While they were eating dinner Ash snapped his head up, looking straight through the ceiling and frowned in confused consternation, thinking, 'How is that posssible? Well, without my staff I can't be sure so I might very well be imagining things.'
Adria asked, "Something wrong?"
"No. just thought I heard something is all."
"Oh," Adria shrugged. "If you say so."
"I do," Ash grinned reassuringly.
Adria thought, 'Hmmm…something's up about him. Right now though it's just a feeling, so I can't go to Erica-sensei or Courtney yet.'
Two weeks later, Adria hadn't seen Ash doing anything out of the ordinary, except for that weird meditation thing that he liked to do after he got up and before they went to bed. When they were done for the day Adria said to Ash, "Hey, do you want to go into Volley Town tomorrow?"
"Volley Town? Isn't that deserted? Not to mention in the middle of nowhere?"
Adria grinned and said, "Nope. Recently people have moved back in and the town is thriving. It's mostly due to the massive arena that they built there."
"Arena?"
"You haven't heard of it?"
"I haven't been back to Hoenn in a while," Ash said as he thought, 'Granted, I was only going back home to get my affairs in order.'
"I see," Adria said. "Well, it's used for lots of things."
"Such as?"
"Contests mainly, but from time to time ther'll be a gym leader tournament held to determine where the gyms are ranked."
"Really?"
"Yeah."
"Must be some pretty epic battles held there then."
"You'd be surprised. Most of them are actually cakewalks. But every three months or so they will host the Battle Tower Tournament here."
"Battle Tower Tournament?"
"Yeah. Trainers from all 'round come to compete in it, with the winner getting to battle against one of the Frontier Brains."
"Really?" Ash asked, thinking, 'That's not good. Maybe I shouldn't…but…ah, what the heck, everyone needs a break now and then.' With that thought in mind, Ash said, "Sure, why not? It'll be good to get away from this place for a bit."
"Great!" Adria exclaimed as she and Ash finished their meals.
The next morning Ash and Adria got dressed, not in their Team Magma Reds, but in normal clothes. Ash was wearing the same ones that he had been wearing when Team Magma first picked him up outside that bar. Adria was wearing a black, plait, mini skirt, black thigh-high socks, black sneakers, a black camisole and a black longline vest. She covered her blonde hair in a pony tails and was wearing black straw hat. Seeing Ash blink when he saw her, she asked, "Something wrong?"
"No, I just wasn't expecting you to wear so much black is all."
Adria replied, "Oh, right. When I was training with Koga, everything that I owned was black. I guess it just hasn't quite left my system," adjusting the satchel that she was carrying over her shoulder that had all of her pokéballs in slots on the outside.
They were both carrying all six pokéballs that they had received from Team Magma because, even if they did automatically decry their being in Team Magma they did still need to be able to protect themselves from wild Pokémon. As they left the compound, Adria called to the guard, "Hey Charlie, do you want anything from the town?"
Charlie called out, "Nay, Lyla got me some grog when she came back yesterday."
"Ah, right," Adria said. She then exited the gate and turned left, leading them in the direction of Volley Town.
As they walked, Ash asked, "'Charlie'?"
"Yeah. He was one of the better trainers that they tried to partner me up with. He passed when they partnered him with Lyla and we've remained frineds ever since."
"'S'at so? Wait. If he lost when you battled against him, why'd…or rather how did you get to know him?"
"Well, back then they started battle training together two weeks after first meeting them. After a few shots at they with me though they gave that up and changed it so that they paired you off with someone of the same level as you are as a trainer."
"I see. Makes sense," Ash said, the logic readily apparent so that even his younger self would ave been able to see it.
They continued on for a bit more in a kind of pseudo-comfortable silence until Ash saw something that made him blink in amazed confusion at something growing on the side of the road that they were walking down. Adria, seeing the look on Ash's face, looked at him worriedly and asked, "What's wrong Ash?"
Ash frowned and said, "Something that shouldn't be here."
"Something that shouldn't…What are you talking about?"
Ash just grinned and saidm, "Want to see a neat trick?"
"A…what are you talking about now? Don't dodge the question. What shouldn't be here?!"
"This…" Ash said, as he walked over to the side of the road and picked something up. He held it up to Adria and said, "…is called a time flower, and they should only grow in the now defunct Rota Kingdom in the Kanto Region."
"In the…then what the heck is it doing here?"
"I don't know," Ash said. As he answered Adria he thought, 'Although…that feeling that I had two weeks ago…could it bave…!?'
"Okay," Adria said, "so what's the trick."
"Oh! Right!" Ash exclaimed. "It's this," letting his aura flow into the time flower. From it as holographic image appeared, shoring Ash and Adria's entire conversation since he had picked it up.
"Wow!" that's…pretty cool!" Adria said. "Here, give it to me. I want to have a go!"
"Alright, Ash shrugged, "but you might be disappointed."
"I might be…why?" Adria asked as she took it from Ash's outstretched hand.
Ash was surprised when, after about thirty seconds or so, the flower emitted a dim yellow glow, but that was all that happened before it shut down. He narrowed his eyes and thought, 'That's what happens when May touches a time flower now that she's been trained. Is Adria a…?'
Seeing the look that Ash was giving her, Adria blinked in confusion and asked, "What? Is there something on my face?"
"No," Ash said, a look more serious than any other that she had seen appearing on his face. He said, "Tell me the truth Adria. Have you been trained in the use of Aura?"
"Aura? What the heck's that?"
"Every living thing has aura within them, though not many still remember, let alone possess the ability to use it."
"Aura…"Adria hesitantly said. She thought, 'It sounds a lot like the Qi that koga-sensei taught me about.' "No," she said, "I've never heard of it before. Why? Does that have something to do with the flower?"
"Yes. Certain aura's can interact with other aura's in different ways. Mine, interacts really easily with time flowers, like you just saw."
"Then why did you ask me if I could use this aura thing?"
"Because, you May not have seen it, but the flower did react to your aura, but because it wasn't the right type, it didn't move onto the next step."
"I see. I guess that that makes sense. Mmm…" Adria said, considering telling Ash about her secondary training with Koga. Instead, she asked, "So, have you had any training in this aura thing?"
"Yes, but I'd like it if you would keep it a secret though."
"A secret? Sure, I guess," Adria said, shrugging a shoulder, seeing no reason to be worried about anything coming form the revelation.
Ash mentally sighed in relief, thinking, 'Thank Ho-Oh for that. If May and I are right, then both Team Magma and Team Aqua have transformed into modern-day versions of the latter days of those two kingdoms. That means that they no longer care about 'saving' the world and are more interested in the destructive aspects of Hoenn's two deities. If that really is the case, then it's also possible that they know of the intervention of the Aura Guardians last time they tried this and May, Riley and I will have massive targets on our backs, as well as on the backs of our families and friends. Of course, that's only if they haven't already realised what May is from her attempt to stop them before they could recreate the first orb.' He noticed Adria's sclera glowing yellow and thought, 'So, not aura, but something similar…or possibly an alternate application?' He shrugged.'Well, if she doesn't want to tell me yet, that's her business. It also means that I can trust her to keep mine too.' He said, "So, wanna see another trick?"
"There's more?!" Adria exclaimed.
"Yep, Ash said, extending his hand, silently asking for the time flower back. When Adria had done so, she saw Ash's eyes glow blue, like they had weeks ago, and he clasped his other hand over the time flower, the same blue energy shining through his fingers. Ash concentrated on controlling his aura like riley had taught him as his powers weren't usually used for things like this. After about two minutes Ash reopened his hands and, in place of the time flower, was a blue, green and purple-red crystal, a lot smaller, but shaped just like the flower had been, though the roots had remained untouched.
Adria blinked in amazement and said, "Woah!" then, hesitantly asked, "Can I touch it?"
"Yeah, sure," Ash shrugged, seeing no problem with the request since her aura hadn't caused the time flower to respond.
Adria turned it over in her hand, examining it from every angle. When Ash saw her trying to break it, he said, "Okay, okay. That's enough of that. I'll take it back now thanks very much." Adria shrugged and handed it back over. "Thanks," Ash said, putting the crystal into one of the pouches on his Team Magma-given pokébelt. As they started walking again, Ash turned to Adria and said, "Hey Adria, do you know if there are any jewellery shops in Volley Town?"
"Jewellery shops? I didn't take you for the type."
Ash grunted and thought, 'Normally you'd be right, but until I get my hands on my staff again, this cryystal'll have to do.' He said, "Yeah, well, we've really only just met."
Adria shrugged and said, "Yeah, I guess. And the answer to your question, is yes. There are a few, but you might have an issue getting that put into a ring."
"Really? Why's that?"
"Uhh…money. Your license was revoked, right?"
"Yeah. But the Pokémon league doesn't have the authority to freeze my accounts and I reached the finals in every League Competition that I competed in, that gets you a lot in prize money. Then there's the gambling side of it too."
"Wait. You bet on your matches?"
"Yeah. Although apparently they have some problems when you try and bet against yourself."
"Yeah, I guess that that kind of makes sense."
"Yeah, though I didn't get it before they explained it ot me."
"When was that?"
"When I was about fifteen or sixteen."
"Which was it? Fifteenor sixteen?"
"It was about seven years or so ago now. I can't really remember that well, alright?"
"Yeah. That makes sense I guess. So…that was when you were in Sinnoh, yeah?"
"Something like that," Ash said as they reached Volley Town. It didn't take them very long to locate a jeweller and they went into the store. When they were inside Ash saw Adria immediately go 'gaga' over all of the jewellery that the store stocked. Ash rolled his eyes and went up to the person that was standing behind a desk with a glass door and top, showing even more of his wares. He said, "Hi. I take it that you work here?" stating the obvious.
The owner joked, "I'm this side of the desk, arent i?"
Ash grunted and said, "I guess so.
"So, what can I do you far sonny? Something for your girlfriend over there?"
"No," Ash said, feeling a small amount of amusement at the question. "She's not my girlfriend." As he talked to the owner of the store, he thought, 'My girlfriend isn't really the type for jewellery. Clothes maybe, but not jewellery, she thinks that it's too much of a hassle to carry around, and, according to her, match it to her different outfits, or some such crap.'
"Okay," the store owner said, "Then why are you here?"
"I want something done for me."
"'S'at right?"
"Yes."
"So, what do you want then?"
"I was wondering if you did any custom work?"
"Not really 'round 'ere, but I do still have my tools from the last place that I worked at."
"Oh?" Ash said. "Where was that?"
"Silver Rock Isle in the Johto Region."
Ash raised his eyebrow and asked, "Would you happen to still have any silver rock lying around?"
"Depends. What do you want it for?"
"A ring."
"A ring?"
"Yeah," Ash said, reaching into his pocket and pulling out the aura crystal that he had created from the time flower. "I'd like it to resemble the head of a Mega Lucario and include this crystal in the design." He handed the crystal over to the jeweller so that he could examine it.
The jeweller narrowed his eyes, looking at the crystal and turned it in his hand. He rubbed his chin, thinking about something. In the end he sighed and said, "Tell you what. You leave this here with me for a few hours and I'll see what I can come up with for you."
"Sure," Ash shrugged. Before he left though he leaned forward and said, "I trust that when I come back that crystal won't have mysteriously disappeared or been replaced," his eyes glowing blue.
The jeweller frowned and said, "I don't think I like what you're implyin' there sonny."
"Neither do I," Ash admitted, letting the glow fade from his eyes, "it's just that in my travels I've seen all sorts of genuine-seeming people turn into little more than petty thieves."
"I see. Well I guess that it's fair enough then. No go, have some fun with your not-girlfriend." As rolled his eyes and left the store, half-dragging Adria with him.
When his customers were gone, the frown returned to the jeweller's face and said, "Now, just what exactly are you?" as he got a loupe from a drawer in the desk and lifted the crystal up to it. As he took the finer details of it in, he thought, 'This thing. It lacks the structure of a crystal, but it's farr too coarse to be an actual gemstone. It's almost like something in between the two. But how could that be? Wait…Didn't I read about something similar in one of my great great grandfather's notes? I wonder…do I still…' he then got up, moved around the desk, closed the store and went out the back before he went up two flights of stairs to his 'library'. Though he referred to it as a library, in reality it was just a room with an armchair in it and one wall had a bookcase that was full with every book that he owned. He immediately moved to where he kept the journals of his ancestors and picked up his great great grandfather's before sitting down in the armchair to read it.
PY 1799,12,9.
Today a strange customer came into my store and requested that I make her an armlet and embed a strange stone that had some weird symbol on it. Even stranger was that she wanted me to style it in the form of one of her Pokémon. I'd never seen its like before. It was really odd. It looked as if it was wearing pink baggy pants and some stupid hat, though I can't for the life of me imagine why she'd do that to her Pokémon. She was actually pretty hot, but the request soured me to her. So I told her that I'd fill her request, as long as she let me examine some weird jewel that she had set into the top of her staff. I only wanted to do so because it looked like those new pokéball things that little Erica is going on about. She's probably just jealous because the rich parents of her friend just got their daughter one. Maybe in a few years the price will drop. We'll just have to wait until then. That's if she's still interested then. But, if she'd like her mother she'll probably end up…
The jeweller skipped ahead, having little use for his great great grandfather's griping about his daughter.
…when I placed my loupe against the pokéball-esque gem, I was surprised. It was unlike anything that I'd seen before. It was almost too pure to be classified as a gemstone. I asked her where she got it, but she refused to tell me, though she did say that even if I did go to where she got it, it wouldn't do me any good. I pushed her, telling her that I wouldn't do it unless she told me. She left my store so I called the other jewellers and got them to blacklist her, so she came back later and, I swear, her eyes were glowing yellow. It was almost scary, the way her voice echoed around the store. I forced myself to hold my ground though and eventually she caved in and told me where she found it. Apparently it was in some place called 'The Dragon's Holy Land'. Luckily I'm from the Hoenn Region and dragon types abound over there. I think that I'll take a week next month to find this Den of Dragons.
The jeweller thought, 'I have ancestors from Hoenn too? Who knew?' and flipped forward a month in the journal.
…Sigh. Well, she was right. I didn't find a damn thing. Well, I did find a strange glass-like yellow leaf, but they were far too fragile for what I saw in the pokéball-crystal on that lady's staff. Sigh. I guess I'll never get to the bottom of the mystery of that crystal. Wait! Now that I think about it, back home there was a rumour about some organisation that could make use of some kind of weird energy. They were supposed to usually be seen with a staff and a fighting type. I suppose that it's possible that she's related to them, but I thought that it had been destroyed decades ago in a big war against…who was it again…? Well, I suppose that it doesn't matter really. I'll probably never see her again anyway.
The jeweller sighed and said, "So, he could be from some super secret organisation from centuries ago…or, at least the remnants of it anyway. If that's the case, then I don't think that I want to mess with him. He seemed far more willing to use force to get what he wanted than that lady that my great great grandpa was dealing with." He sighed again and said, "Well, better get to it. First things first though, what the heck is a Mega Lucario?"
A few hours later Ash and Adria returned and the jeweller started flipping through a series of designs for Ash to see. While they were doing that, he asked, "If you don't mind me asking, why did you specify silver rock as the base?"
"Why do you ask?"
"Well, there are a few reasons really, but the main one is just that not that many people know about silver rock that aren't from Silver Rock Isle."
"Oh. That. I competed in the whirl cup."
"You competed in it?!"
"Yeah. I got into the top eight too, but my totodile just wasn't strong enough, leaving kingler to beat two basically fully healed Pokémon by itself."
"I see. That's too bad."
"Yeah. Tell me about it. If I could enter it again, it'd be a very different story."
"If?" the jeweller asked as Ash flipped through more designs.
"The Pokémon League thought that I cheated during a gym match and rev oked my trainer license."
"Seriously?!...then…how'd you make it all the way out here?"
"Well, I've got a pretty good bodyguard over there…" Ash said, shaking his thumb towards Adria. "…and I'm pretty tough too, even without my Pokémon."
The jeweller said, "Tell you what, why don't I just use the last design?"
"The last one?"? Ash asked as he flipped to the lback of the book.
The jeweller explained, "The blue of the crystal that you ggave me would be attached to the base of the ring and the markings on its face would be made of silver rock. It would also be used to reinforce the ears and make the six things extending from the back of its head. The red crystal would be attached to the ends of them and embedded in the blue crystal for the eyes. How does that sound?"
"It sounds great!" Ash excitedly said, thinking, 'That much silver rock might just be able to reinforce the crystal's bower, letting me do that. It'll still be a poor substitute for my staves, but hey, in the end you've gotta make do with what you have at hand.' He said, "So, how much will it be?"
"Hmm…let's say…twenty five hundred."
"2500? Su…"
"Hey!" Adria yelled. "That's way too much for a ring that he'd providing the gemstone for!"
The jeweller said, "Look girlie, normally you might be right, but for this order I need to smelt some of my stock to get the silver rock and I've never worked with anything close to resembling the crystal that he wants me to work into it. All of that will take a lot of time. Time which this store will need to be shut down for."
"I…see…"Adria said, gulping at the anger displayed by the jeweller.
Ash sighed, gaining the attention of both Adria and the jeweller. He said, "Don't worry about it Adria. Twenty five hundred really is a little price to pay for what I'm getting out of this."
"Really?" Adria pointedly asked, not believing him.
"Yes," Ash said, smiling and nodding silently. Seeing that his partner had calmed down somewhat, Ash turned back to the jeweller and asked, "So,m how long?"
"How long? Hmm…I'd say…about six weeks."
"Six weeks!" Ash exclaimed. "I don't have that long."
"So, a rush job is it?" Ash nodded, dumbstruck by the amount of time that it would take. The jeweller sighed and said, "Tell you what. 'Cause I like you, I'll shut down shop and focus everything I have for your ring. That way it should be ready in a few days."
Ash let out a sigh of relief and said, "Thank you. Really. You've no idea how good that is to hear."
"Ye-eah…about that…"
"Hmm?" Ash queried, raising both eyebrows.
"I'll also have to double the price."
"Seriously?!" Ash exclaimed as, even if he did have the money, in spades, it was still five grand.
"Yeah. Store policy. Rush jobs cost double."
"I see," Ash said, resigned to the cost increase. He said, "Fine. If you insist," And shrugged, as if to reinforce his consent.
Ash went back to the store with Adria three days later and he was pleasantly surprised to see that the Mega Lucario ring that he'd commissioned looked even fiercer than the drawing had made it out to be. When he had it in his hands Ash immediately puit it on and felt the power within it and was shocked. He blinked, thinking, 'This is…it's almost as powerful as one of my staves! That silver rock sure did a good job at reinforcing the aura crystal's power.'
The jeweller then handed a box over to Ash, saying, "I don't know if you use them, but there was enough crystal and silver rock left to make a pair of cufflinks for you."
"Seriously?!" Ash exclaimed, opening the box and seeing that they were in the distinctive silver wing pattern used in just about everything on Silver Rock Isle. He thought, 'These will come in handy if Adria and I ever need to infiltrate some hoity-toity to-do.' He said, "So, do I owe you any extra for the cufflinks?"
"No. you're already being forced to pay double what those items are really work, so it's on the house." When the store owner saw Ash seeming to consider paying extra anyway, he said, "Oh! Before I forget…" and reached into the drawer in the desk again. "Here," he said, tossing the elongated box in his hand to Adria. "These're for you."
"They're for…what are the…" Adria's eyes widened as she opened the box. She said, "I can't!" seeing the pendant necklace and matching ring that had the same blue crystal set into them."
"Don't be ridiculous," the storeowner said. "Those aren't silver rock. They're just set in some spare bases that I had lying around. Like you said, five grand for that ring really was too much, besides, I kind of got the feeling that if I didn't use them for the pair of you, this guy here would be asking for the crystal fragments back anyway."
"We-el-ll," Ash said, tilting his head to the left and shrugging his right shoulder, admitting that the jeweller was right.
"In that case…thank you, thank you very much," Adria said, a blank look on her face, still stunned by what the jeweller had done. She left the store as Ash paid, not wanting to let the jeweller have any second thoughts about what he'd done.
As Ash left the store, the jeweller thought, 'I don't know what the relationship between those two is, but I hope that those things help them somehow.'
As Ash walked back to the compound wearing his ring, it was easy for him to feel the power emanating from the boxes that they had been given and it was far, far, stronger than Ash had been expecting from such small items. He thought, 'Damn! I'll really need to tell Riley about this when…actually, where is May? Her sensing abilities far outstrip both Riley's and my own, so finding me of all people shouldn't pose too much of a problem. On top of that, it's been three weeks already! Have they come up with a system to block auric sensing? Or worse, has she been captured? If that's the case, then I'm going to have to break my cover, no matter what. But this thing with Adria being able to use aura…maybe there is a greater purpose to my being here than the coincidence that Lance was concerned about. In that case May would understand my not coming for her, though she'd probably be pretty angry if she thought that there was ever the slightest possibility of me having anything remotely resembling attraction to Adria. Wait a sec. with this ring, I should be able to contact her despite either scenario. Well, hopefully anyway.' With that, Ash put his hand in his coat's pocket and slipped off the ring that he'd commissioned.
Ash and Adria were walking down the road, on their way back to the team magma compound, when all of a sudden the ground gave way beneath them. A few seconds later, Adria pushed herself up, off the ground, rubbing her arse as she groaned, "What the heck was that?"
Ash groaned, "It's a pitfall tra…"
But, before Ash could finish, three figures appeared above them and one with long hair sticking out from the back of her head said, "Did I hear 'what was that'?"
A masculine voice said, "You did, and that's a fact," before continuing on to say, "Since you asked, we'll tell you loud and clear."
The woman said, "Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace…"
The man said, "Dashing hope and…"
Ash interrupted them, saying, "Yeah, yeah, I know who you are Team Rocket. Although, I must admit that it has been a while since I heard that one."
Adria looked at Ash and then back at the three members of Team Rocket, then back to Ash and said, "Do you know these three jerks?"
Ash sighed and said, "Yeah. It's odd, but ever since I began my journey I've never actually been able to get rid of them."
"Have you tried contacting Officer Jenny?"
"Yeah. I've worked with them a bunch of times, but they always manage to get away and find me again." Ash thought, 'Actually, they could actually be of use for once,' and slipped his ring back on. He looked at Adria and asked, "Can you get out?"
"Yeah," Adria said. As soon as she had, her sclera glowed yellow.
Ash, having just activated his aura sight, causing his eyes to glow blue, saw Adria pushing her aura to her calves, feet, forearms and hands. As he watched her bound from one side of the pit to the other, he saw several smallish yellow…globule type things on the side of the walls that she was using to anchor herself to the walls with, he thought, 'That's just like…well, we can deal with that later. For now…' he lifted his hand out of his pocket, the ring on. He surrounded himself in an aura barrier and rose up out of the pit, letting the barrier flicker in and out of 'normal sight'. When he was above the pit, he released the 'barrier' part of his manipulation and instead used it to create a 'floor' for him to stand on above the pit. He sighed and said, "You three jokers. I should have known. Although, thinking back, it has been a while since you tried that one."
"Can't beat a classic," Meowth said.
"Uhh… these three friends of yours Ash?" Adria asked.
"Not exactly, but we go way back," Ash said, sighing again, more exasperated than annoyed.
After that, Ash's ring glowed and he James heard, "That's why I know that I can trust you with this," in his head.
James thought, 'Am I going crazy? I could almost swear that I just heard the twerp.'
"You're not crazy James, though I think that I'm a bit too old to be called a 'twerp' now, don't you?"
'Maybe so, but old habits die hard.'
"I guess so," Ash communicated. "Which means that I'll need to be quick about this before jessie pisses off Adria."
'Quick about what?'
"I need you to do something for me, and I need you to do it as quickly as possible. Alright?"
'It depends what it is.'
"Fair enough. When push comes to shove, I know that you'll do the right thing. I need you to go to Pallet Town and get my Mum to give you my staves and take them to Giovanni."
'Giovanni flew the coop a few years ago.'
"You lot are still members of Team Rocket. That means that someone took the reigns. It doesn't matter who that is, just get those staves to them."
'I see. Why do you want that though?'
"Be with your boss at say… eight o'clock…five days from now with those staves and you'll find out then."
'Five days? I'm afraid that there may be a problem with that.'
"Why?"
'Team Rocket HQ moved to Johto after that business with the Viridian City Gym. Getting to Pallet Town itself within five days will be a bit of a task. Getting to Team Rocket HQ, is just not possible in that timeframe.'
Ash mentally sighed and communicated, "Fine. Just tell Professor Oak that I've given you permission to use two of my Charizard."
'Two of your…? You're giving us two of your Pokémon?'
"No. I'm loaning you two of them to speed up your trip."
'I see. That makes sense. But I'm afraid that your plan is still a no-go.'
"Why's that?"
'Both your mother and Professor Oak have met us before. Or have you forgotten that fiesta fiasco from all those years ago?"
"Fiesta fias…"
'Before you left for the Orange Archipelago.'
"Oh yeah, there was that, wasn't there?"
'So there you go. There is nothing but a bad end to your scenario.'
"Hmm…" Ash mentally sighed. "Tell mum…that I said Silver."
'Silver? What does that mean?'
"She'll know," Ash communicated in a tone that James couldn't remember coming from him in all the time that they'd known him.
'Alright. I'll talk to Jessie and Meowth and see what they say.'
"That's not good enough!" Ash yelled in James' head.James winced and Ash communicated, "Sorry 'bout that James. It's just that the stakes involved this time, are like nothing that that we've faced before. Even higher than that time with Team Galactic." James' face lost all of its colour. "So you see, you have to convince them, or the whole planet is doomed."
Ash cut off his communications with James, his eyes losing their glow as he saw Jessie catch fire and scream, "That's it! I'm done talking, Neo-twerpette!" and grabbed a pokéball.
"Okayy…" Ash said, as he stepped off of the platform, letting the glow from his ring fade away, a fact missed by all except for Meowth, whose eyes were level with the ring. "…wait right there Jessie."
Jessie stumbled, not letting go of her pokéball. She looked at the twerp and demanded, "What is it, this time, twerp?"
"I don't have Pikachu with me right now, so what point is there to battling me now?"
"You don't have…" Jessie said, looking at Ash harder now than she had been earlier.
"Well…what about Lucario?"
"Sorry, don't have her either."
"Well…why not?"
"Haven't you read the Kanto News?"
"The…"
"I was stripped of my license due to the Kanto Courts overturning the ruling of the Kalos Courts' ruling about that whinging bitch of a gym leader."
"Oh yeah, there was that, wasn't there?"
"Yeah," Ash said, not needing to fake his anger about the incident. "So, if you don't want to get blasted off by Adria, I suggest, that you leave." Team Rocket stood looking at each other and Ash angrily said, "Now!" trying to hurry them along so that they could get underway on their trip to Pallet Town already.
James said, "He does have a point Jess."
"Maybe," Jessie said, "but then it's kind of like we wimped out, isn't it?"
"It's better than the other option," James said, recognising the look on Adria's face and not liking where it had lead in the past.
Jessie sighed and said, "Fine. Have it your way," returning her pokéball to its place in her belt. As she walked away she said, "I'll see you again Neo-twerpette! Then the twerp won't be there to save you!"
James followed Jessie, saying, "Next time we'll…"
"Dat's enough!" Meowth said, pushing James along."If we don't move now we gon' lose Jessie!" knowing just how she got when she thought that she was being left out, or alone, and not wanting to deal with that again.
When Team Rocket was gone, Adria turned to Ash and said, "So, what was that all about?"
Ash sighed and said, "It's a long story," as he began walking again.
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A/N
Please review people, it helps keep the creative juices flowing, and me interested in continuing on with this story.
