A CHAMPIONS RISE

CHAPTER SEVEN: ROCKETS RETURN AND 'RED'

"Hey, look the Twerp remembers us!" Jessie called.

There was dead silence for about three seconds before everyone was engulfed in a group hug, consisting of Ash, Pikachu, Sarah, Aipom, Jessie, James, Meowth and Wobbuffet. Once the hug was broken, Ash spoke.

"What are you guys doing here? I thought you were staying back in Johto?" He questioned.

"Yeah. Haven't seen you guys since Team Aqua tried to invade Johto two years ago." Pikachu added.

Two years ago, Ash learned that Team Aqua was going to try to expand their reach to the Johto region, which he would not allow so naturally he got himself involved. However, the trio was impersonating Aqua grunts in order to collect a paycheck so Ash had almost blasted them off again unknowingly, despite the trio turning over a new leaf.

So after that incident, Ash and Pikachu had spent the weekend walking around Johto catching up with Jessie, James and Meowth. He was pleased to learn they quit Team Rocket after getting screwed over by Cassidy and Botch, putting their amazing disguise talents to good use.

"We are staying in Johto. We just decided a little vacation was in order to cheer up our favorite Twerp." Jessie informed him, smirking a little.

"So how have ya been?" Meowth asked, sitting on top of Wobbuffet.

"I've been doing good, training hard and all. I decided it was time to finally make a comeback after so long and what better way to do it than by winning the Sinnoh League?" Ash informed them, before realizing something. "How did you guys know I was going to be here?" He questioned. Jessie and James scoffed.

"Please! Only you would use the name 'Red' as cover and your outfit hasn't changed a day since we've seen you last. You need a better disguise." Jessie informed him, gesturing to his cloak old clothes.

"Then there's the fact that the Angry Twerp was here, fighting like he had a job to get to! So we naturally assumed was fighting his way to you!" James continued.

"And o'course there's that all dem other Twiops is here so why wouldn't you be?" Meowth finished.

"Wobba Wobbuffet!" Wobbuffet added, nodding and causing Meowth to hold on tighter.

"Well great to see you guys again. You remember Sarah, right?" Ash asked, motioning to the little girl.

The Rocket's grinned.

"How could we forget the Twerp's little sister?" James said as Jessie patted the girls' head to purposely get on her nerves.

"Don't mind her, Sarah. She just likes to cause trouble." James said, sighing at Jessie.

"Been a while, hasn't it?" Aipom asked, hopping onto the floor and looking up at Wobbuffet.

"Too long!" Wobbuffet responded, taking the purple monkey into an overly tight hug, crying anime tears.

"There. There." Aipom said awkwardly, patting Wobbuffet's head with her long tail in an attempt to make the blue blob feel better, to no avail.

"Great to see you haven't changed." Pikachu commented, sweat dropping from Ash's shoulder still. Ash and Meowth chuckled at the yellow Pokemon's humor.

"Don't even try it." Houndoom grunted as Wobbuffet took a step towards the Fire/Dark type. Wobbuffet seemed to understand and retracted its step and opting to go over to Sarah instead.

"So glad I'm up here." Pikachu muttered to Ash, seeing the blob had not let Aipom go yet. Ash chuckled at his partner.

"Say if you just got here you'd be more than welcome- and you already managed a hideout. Didn't you?" Ash started to offer but stopped once he saw them wearing matching smirks.

He knew that no matter what happened, thieving would always happen here and there with the ex-Rockets, like a little food or hiding in an attic or something so he didn't even try and talk them out of it. Least they weren't out stealing people's Pokemon and selling them anymore.

Jessie and James nodded in satisfactory.

"Do I want to know?" Ash asked in a warning tone. Pikachu chuckled.

Jessie and James shared a glance and silently shook their heads.

"Was anybody permanently injured?" He questioned again.

They shook their heads slowly, as if contemplating together despite no words.

"Injured at all?" He questioned, hesitantly. He was losing hope fast.

"Define injured." The Trio told him at the same time, almost ashamed. Almost.

Ash sighed and shook his head, Pikachu shaking his to make the Rockets feel worse; a little evil sure, but a little guilt never hurt.

"I give up. That's the best I'm going to get with you isn't it?" Ash asked rhetorically.

The trio nodded happily, grinning wide. Ash and Pikachu couldn't help but smile back.

"Come on. We were just sitting out while we could before it got too late." Sarah broke in, smiling with the Wobbuffet attached to her arm.

The Rockets smiled as they begun heading back to the bench they were previously on.

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Trip, Misty, Dawn, Brock, May and Max were all sitting in the room Nurse Joy gave them, sitting on their own beds respectively and talking quietly.

"That Red fellow was pretty good earlier." Misty mentioned. Brock and the Hoenn siblings hesitated a little.

"Yeah he took out all three of that Daisuke guy's Pokemon with just Houndoom. And Daisuke's Pokemon didn't look weak either." Brock said finally.

Trip scoffed.

"Probably some loser who shouldn't be here anyway. We don't even know where he's from. Probably the boonies or somewhere." Trip insulted, rolling his eyes. "No way he could ever beat me."

"Done it before." Max muttered, referring to the Unova League.

"What was that, Max?" Dawn asked, confused. Max flinched but before he could answer May looked up and giggled nervously.

"He said 'Trip will do better than ever before'!" May amended, waving her hands. Max nodded, thankful for the reasonable excuse.

"I don't know. That Houndoom looked awfully strong. And those Pokemon on his shoulders have to be. Did anyone see what they were?" Dawn asked, trying to remember.

"Pikachu and Aipom." Brock said automatically, remembering the encounter with the energetic purple monkey at lunch with Ash.

"Huh?" Trip asked.

"Those two Pokemon; they were a Pikachu and Aipom." Brock repeated. Trip scowled.

"I heard. I meant why would he have them un-evolved? Surely they're his weakest so wouldn't it make more sense to have a Raichu and Ambipom?" Trip questioned bluntly.

"Some people prefer not to evolve their Pokemon." Max defended his long-time idol.

"Yeah. People like Ash and you remember what happened to him?" Misty reminded, waving her hand in a dismissive manner.

Max bit his tongue from telling her 'what happened' was he became stronger than Lance and Cynthia put together for the sake of his friends wishes to remain secret until his preferred time; the Championship.

"Whatever. Still Red has to be good enough if he managed to sweep his opponent, weather he had un-evolved Pokemon or not." May pointed out.

"I wonder if we could talk to him and get some tips. I'll bet that Pikachu would be great in Contests! Aipom even more so!" Dawn daydreamed, looking at the celling.

"Something tells me he won't be too thrilled about that." Max whispered to Brock and May.

"Why?" Trip asked, aggravated and having heard Max. Max froze but quickly came up with an acceptable reason.

"Just by how cold he was to us back at the forest." He replied easily, but inside he was shaking nervously.

The last thing he wanted was to get on Trip's bad side. Although he was sure his sister and Brock could handle him, he had told them all multiple times that he wouldn't hesitate to make them 'vanish' just like Ash should they try and share what happened.

Four years ago the perfect crime was committed, he would say, and he had no problem doing another one.

It was kind of sad, considering even he wasn't sure he had killed Ash. He had just made him disappear, just like the news articles said. There was never a body or a missing persons search conducted; he was assumed dead by most from the beginning except by those who knew him. But even some of them eventually gave up hope that he was coming back. It had been so long.

Even Brock, May, Max, Gary and Oak had almost given up. They had retained hope the longest by far, but even they grew skeptical. But now there was no need for skepticism; Ash and Pikachu were back AND they were here.

And they couldn't want to see the look on Trip's face when Ash was revealed to the world at the end of the League. The Unova-native boy would surely be close to having a heart attack after the name Ketchum was mentioned in the stadium.

"He has a point there." Misty admitted, shrugging.

She didn't think Red would be thrilled about giving out tips judging by his attitude in the forest before. He had been very cold to Trip and her friends in the clearing despite them only being curious about his presence here and weather he was in the tournament or not.

"Cold as he was, he raises some powerful Pokemon. Did you see the power of that Houndoom?" Dawn asked, stars in her eyes.

"Yeah, what of it?" Trip asked sourly. He didn't like someone else getting all the attention.

"The fact that it managed to defeated three Pokemon in a row was incredible! It would have to have been exceptionally strong to manage that. Don't you think?" Dawn continued, as if Trip hadn't spoken.

"And the fact that one of those Pokemon was such a strong one like that Tyranitar. Defeating a Tyranitar is no small feat." Brock added in, rubbing his chin in fake thought. Fake, since he knew just how strong Houndoom actually was.

"Or that Slowking at a type disadvantage." Max commented. Misty scowled.

"That was stupid. He should've switched out once that water Pokemon came in. Everyone knows fire types don't stand a chance against the awesomeness of water types." Misty bragged. May rolled her eyes.

"Then how come Houndoom won?" She asked sarcastically. Misty scoffed.

"Because dark types have the advantage over psychic types, that's why!" The redhead yelled as if it were obvious.

Everyone else, even Trip and Dawn, let out an exasperate sigh.

LINEBREAK

"And then James says 'It was in his hat the whole time!'" Jessie cried, as she burst out laughing.

Everybody else stared blankly at her, confused.

"Eh, Jess, are you feeling alright? We were talking about us getting our Pokemon not the punch line to a series of events that don't make sense to anybody who wasn't there." James asked, puzzled at his friends attitude.

"Well yes but it's common knowledge that once you're back on screen that you quickly make it look like something good happened off screen to leave them wanting more. Duh." Jessie explained, whacking James on the head.

"Leave who wantin' more Jess?" Meowth asked, tilting his head in confusion. Jessie whacked him too.

"The readers of course." She replied as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

James, Meowth, Ash, Sarah, Pikachu, Aipom and Houndoom all gave her blank stares, showing they weren't following her. Jessie sighed over dramatically and turned to Wobbuffet, who was standing beside the bench grinning at everybody.

"You understand, don't you?" She asked the psychic-type.

"Wobba!" He replied with a nod and a salute, grinning at the ex-Rocket girl. Jessie smiled and leaned on Wobbuffet like a stool.

"And that, Wobbuffet, is why you were always my favorite." She said, smiling.

"Wobb Wobbuffet!" The blue blob cried, crying anime tears down his face in happiness.

There was an awkward silence for a few minutes before Sarah decided to break it as she turned to James.

"So what new Pokemon did you get?" She asked the blue-haired man. James smiled.

"Now so much new Pokemon. More like old Pokemon that we got back." James said, tossing up two Pokeballs.

Then Ash and Pikachu recognized the familiar figures of Mime Jr. and Carnivine appearing, both jumping onto James immediately. The duo smiled and Ash turned to Pikachu.

"Some things never change, huh buddy?" He asked the electric mouse.

"Just as affectionate as ever." The mouse commented back, looking at Carnivine gnawing on James' head.

Sarah, now watching with a smile as Mime Jr. copied her various poses, grinned at the little psychic-type.

"So does that mean you have-" Ash trailed off, looking at Jessie who grinned and tossed two Pokeballs also.

And once again Ash and Pikachu recognized the familiar figures known as Seviper and Yanmega appear before them. Seviper immediately stuck its tail under Pikachu, who was on Ash's shoulder still, and slid him down to his head here he began slithering up and down, playing with the mouse as Pikachu squealed with joy.

Yanmega flew in large circles overhead as Aipom tried repeatedly to jump up to her from the top of Wobbuffet's head, much to everyone else's amusement.

LINEBREAK

"Just saying that that Houndoom got well deserved wins that whole match!" Max shouted at Misty, who glared.

"Well deserved? How? It was totally overpowered!" Misty yelled back.

"You just think that because you don't think anything deserves to beat a water Pokemon!" Max cried back.

"Well when else does a fire type beat a water type except when it cheats?" Misty asked expectantly.

Max was fed up. He was sick of her trashing other Pokemon and blabbing about the superiority of her precious 'water Pokemon' even when it was clear that no foul play was involved. Ash and Houndoom won that match fair-and-square! It was Daisuke's fault for Slowking's loss not Ash's! In his haste he, of course managed to yell out the exact wrong thing to say.

"In the Silver Conference!" He blurted, covering his mouth instantly.

But it was too late and the damage was done. Despite the statement being extremely vague everyone in the room knew exactly what he was talking about. And everyone glared.

Chapter 7 is complete!

Hopefully you guys aren't too disappointed with the wait. I told you it was going to be hard with three updating stories but thank you so much for bearing with me! I really appreciate it.

So I know it probably wasn't worth the long wait but it's been a while so it might take a bit before I can get completely back into the swing of things from leaving you all hanging for so long.

Always review, even if you just want to admonish me for my absence it won't matter all opinions are appreciated!

See you all next chapter! Which will hopefully be longer and be out sooner!