. It was a revenue notification from the platform.
In just that short window of time, between the view-count share and the livestream gifts, his total earnings had already cleared 300,000.
And this was only the beginning. As the buzz continued to spread, that number would keep climbing.
Looking at all those extra zeroes in the account, Kairos felt relatively little. He had seen far larger sums before. The only difference was that money couldn't cross worlds with him.
That said, now that he had some funds in hand, the first order of business was obvious: pay back what he owed.
He opened the transfer screen, entered Simon's account number, and sent over 100,000 without a second thought.
With that done, he set his phone aside and turned back to the screen, already thinking through where the story needed to go from here.
For Episode 2, the only change he had made from the original plot was the timing of Misty's arrival.
Everything else stayed faithful to the source material, mostly to leave things on a note with a little more anticipation.
Episode 3, sticking to the original, should work out just fine.
۞۞۞۞
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