Hey everyone.  Today's chapter was guest written by my friend Mega Raichu.
I hope you enjoy what he came up with.  I know I did! ^_^

Poké-Odyssey 2001 Chapter 8
*Guest Chapter By Mega Raichu (mega_raichu@hotmail.com)

Hot Food And Lumberjacks

	It is a fine day as our heroes leave the parched Wasabi desert and set foot 
on the Creole plains, on their way to a new town, and perhaps even a new 
badge for Cameron.  The sun was warm overhead and a cool breeze blew across 
the plains, making the grass sway as if it were an ocean of green water.  
Cameron and the others soaked in the sights as they leisurely strolled along 
the path, in no real hurry to get to their destination.  Ash and Misty 
walked arm in arm, Pikachu resting on his usual spot, right on top of Ash's 
head, Togepi also snoozed in his favorite spot, in Misty's free arm, while 
the police Growlithe kept a strict two feet between Cameron and Reiko.  
Cameron considered arguing with the fire dog, but held is tongue as to not 
spoil the moment.  Two feet was as good as hand in hand, he figured, for 
now.  Tracey led the group, with pad and pencil in hand, sketching the 
serene landscape in front of him.  As they walked onward, in the distance 
they spotted a small town.
"What town is that Tracey?"  Cameron asked.
"That's Cayenne town."  Tracey said.  "We need to go through the valley 
beyond that town to get to Garlic Acres, where the next gym is."
"Then let's get a move on."  Ash said.
They turned towards Cayenne town and walked through the field of tall grass 
straight for it.

* * * *

	It was midday as the group arrived in Cayenne town.  An Officer Jenny was 
having a conversation with a fairly large man.  Behind the man stood a 
Machoke.  The Machoke appeared to be upset about something and was shouting 
in its own language at the Officer Jenny, as was the large man.  Cameron and 
the others moved closer so they could hear the conversation.
"If we don't do something about that gawd-forsaken tree, then we'd best just 
all pack up and leave!  There won't be any way for us to get supplies to and 
from Garlic Acres, much less anywhere else!"  The large man shouted.
"Choke!  Machoke!  Choke!"  The Machoke shouted in agreement.
"Isn't there anything you can do?"  Jenny asked.
"I've tried everything.  My axe just bounces off of it and Machoke can't 
even push it over!  I tell you it's a lost cause."  The man said in 
resignation.
The Machoke remained silent.  Jenny stood in thought.
"There must be a way."  Jenny said.
"There is no way.  We're leaving.  It'd be the best if you do too."  The man 
said, and then walked off, the Machoke following.
Jenny turned and finally noticed Cameron and the others.  She rushed over to 
meet them.
"You must be Cameron."  She said with a cheerful smile on her face.  "My 
cousins told me to be expecting you."
"Yes, I'm Cameron.  And these are my friends, Reiko, Ash, Misty, and 
Tracey."  Cameron said.
"Shrew!"  Sandshrew piped up.
"Oh, and Sandy too."  Cameron said with a smile.
"Well I'm glad you finally made it up this far, but it appears that you've 
come at a bad time."  Jenny said.  "Probably the worst possible time."
"Why is that?"  Misty asked.
"Because there's no way for anyone to get to Garlic Acres anymore.  A large 
tree has planted itself in front of the gateway to the valley that leads to 
Garlic Acres."  Jenny said.  "That man was one of the best lumberjacks that 
we could find, and he couldn't even knock it down."
"Then why don't you just tear down the gate?"  Ash asked.
"Impossible.  It's made out of reinforced steel.  On top of that it's a 
national landmark."  Jenny said.
"A national landmark?"  Cameron asked.
"It was there when they built this town.  A fierce war took place here many 
years ago.  They used this gate to keep invaders from getting in from the 
valley."  Jenny said.  "So they declared it a national landmark, so it can 
never be torn down.  Not even over a tree blocking the only entrance."
"But how are we going to get to Garlic Acres?"  Cameron asked.
"I don't really know, but I'm sure that you'll come up with something."  
Jenny said.  "But in the mean time, why don't you take in the sights?  Maybe 
enjoy some of Cayenne town's spicy cuisine?"
"I think we'll do just that."  Ash said upon hearing his stomach growl.

* * * *

	In a shadowy alleyway in the rear of Cayenne town, two figures can be seen 
sitting up against a building.  A scamper of feet can be heard.  Both 
figures dart out of sight.  A smaller figure comes into view.
"Hey.  It's just me."  The smaller figure said.
The head of Jessie popped up from behind two garbage cans.  The lid of a 
dumpster opened up slightly, and the head of James can be seen.  Meowth 
stood between the two holding three small objects in his furry paws.
"You stupid cat, you were supposed to give us the signal."  Jessie said.
"I'm not cooing like a Pidgey to make you feel better."  Meowth said.
"Forget about that, what did ya swipe?"  James asked as he climbed out of 
the dumpster.
Meowth held up three small red peppers.
"I'm not sure what they are, but they were expensive."  Meowth said.
"Then why didn't you grab more of them?"  Jessie asked.
"Because I only have two paws!"  Meowth shouted.
"I'm starved, let me have one!"  James said as Meowth handed him on of the 
peppers.
Jessie took one from Meowth and inspected it.
"You don't think it's hot do you?"  Jessie asked.
As she was finishing her question, both Meowth and James bit into their 
peppers.  James' eyes popped wide open and turned red, as did Meowth's.  
They both began to dance around the alley, breathing fire.  Jessie's hair 
was then caught on fire by James' fiery breath.  Jessie screamed and began 
to run around with her head on fire.  She then grabbed a nearby old blanket 
and used it to stop the flames.  When the smoke from her hair dissipated, 
Meowth and James both sat on the ground, with smoke billowing from out of 
their ears.
"YOU IDIOT!"  Jessie shouted.  "Look at what you did to my hair!"
"It's uhh.... very becoming?"  James said softly.
Jessie screeched, produced a large mallet and walloped James on the head.  
Meowth started to laugh.
"This is for getting those peppers that ruined my hair!"  Jessie screamed as 
she slammed the mallet down upon the cat's head.
Both Meowth and James lay on the ground, with stars and Pidgeys flying in 
circles around their heads.  Jessie produced a mirror and brush.
"Oh, my poor hair."  She said as she began the long process of 
reconstructing her hair.

* * * *

"Nonsense!  Nothing's too hot for 'steel-stomach' Ash Ketchum!"  Ash 
proclaimed as a waitress placed a steaming bowl of gumbo in front of him.
"I don't know Ash.  I've heard that Creole cooking can be a bit on the hot 
side."  Cameron said.
"Nonsense, I said.  Nothing's too hot for me!"  Ash proclaimed in his usual 
confident tone of voice as he placed a spoonful of gumbo into his mouth.
Everyone watched in anticipation as Ash swallowed the bite.
"Except that!"  Ash said in a hoarse voice as he downed his drink in one 
gulp.
Cameron couldn't help but laugh.  Misty and Reiko sighed.
"Like the Machamp that overestimates his strength and underestimates the 
size of his job, you should always test your own strength before doing 
anything, especially eating."  Reiko said.
Cameron noticed that Reiko had no problems eating her meal, and neither was 
Tracey.  Curiosity finally overcame him and he asked.
"How come you aren't having any problems with the spices Reiko?"  Cameron 
asked.
"My family makes a special hot mustard.  As children we are fed little bits 
of it in our food, Came-chan, so that we are used to spicy food as we grow." 
  Reiko replied with a curt smile.
Cameron turned to Tracey, but before he could ask, Tracey pulled out a 
bottle of hot sauce, poured it onto his food, and took another bite.  
Cameron was a bit amazed that anyone could stand so much spice on his food.  
But he remembered that most of the people who live in Louisiana can eat food 
with a lot of spice on it.  With a hot meal in their stomachs and the day 
finally giving way to night, our heroes find the Pokémon Center and sleep 
the night away, undisturbed.
	The next morning, they set out to see what it was that was blocking them 
from getting to Garlic Acres.  When they got to the gateway, they found two 
people investigating a large tree.  The two people were dressed in red plaid 
shirts, black pants, with grey suspenders, black boots, and caps on their 
heads.  Cameron noticed that one of them had slightly burnt red hair.  He 
paid it no mind as they approached the two figures.
"Looks like we have company."  The one with the burnt hair said.
"Looks like we have to prepare..."  The other said.
"Yes!  Prepare for trouble!"  The one with the burnt hair removed her cap 
and revealed herself to be Jessie.
"And make it double!"  The other removed his cap and revealed himself to be 
James.
"Is there any chance that we can skip this part?" Cameron asked.
"Don't interrupt us!"  Jessie shouted.
"Yeah!  You're breaking our rhythm!"  James said.
"At this rate we'll never get to my entrance!"  Meowth's voice rang out from 
in the tree.
Meowth jumped down from the tree and landed between the two Rockets.
"Let's cut to the chase.  What are you doing this time?"  Ash asked.
"Well if you must know, we are being paid a lot of money to chop down this 
tree!"  James said.
"We told the people here that we'd get rid of the tree, guaranteed and they 
promised us loads and loads of money!"  Jessie said with yen signs in her 
eyes.
"And not to mention all the free eats!"  Meowth said.
"Then we can get an army of our own to do our dirty work for us!"  Jessie 
said.
"It'll be just like being royalty!"  James said with stars in his eyes.
"If a professional lumberjack couldn't remove this tree, what makes you 
think you can?"  Misty asked.
"Because, unlike that overgrown idiot, we have steel axes!"  Jessie said.
"What difference does that make?"  Cameron asked.
"Well, it makes a big difference, since this tree is a pokémon!"  Meowth 
said.
"A pokémon!?"  Cameron asked.  "But it just looks like a tree to me."
"Use your Pokédex and see for yourself."  Jessie said.
Cameron pulled out Dextra and pointed it at the tree.
"Sudowoodo.  The imitation pokémon.  Although it always pretends to be a 
tree, its composition appears to be closer to a rock than a plant."  Dextra 
said.
"And since rocks are weak against steel..." Meowth started.
"We'll get rid of it with these steel headed axes!"  Jessie said pointing 
behind her.
But there were no axes behind her.
"What axes?"  Misty asked.
"Why those over..."  Jessie said as she turned around. "...there.  Hey!  
Where are our axes."
"Sudo!"  The tree cried.
Everyone looked up at the tree.  The axes that Jessie was talking about were 
tangled in it's branches.  It lifted it's branches high in the air and threw 
them at Team Rocket.  Jessie, James and Meowth ran away from Sudowoodo as 
Cameron and the others scrambled to get away.
"You just had to get axes weighted for throwing didn't you!?"  Jessie 
screamed at James.
"Well, they were cheaper!"  James replied.
"Hey, it's just a pokémon!  We can beat it and capture it!"  Meowth said.
"Good idea!  Go Girafarig!"  James shouted as he released his two headed 
pokémon.
But the outcome of his decision wasn't exactly what he had planned.  
Girafarig's tail went straight for James' head as Girafarig's head wanted to 
attack the Sudowoodo.  Girafarig's head then pulled it's tail off of James' 
head and they both started fighting.
"Enough you two!  Attack the tree!"  James shouted.
Girafarig looked around and ran towards a tree, that wasn't Sudowoodo.
"Not that tree!" James shouted, "That one over there!  The pokémon tree!"
Girafarig's head led the way towards Sudowoodo, but then it's tail 
remembered that it wanted to chomp James' head and started pushing towards 
James.
"You idiot!  I'll show you how it's done!"  Jessie shouted.  "Go Arbok!"
Jessie threw her pokéball and the large purple cobra, Arbok materialized in 
front of Sudowoodo.
"Arbok!  Use your poison sting attack!"  Jessie shouted.
Arbok opened it's mouth and began to shoot tiny poison needles at the 
Sudowoodo.  Sudowoodo cried out and flailed its branches at Arbok.
"We've got to stop them!"  Cameron said.
"Yeah!  Let's go get 'em!"  Ash said.
Cameron and the others tossed out their pokémon to engage battle with Team 
Rocket.
"Go Sandy!  Get that Arbok!"  Cameron shouted.
"Pikachu!  Take out that Girafarig!"  Ash shouted.
"Go Starmie!"  Misty shouted as she tossed a pokéball.
But instead of Starmie, Golduck materialized.
"Golduck!  I said Starmie!"  Misty said.
"Psy yai yai!"  Golduck responded.
Misty called Golduck back and then released her Starmie.
"Go Marril!"  Tracey shouted as he released Marril.
"Kingler!  Go!"  Reiko said as she threw her Kingler into battle.
"So you wanna fight huh?"  Jessie asked.
"Go Weezing!  Take out those rebels!"  James shouted as he released his 
Weezing.  "Weezing!  Use your smog attack!"
Weezing began to fly around and released a lot of ugly dark green smoke.  
Soon Cameron and the others were unable to see and were coughing and choking 
on the smoke.
"Wow, this'll be easier than we thought!"  Jessie said.
"Yeah, but let's get the tree first."  Meowth said.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere, a Voltorb dropped out of the sky and 
self-destructed.  The force of the blast blew away the smoke and knocked 
Team Rocket and their pokémon out of the way.  When the smoke finally 
cleared, in place of the Voltorb stood the lumberjack that they had seen 
only the day before.
"Since this tree is a pokémon, it's a different story!  Now we can get rid 
of this thing real easy!"  The lumberjack said in his deep bass voice.  
"Machoke!  Get it with your seismic toss!"
The Machoke dropped down from a nearby tree and went over to the Sudowoodo, 
but was intercepted by Arbok.  Arbok wrapped itself around Machoke's body.
"That's it Arbok!  Give it your bind attack!"  Jessie shouted.
"Yeah!  That tree and the reward is ours!"  James shouted.  "Take down, 
Girafarig!"
Girafarig rushed towards the Sudowoodo but was stopped cold by a tackle 
attack from Sandy.
"Way to go Sandy!"  Cameron shouted.
Sandy gave Cameron his trademark two claws up.  The Machoke wriggled its way 
out of Arbok's grip and threw Arbok towards Team Rocket.
"Finish 'em Pikachu!  Thunder!"  Ash shouted.
Pikachu jumped up to Ash's head, and then took a flying leap into the air 
and released a large bolt of electricity at Team Rocket.  Team Rocket and 
their pokémon were enveloped in Pikachu's electricity.  The lumberjack threw 
another Voltorb into the fray, which promptly exploded, sending Team Rocket 
flying into the air.
"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"  They shouted as they flew 
off.
"Way to go Pikachu!"  Ash said as he hugged his little yellow friend.
"Pikapi!"  Pikachu responded.
"Nice job Sandy."  Cameron said.
"Nice job, Came-chan" Reiko whispered into Cameron's ear and kissed him on 
the cheek.
Cameron blushed as the lumberjack turned towards the tree.
"What are you going to do about Sudowoodo?"  Cameron asked the lumberjack.
"I was going to capture it.  But I don't have any spare pokéballs.  Perhaps 
one of you can capture it?"  The lumberjack asked.
"Yeah.  I can catch it."  Cameron said.  "I've got an open spot on my team 
and we can always use the extra help."
Cameron looked up at the Sudowoodo.
"What do you say Sudowoodo?  Wanna join my team and help me earn some 
badges?"  Cameron asked.
Sudowoodo's faced showed signs of deep thought.  Then it smiled and nodded.
"Alright!"  Cameron said as he produced a pokéball.
Cameron tossed the ball at Sudowoodo, but Sudowoodo dodged it and shook its 
head, no.
"What the!?   You said you'd join my team!"  Cameron said.
"Maybe it wants to battle you first."  Ash said.  "That's what happened when 
I got my Bulbasaur."
"Hm.  You're right.  But what can I use against Sudowoodo?"  Cameron asked 
as he pulled out Dextra.
"Sudowoodo may appear to be a tree, yet it is pure-rock type pokémon."  
Dextra said.
"Alright then!  VP can handle this one!"  Cameron said as he produced VP's 
pokéball and tossed it towards the Sudowoodo.
"Vileplume!"  VP said as it appeared.
"VP, use your poison powder attack!"  Cameron shouted.
"Vile!"  VP shouted as it shot a ball of powder at the Sudowoodo.
The ball hit Sudowoodo and exploded on contact, covering Sudowoodo in a 
glittery, green powder.  Sudowoodo cried out from the pain of the poison.  
Sudowoodo then began to flail its branches again, hitting VP and sending it 
rolling.
"Get up VP!  You can do it!  Use your petal dance!"  Cameron said.
VP got back on its feet and began to dance around.  As VP danced, petals 
began to fly around everywhere.  Sudowoodo was distracted by the sight of 
the petals and did not notice that VP had started to go berserk.  VP slammed 
hard into Sudowoodo's trunk, knocking the large tree over.  Sudowoodo was 
unable to pick himself up.  VP was still berserk and kept hitting Sudowoodo. 
  Soon, Sudowoodo fainted.
"Good job VP!"  Cameron said as he returned VP to its ball.
Cameron pulled out an empty pokéball and threw it at the Sudowoodo.  The 
ball made contact with Sudowoodo and it popped open.  A red laser shot from 
inside the ball and enveloped Sudowoodo in its red glow.  Sudowoodo then 
dematerialized and was sucked into the pokéball.  The pokéball snapped shut 
and fell to the ground.  The button glowed a bright red and the ball began 
to shake violently.  The ball shook for a few more moments before it finally 
stopped, and the button turned grey.  Cameron walked over to the ball and 
lifted it up off the ground.
"Yeah!  I got a Sudowoodo!"  Cameron shouted for all to hear.
"Shrew!"  Sandy said as he gave his master his traditional two claws up.
"I still say that's my line."  Ash grumbled.
"Oh you haven't used that line in ages, let someone else have it."  Misty 
said.

* * * *

	Cameron and the others were allowed free passage through the valley.  They 
waved goodbye to the Officer Jenny of Cayenne town as they went through the 
gate, onward toward their next destination : Garlic Acres.
	High up on top of the valley, in a clump of trees, three figures can be 
seen hanging from the branches.  Jessie, James, and Meowth were hanging 
upside down by their shirts, and tail.  Girafarig was on the ground, its 
head trying to help James, while the other trying to jump up and bite him.  
Arbok and Weezing were on the ground, with stars and Pidgeys flying in 
circles around their heads.
"We didn't even get a chance to get our money!"  James whined.
"Or the free food!"  Meowth said.
"Oh, shut up and get me down from here!"  Jessie shouted.

* * * *

TO BE CONTINUED