Ash was sitting down at his home in Pallet Town, home from his latest regional challenge, though this time he didn't even manage to get all eight badges in time. Then he heard the phone ring. When he picked it up he said, "Hello, Ketchum residence. Ash speaking."

"Ash!" the person on the other end said, "you're just the person I needed to talk to."

" Lance? Why? No, actually, what do you mean?"

"We just got some reports from the Hoenn Region saying that someone has gotten it into their head to bring back Team Magma."

"Team Magma? You mean that team that what's'is'name lead trying to manipulate Groudon? What does that have to do with me? Or Kanto in general for that matter?"

"Now that I'm the champion of the Kanto Region I can't very well go roaming around like I used to, going undercover within criminal organisations anymore."

"Wait. Do you mean that you want me to infiltrate Team Magma?"

"Yes."

"Why? Just contact the Hoenn Region. They should be able to handle it. Besides, I'm just about to…"

"We have other reports telling us that elements within the Pokémon League in Hoenn are working with Team Aqua."

"Team Aqua is back too?"

"We can't be sure. Like I said, we are getting reports of it."

"Aren't official reports usually true though?" Ash asked.

"Yes, but the reports that I get now are the ones that contain information that goes into those 'official reports' and that needs to be verified, and as I said, I can't do it myself.

"Which brings us back to my question. Why me?"

"Frankly, it doesn't have to be. If you can point me to someone else that has your skills and has recently had a very public stoush with the pokémon league, and lost, then I will contact them and broach the matter with them."

Ash sighed and said, "Even if that is true, the Kanto Courts overturned the ruling of the Kalos League."

"That…can be dealt with."

"What do you mean dealt with?"

"Will you do it or won't you?"

Ash sighed and said, "I suppose. It certainly beats sitting around here day in, day out, thinking over everything that I did wrong."

"Good. Then I want you to meet me at Pallet Town Port in three hours."

"Three hours! Isn't that a little soon?"

"Yes, but I'm afraid that there is little time to waste."

"Alright, sure. Three hours it is," Ash said, hanging up on Lance. He called out, "Mum, I'm going to meet someone at the port, okay?"

"Sure thing honey!" Delia called out.

Ash then ran up to his room and threw some clothes into a backpack and quickly changed into his travelling clothes, which were now blue jeans, a black shirt polo shirt and a royal blue trench coat. Ash then bolted back downstairs, calling out, "See ya!" to his mother as he ran out the front door, surprising her when she saw what he was wearing.

Delia thought, 'Well, I guess he's off again,' and sighed in regret at having her son's extended stay cut short.

Ash wasted no time in going to Professor Oaks Lab and retrieving six of his pokémon. He bade the professor farewell as he released his new, shiny, Charizard and hopped on her back, and flew to Pallet Town Port.

XXXXX

When Ash got to Pallet Town Port he found Lance already waiting for him, which surprised him as he had gotten there half an hour early. He landed in front of Lance and dismounted, leaving Charizard out, in case she was needed. He said, "Hey," and nodded at Lance.

Lance nodded and said, "Ash."

"So, what do I do?"

"Before that, I'm sorry about this, but I'm going to have to revoke your trainer license."

"You're what?" Ash demanded, his eyes glowing with a blue energy as Pikachu's cheeks started to spark on his shoulder.

"Ash. Please, understand, this has to happen."

"Why?"

"You are a very famous trainer Ash. Equally famous are your speeches about trusting in your pokémon and their abilities. Without a very good reason there would be no reason for Team Magma to even consider letting you join them." Ash shrugged, admitting that there was probably some truth in what Lance was saying. "So what I am going to have to do now will probably seem excessively cruel."

"What? What do you mean?"

Lance sighed. "Ash, you're going to have to give me all of your pokémon."

"What!?" Ash exclaimed, an intense anger washing over him. If it's massive roar was any indication, Charizard also felt.

"If your trainer's license has been revoked, you cannot very well keep all of your pokémon now, can you?"

Ash sighed and said, "I suppose not," reluctantly taking his pokébelt off. He said, "Make sure they get back to Professor Oak," and flung it to Charizard.

"You're going to take this ticket and spend every night getting drunk until you reach Oldale Town in the Hoenn Region. Then, when you're there you are going to go to The Drunken Rapidash and get well and truly sloshed, then spend the night in the alley next to it. If all goes well then you should end up meeting someone from Team Magma there. If not, then do it again and again until you do."

"The Drunken Rapidash?"

"Yes. It's a bar in Lilycove City, the ship's first stop in the Hoenn Mainland. It should make a couple of stops in Johto and on the A-B-C Islands too, but that is where you will miss the ship when it leaves."

"So that's it?"

"Pretty much, and the louder you are about your misery, the better."

"I see," Ash said, taking the ticket.

Before Ash could walk off, Lance said, "Don't worry too much Ash. If we are aware of this here in the Kanto Region, I find it very difficult to believe that those in the League over there that aren't in bed with Team Aqua are completely unaware of what it going on within their own region."

"What's your point? That means that they still aren't doing anything about it."

"You'll probably find that they are, or at least trying to in a way that wouldn't alert their colleagues that they know. After all, with something like this, it would be very easy to try and turn to someone that you thought was on the same side as you, and find out that they weren't. That means that you are likely to have multiple allies there, however you won't know that you can trust them, or them that they can trust you, until either you, or they, do something clearly against the interests of Team Magma."

"Alright. Thanks Lance," Ash said, and rubbed Pikachu's electric sacks before letting it leap to Charizard's shoulder before heading to the ship.

Pikachu let out a mournful cry as it saw Ash walk away. Lance calmed it down somewhat by saying, "Don't worry Pikachu, I'm sure that he'll be fine. After all, despite his recent spate of bad luck, he is still one of the strongest trainers in this region. And that's saying something."

XXXXX

After a week that Ash didn't remember he woke up, groaning. When he opened his eyes he forced them shut tight, exclaiming in pain, the light too bright for his beer-addled mind. He heard a female voice say, "I would advise against trying to open your eyes for some time yet."

Ash kept his eyes closed as he asked, "Whr 'm I?"

The voice said, "You were passed out in an alley next to The Drunken Rapidash. We brought you here to rest and recover. You've been having a rough time of it since that happened, haven't you?"

"D'nt wunna tu'k 'bout't."

"I see. Well, be that as it may, there is someone that wants to meet you."

"Hu?"

"Well, you'll find out later, after you are over your hangover."

"'S'at W'at des'r'?"

"Yes; and a ripper of a one by the sounds of it." Ash groaned. "Well, just give it a few minutes...or hours, and you'll get over it."

A few hours later the woman came back in to find that Ash was now sitting up on the bed, looking around for his shirt...and pants for that matter. When the woman came in he said, "Uhh, thanks for bringing me in 'n' all, but..."

"What happened to your clothes?"

"Yeah."

"Well, when we found you your clothes reeked of alcohol. So we had to take them off you before putting you to bed. Speaking of which, you really should have a shower before you meet Courtney."

"Courtney?"

"Yes. The Magma Admin that is in charge of this facility."

"Magma? What's that got to do with anything? I mean, it is buried quite far underground."

"That is for her to tell you. For now, shower."

"Alright, but where?"

The woman said, "There is a bathroom in through that door," indicating a door on the left side of the room, "and a change of clothes in the other one," indicating an identical door on the right. "There is a towel on the rack in the bathroom. I'll come back when you are done." She then left the room.

About thirty minutes later Ash was done in the shower and dried off. He then left the bathroom and walked to the door on the opposite side of the room. He opened the door and found piles and piles of clothes, all of which were red. Ash gulped and shrugged as he said, "Ah well, I guess they like red here, don't they?" He rummaged through them all until he found what he deemed good enough to wear. He ended up wearing a red jacket with two pockets on either breast that fastened with push clips and one on the inside that fastened the same way, below which he wore a black t-shirt. He also found a pair of black pants and black shoes that fit him, that were stuffed under all of the red. The jacket also had a hood that could be stowed in a zippered compartment at the neck. Once he was dressed, Ash said, "Well, it'll do," and knocked on the door.

Soon enough the woman that had been tending to him opened the door and said, "Hello again. It's nice to see you when you don't reek of liquor."

"Uhh...thanks, I think."

"Now, if you'd follow me then I'll take you to Courtney." Ash followed the woman down a nondescript hallway. Somewhere near the end of the hallway she stopped and said, "If you'll go through here Courtney will see you momentarily," indicating a door on the left.

"Sure thing," Ash said, entering the room. When he had he saw that there was a simple table with two identical chairs on opposite sides. He sat shrugged and sat down in the closest one, not saying a word.

Ash didn't have to wait long until a girl that didn't seem to be much older than him, if she was, entered through the door that he had not long ago. She grunted and moved around the other side of the table to take the other seat. When she was seated she silently looked at Ash for about a minute. She sighed and said, "Okay, I'm going to play it straight. We would like you to work for us."

"Work for you? I'm sorry, but I don't know who you are."

"I see. Well then in that case, let me start from the beginning. We are Team Magma and we're seeking to protect the human race from Team Aqua's plans."

"What are they?"

"They want to wipe humanity off of the face of the earth using Kyogre's abilities."

"Okay, so how are you going to do that?"

"That is of no concern to you right now," Courtney said, unwilling to divulge such secrets to a recruit that hadn't even accepted their offer yet.

"Suppose I refuse and try to stop them on my own?"

"An interesting proposition. But I wonder, just how would you go about doing that? I mean, your licence was revoked after all, so all of your pokémon were stripped from you by the Pokémon League."

"Oh, right," Ash said dejectedly. Feigning drunken forgetfulness.

"In any case, if you agree to work with us we have ways of allowing you to work with pokémon once more. That said, you still wouldn't be able to compete in any official competitions. However I get the sense that you were just using those competitions to get stronger for some reason. Otherwise you would not have disappeared off of the proverbial map for so long."

Ash sighed and said, "You're not wrong. My ultimate goal was to become a Pokémon Master," he scoffed, "Not that that is likely to happen anymore."

"Well, there are many ways to achieve that goal."

"Really?" Ash asked, this time not needing to feign anything due to his genuine curiosity.

Courtney thought, 'I've got him.' She said, "Your Professor Oak is considered a Pokémon Master far and wide just for his knowledge about pokémon. Brock Harrison of Pewter City is considered as to being on the brink of achieving masterdom as well. So, as you can see, there are other methods of achieving that goal. We in Team Magma could assist you in your goal, of course, you would, in turn, need to assist us in ours."

"I see," Ash said. "I find these terms...amenable."

"Great!" Courtney exclaimed, things having gone far easier than she could have hoped. "But before we can get to that, we will need you to undertake some training so that you can fit in to our organisation. After all, we wouldn't want the others to think that you are getting special treatment."

Ash shrugged and said, "Fair enough."

With Ash's agreement, Courtney said, "Good. Now, with that over, I'd like you to go back to the room that you were in when you woke up and stay there until someone comes and gets you."

"Alright," Ash said, getting up from his seat and leaving the room. He headed straight to his room.

Courtney followed Ash from the room, but, as soon as he had exited it, she said to her assistant, who had just come out of the next room on the right, and said, "Keep an eye on him."

"Yes sir," her assistant said.

Courtney sighed and said, "How many times do I need to tell you Wendy, we basically grew up together so you can call me Courtney."

Wendy said, "As always, once more than last until I become an Admin," causing her friend to sigh, not for the first time regretting her promotion.

XXXXXXX

A/N

Please review people, it helps keep the creative juices flowing, and me interested in continuing on with this story.