Misfits

by A Wordsmith

Ash Ketchum never did things by half. If he wasn't getting his preferred starter, he'd take the battlehungry ekans over any other.

10. Soul Badge

Ash's pokedex chirped quietly in the darkness. He growled as the tone kept ringing on and on, never stopping, until at last it bleeped sadly and shut off, leaving him with a prerecorded read over of Officer Jenny's voice.

As a trainer, he only had access to a few people from the beginning. League hotlines, Professor Oak, a few researchers. He could gather contacts but only from those that had pokedexes or other such devices, which was rare. So that was already a damper on his plan to inform someone of the takeover at the Research Lab.

He didn't even know whether someone was still there, but it was the only thing that made sense. If Team Rocket had done a quick get-in-get-out operation, the news would have hit the public. And unless they had only done it a few days ago and all of the people in there were missing, someone would have alerted the police.

The League hotline rang through a few times before settling onto a not very professional sounding recording. The buzz in the background spoke of many people moving and shouting and running around.

I'm sorry, but the League hotline is not available at this time. If you have any questions or concerns about the SS Anne or any of its passengers, please say 'SS Anne' clearly at the beginning of your message. If you have any other immediately pressing concerns, please say 'emergency' at the beginning of your message. These messages will be recorded and written down. We will look at them as soon as we can. Please have a nice day.

Sighing, he waited for the beep. "Emergency. I was on the SS Anne when one of the Team Rocket members told me they had attacked the Pokemon Fossil Research Lab. I am heading that way right now." He pressed the disconnect button and let his hands fall to his sides. Apep crooned up at him.

Officer Jenny - the one in Lavender, he hadn't exactly gotten a lot of official numbers from the gruff police officers - hadn't even had time to change her voicemail with the chaos that was no doubt happening in every League building across the region. Brock wasn't there either and Professor Oak was nada.

So he would have to figure out what was happening himself. And that meant going through one of the most untouched parts of Kanto.

The world swam before him in a sea of green trees and curled vines. For the most part, Kanto was well-maintained. The core four cities - Vermillion, Cerulean, Celadon, and Saffron City - had short paths connecting each other with defined routes and occasional landmarks. ACE trainers were speckled over the routes to protect people traveling and the League always maintained the forests and grasslands to keep away too powerful pokemon.

Pewter City was like that, but to a lesser decree. The strength and therefore demand of most rock and ground types, as well as the rumors of clefairy colonies, had kept the city at least in a good position. It spent a fair amount of money keeping its paths high quality, and had several passes that non-trainers could take around Mount Moon, though the mountain generated too much of their income to even think about removing it. The same was with the Rock Tunnel on Route 9 and 10 - Lavender Town had two other entrances to their town and the Rock Tunnel was a fragile environment. Attempting to move the mountain or the pokemon would ruin many lives there, and the League had strictly forbidden any sort of digging or mining in Mount Moon, the Rock Tunnel, or two other mountains or mountain ranges across Kanto.

Most of those mountains were around Fuchsia.

Fuchsia City was much farther away from the core four cities, the three routes of 16, 17, and 18 taking only slightly less than a month to travel one way. It was a relatively self-surviving town, which was only helped by the fact it was dumped directly in the middle of a rainforest.

Kanto was grasslands and forests, except for on its lowermost section. It was closely pressed to the ocean and had the least human settlement. While it wasn't a true rainforest, still having four seasons and its density not even remotely close to that of Kalos' Forest of the Clouds, the sheer humidity and undergrowth marked it as a perfect spot for many tropical florae to grow.

But the routes were far from well maintained. For the most part, the only people walking those thin paths were trainers hunting for more pokemon or those lacking access a psychic type. League forces or regular people just used Teleport or paid for the services of a League psychic in order to avoid the rainforest, and as such the routes were only swallowed more and more by the forest surrounding. The mountain range encircling most of the Fuchsia area only added to the uneasiness.

But Ash had come from narrow, stunted trees used to having to survive fire and poison attacks, ones that never really grew taller than thirty feet, and an undergrowth that sat meekly on the ground in clumps of shaking brambles and broken twigs. The hardest path he had walked had been through the Viridian Forest, which was only slightly worse than the other routes around Kanto.

The Fuchsia Wilderness seemed much more alive. Even though the sun was well-disappeared, wildlife flickered through vibrant green bushes towering above his head. Branches from the trees over fifty to a hundred feet tall wove together, stretching endlessly up in order to scratch a position in the sun's rays. The path wasn't hard packed dirt, just earth stamped by hundreds of pokemon feet. More than once, he had seen a trail some pokemon had stamped through the underbrush and had to second guess himself as to which was the correct path to follow.

There, in the Wilderness, surrounded on all sides by endless growth and wild pokemon not kept in check by the League, he thought that perhaps now he had gotten as close as he could to the ancient trainers of old, armed with a pokeball number less than two hundred for the entirety of Kanto and outnumber several hundred to one of pokemon.

Apep slithered next to him, rich purple scales sliding smoothly over the dirt. He wasn't a forest dweller's pokemon, even more so now that he had evolved, but he was all about heat. Though pokemon had evolved to keep themselves safe in almost every condition, he was still at least partially cold-blooded. Heat was something he did not take for granted, and the Wilderness held more than enough for any cold night or dip in chilly waters. He was practically vibrating as he slithered along, golden eyes wide and second eyelid retracted.

Ash was happy as well, though slightly less so. He grimaced at a slight pain in his feet. It had probably saved him but the boots he'd taken off in the water to not weight down his feet had been rather high quality and he'd grown attached - the ones he was wearing now were much cheaper, actual tennis shoes. At least he was wearing acceptable clothes and had all of his supplies. When he got back to Fuschia, he'd buy a new pair of boots.

But that would not be until a while.

Proton had been far from subtle and he had a mission.

The Pokemon Fossil Research Lab was settled in the rather close to Fuschia, which was blessedly brilliant. Off the main routes, people had been searching for pokemon when they discovered a hidden underground located within the mountain range of the Wilderness. That had only been less than two decades ago. It was made up of caverns and cave systems and even small canyons, all made of thick rock and full of pokemon that had had centuries without human interaction to grow more and more powerful. Fossils covered the walls and, after securing away the actual underground caverns from the general public, the League had immediately slapped down a research lab. It was kept rather hush-hush, the public knowing of their existence but not much else, at least until they started succeeding. Less than ten years after their creation, using Blaine's expertise and incredible luck, the Research Lab successfully brought a pokemon back to life - a tiny, baby omanyte, who survived for twenty days.

On their third try, they successfully created an immune system that would survive today's environment as well as adjusted their skin and bone density. That omanyte was still alive today, affectionally named Dolly and given a spoiled lifestyle. But on their seventh try, they were able to rebuild the organs needed for evolution and after that, their success rates went soaring up.

It was still a new idea, and few had ever seen a fossil pokemon. The researchers kept a close eye on them all, because while fossil pokemon could either be rather harmless while scared, like the omanyte and kabuto, there were also monsters, both from Kanto and other regions, that would level mountains when moderately irritated. For the most part, there were several fossil pokemon considered 'native' to certain regions. Of course, as per modern pokemon, nearly all had spread across the world. Kanto had omanyte and kabuto, two water types, which was rather strange since most considered it to be more of a grassland region. But nevertheless, those two pokemon were what Kanto had to offer. Aerodactyl, being flying types, were often found in every region as fossils, though there had only been a few properly brought back. They were angry pokemon whose tempers could rival those even of tyranitar. It made perfect sense that Proton would steal one of those.

He pressed on, clipping his pokedex back to his belt. One straight hour of trying to call every person he knew connected to the League. Even Professor Oak, who he thought might be the one far enough away from the disaster to be able to help him, was unavailable. The SS Anne was striking everyone.

Ash knew he had barely escaped with his life. A beginner trainer with only four pokemon facing Team Rocket's Executive Proton wasn't something that was going to turn out in his favor any time soon, he knew that. All of his pokemon had to grow stronger.

But he wouldn't just stand back this time. His pokemon deserved that. They had almost been captured and only by breaking out of their pokeballs had they been allowed to fight back. But not any longer.

Apep hadn't even gotten that chance. He'd been knocked out, unable to break out even if he had regained consciousness inside his pokeball. And Ash had only used him once in the tournament - all of his other pokemon had seen at least two battles. It wasn't fair to his starter.

His final evolution had given him more strength, but Ash knew that therein lied the new problem. Most trainers favoured three evolution pokemon, which made sense. Ro's evolution had given him more power and evolving again would only help, that was true. But for Apep, who was widely considered to be a garden pest that evolved quickly and peaked even sooner, he would have to fight for his future power instead of just gaining it in an evolution. But he was Ash's starter. Lance, someday, would watch as his final dragonite fell beneath Apep's speed and strength.

Apep rumble-hissed, the sound shaking Ash back to wakefulness. He guessed his concussion wasn't completely gone, but the minor headache it presented was easily manageable, if annoying. He stretched a hand out, only thin streams of moonlight crackling through the overhead canopy of trees, and found Apep's head to stroke the smooth scales there. "I'm fine, bud. Just thinking."

The snake didn't look like he bought that, but continued moving on nonetheless.

"I just- I'm sorry I haven't been working with you. I mean, we train and everything, but I've been working with Ro and Vulpix and Siren more. You only fought one battle in the tournament and I couldn't even let you heal."

Apep moved closer, pressing part of his body against Ash's side. A gentle hiss reached his ears. Guessing the mood and seeming to want to lighten it up, Apep trilled and flicked his tail at Ash's back. He grinned and swatted the arbok's hood, who hissed in faux disgruntlement, flaring the grinning face.

"But I'm going to make it up to you, bud. After we check out the Fossil Research Lab, I'm - we're - going to challenge the gym here. It uses poison types, which means that you're going to shine, bud. And after that, we'll have three weeks on the road of training before we have the next gym, Celadon! And that means grass types. And do you know what you're strong against, Apep?"

There was a pleased trill.

"And a month'll have passed when I reach Celadon, maybe, and you know what that means? A prize from Officer Jenny. And that prize will be-"

He stopped as something reached his eyes.

A sign, perched in a small section of cleared tropical brush. Some sort of thorny plant slunk around the wooden post, the Wilderness straining to reclaim even that tiny clear area. Words were scrawled over the surface: Official Kanto Pokemon Fossil Research Lab. It was written on plastic to avoid deterioration and after it began a paved road, one with a sharp turn at the end. Ash put his hand on Apep's head, who trilled and leaned down slightly to give him an easier time, breath trickling down his throat.

The top corner of the sign was eroded away, globs of melted plastic sitting in puddles on the ground.

He kept walking.

Around the turn stood the building.

It was a magnificent thing, made of gleaming silver metal only two stories tall. He could see that on either side of the building, the Wilderness had been hacked and cleared back in order to make room for an enormous fence, one taller than the building. It was what blocked off trainers from entering the underground caverns where they found the fossils. It was both to protect the pokemon from trainers as well as to protect the trainers from the pokemon. Made of gleaming iron that seemed to even rival the shine of the Silver Jungle of Saffron, it stretched on until it was reclaimed by the trees, though he knew it was still there. It wrapped around the entire mountain valley, snugly fitting everything inside.

The building was just as incredible. Windows gleamed from metal casings, shiny surfaces tinted to block incoming light. The front entrance extended farther out, marked with swinging glass doors. A dome extended from one side and he could see a recreation of the environment outside, full of trees and grass. There was definitely something moving within, though it was slightly blocked by the fence in front of it. While it would only take a powerful enough flying type that could avoid faint psychic barriers to get over the fence, there were a dozen pokemon guarding the fence at random intervals that would teleport in the instance something attempted to cross the border.

And it was all wrong. Some sort of battle had taken place here - the normally pristine metal on the building was scarred with burns, three gaping marks spread in a crisscrossed pattern slightly above the door. A sludge of poison steamed near the door - fresh. But he couldn't hear anything from the building, even as he moved closer. Apep hissed darkly, flicking his tongue out at the pile of quietly shrieking poison. But neither of them moved closer, tucked in the shadows of the trees, and for good reason.

For there, perched in the shadowy respite from the sun above the door, was a collection of bat-like pokemon. Five zubat and one golbat, each of the zubat firing off occasionally sluggish screeches that brought back waves of data for them while the golbat merely starred impassively over the field, eyes alight with a fury despite the pokemon barely twitching in the slightest.

Ash's eyes slid down to the puddle of poison. It was a purple, only darkened slightly. One of the mildest shades available for pokemon. Whatever pokemon that had created that hadn't been very strong. Team Rocket was notorious for using quantity over quality, and while he had heard that they used the zubat line as guards outside of their buildings, it didn't seem like they were well-trained.

Except for the furious anger all held, even with no enemy in sight or even the barest hints of a reason.

He had chased away a few unruly flocks of zubat before, mainly in the Rock Tunnel where they were slightly bolder. A few hits and they'd all leave, though he had a feeling these pokemon wouldn't do that. He needed to knock them out.

Vulpix might be able to do it, but she was flashy, and he hadn't brought her out in the thick and heavily present humidity that plagued the Wilderness yet. Siren would probably be able to handle them all, but she was far too slow to dodge the more powerful golbat. Ro was too slow overall, though his Ice Beam would knock them far out of the sky.

Apep was already out.

All of them were poison types, which meant that while Apep wouldn't be able to be hurt by half of their moves, neither would they. But being immune to poison only meant that the actual poison would be absorbed into his body, not that the knockback would be lessened any, or at all. "Apep, how sharp can you make your Poison Stings?"

Apep narrowed his eyes slightly, hooded spreading slightly, before spitting out a single needle. He had gotten much better control lately and it showed - the needle was about as thick as half of Ash's wrist and as sharp as a dagger.

"Can you make them smaller? Like this." He held up his thumb, twisting it around to let Apep see every angle. The next second, two much smaller needles joined the first on the ground.

While the larger needles were much more devastating, he didn't want to kill the zubat. "Okay, bud. I need you to fire Poison Stings at those pokemon, but aim for the wings. If you can pierce them, they fall and you can knock them out using only Bite, not Crunch, okay?"

Apep hissed, rattling the end of his tail despite the lack of noise, and moved forward slightly. The golbat was facing the opposite direction and its eyes were bad enough that as long as Apep stayed close to the trees, he would be fine. The zubat would be harder to avoid, but echolocation only worked as long as they were firing it.

His throat swelled. One of the zubat turned slightly toward him and shrieked quietly, the pits where its eyes hadn't developed yet twisting.

Apep hissed and spat over a dozen tiny needles.

Four struck home. Three zubat shrieked and pain and fell to the ground, collapsing in the rays of the sun. They shrieked louder and struggled toward the shade of the door before the needles punched through the membrane of their wings and the blinding sunlight knocked them out.

The golbat howled at the needle in its wing but didn't fall. Narrow, hate-filled eyes swung toward Apep and stayed there.

Another wave of Poison Stings blasted two more zubat off of their perch. The golbat ducked and swerved to avoid them neatly, barreling toward Apep.

The cobra pokemon merely opened his mouth, all two dozen fangs shining a pitch, shadowed black, and lunged forward to slam Bite onto the poison and flying type. Another shriek and the golbat flopped to the ground.

Apep slithered forward and nipped at one last struggling zubat with Bite, knocking it out completely. Then, at Ash's hurried motions, he shot toward the trees and curled up next to his trainer, eyes narrowed and searching.

After half a minute, the shining doors were slowly pushed open. A black-clothed person poked their head out, scanning the field quickly. Their eyes immediately landed upon the passed out zubat and golbat. Six red flashes of light later, they were all withdrawn and the Team Rocket grunt fully emerged from the safety of the building.

Ash's fists clenched at the sight of the crimson letter on their chest. He could restrain himself from ordering Apep to knock them out.

"Sir?" A masculine voice said. The grunt had a communication device in his hand and was talking quickly with someone on the other end. "The guards have been knocked out… no, just another pokemon, I think, sir. There's no trainer around here and I think one of the zubat are missing, probably eaten, although I can't really remember how many we had in the first place. Yes, there's an extra pokeball here. I'll put it by the desk. What do you want me to do?" A second pause. "Right. I'll get new guards from the back. Thank you, sir."

The grunt gave one last suspicious stare around the clearing, before walking back inside. Ash couldn't help the slight grin that flickered over his face.

He wouldn't win by charging inside without a care in the world. His pokemon weren't strong enough yet, especially if they banded together or someone stronger than a grunt tried to take him down.

But sneaking his way in had far more merit.

Creeping forward, he pressed his back up against the side of the building, keeping far away from any gleaming window. Apep laid flat against the ground and curled up slightly, slithering forward in jerky motions to make sure no one could see him as he paused every few seconds to check all directions. Ash moved closer to the door, hunched back. The grunt had said they'd grab more guards from the back. But how long would that give him to get in?

His belt vibrated.

He had to slam his hands over his mouth to prevent yelling a curse word, but after a second his racing nerves calmed and he realized the muted ringtone would attract attention he did not want at the moment. Hands jittery, he snatched up his pokedex and flicked it on. Officer Jenny was calling, the one from Lavender Town. He accepted as quickly as he could.

"Hello?" He murmured, keeping his shoulders low.

"Ketchum! What the hell is going on? Team Rocket and the Research Lab?" She barked back instantly, and he hadn't ever been so grateful he had lowered the volume to the quietest setting. Her voice was just as gruff as he remembered and there was a pant in her words that suggested heavy exercise before this moment.

"I'm at the Lab right now. Just knocked out half a dozen pokemon guards and saw a grunt come out. I'm going in to try and help whoever might be inside." Maybe, if he made it sound as certain as he could, she wouldn't teleport right there and smack him for even thinking of it. He could picture her, the bright blue hair he had seen her pull back into her more unique boyish cut as to not let it fall into her eyes and heavily muscled body she hadn't gained from sitting back. If she were here now, he didn't doubt that he'd be frozen by the furious stare she was leveling at her device.

But to no small amount of surprise from him, her voice changed from gruff and slightly worried to authoritative and commanding. "How many pokemon do you have on you?"

"Four. Arbok, nidorino, vulpix, and frillish."

"Have you contacted any other Officer Jennys or anyone else that is in a position of power in the League?" There was some sort scratching sound as other people rushed around her, and her voice was muffled as she shouted something at someone he didn't know and couldn't hear.

"Professor Oak and Brock, and all of the numbers I could reach. I haven't gotten a response yet." This was the voice, he imagined, that she used on new recruits or other workers. It wasn't what she had used with him when she promised him a reward or congratulated him after defeating Team Rocket. That voice had still said he was just a beginning trainer. Though they weren't equals, her tone suggested she was at least seeing him as someone who would be able to help her take down Team Rocket. Someone worth helping.

She snorted. "No kidding. Everyone is backed up to all hell. I can't stop you from going in there so I'm going to guide your ass around until I can nab a psychic pokemon and then I'll come to you. Lavender is relatively untouched, but all my other officers have been teleported out to the other cities. Where are you right now? When did you last see the grunt?"

He peered around again, back still pressed against the chilled metal of the building even in the heat. "They just walked inside about a minute ago, maybe longer. Said they were going to get more zubat or something to stand guard from the back. Should I go in?"

There was a soft chuckle. "I'll say it again - ballsy, kid. Detach the earpiece and shut off your pokedex. And talk quieter. This is a mission, Ketchum, not a joyride. The only reason I am allowing you in is because you're only spying to figure out what the hell is going on in there as all of my other officers are out dealing with the other shitstorm. I'm going to be helping them but my earpiece is in."

He nodded, though she couldn't see it. Pressing a switch on the corner, he was able to pull a slim curve of metal off of the design. Functioning a bit like headphones, they were the cheapest model the creators could slap on the design and call it new. The quality was bad and they were known for more static than actual conversation, but people still used them. Trainers mainly used them to both talk to a health assistant as well as videotape their pokemon.

Or go on spy missions.

Ash slipped the device into his ear, one edge curling over the cartilage to keep it tightly secured. Pressing a button, he waited a moment before static faded away and Officer Jenny's voice crackled in his ear.

"And I repeat, Ketchum, if you make a single move first, I will have you on probation and a black mark on your Trainer ID so fast your goddamn head will spin. Only fight back if there is no other option, and the second you can manage to get them away, you run. This is a scoping mission. Nothing more."

"Understood." He rose fully to his feet, reattaching the pokedex to his belt. Apep crooned softly, the sound thick and rumbling. Together, they slunk toward the front door and pulled it open.

A blast of air conditioning hit him in the face. The inside was sterile white tiles, a few houseplants barely gripping onto life, a large desk winding over the middle of the room. The middle of the desk was bucked like a creature stretching. Ash could see the skid marks from some enormous pokemon crashing into the informative desk.

Several holes were punched clean through the drywall, revealing thick steel below that was heavily dented. There were speckles of burns and dripping water - ice that had melted. Something powerful had attacked this place.

His earpiece crackled again. "Ketchum, report."

He felt his back straighten, even as he crept farther into the room, holding the door open for Apep to come in after him. "Signs of a fight. Something big. I don't know what. There are three doors in the back of some sort of entrance room."

"Front door leads to informational room." There was a sound of shuffling papers before Jenny's voice bled back through. "Leftmost door is observatory for inside habitat recreation. Center door is a hallway. Rightmost door is a tour location with fossils on display. Take the left. The center'll probably take you right into the hands of the guards."

He paused, memory flaring. "I remember seeing something move in the habitat recreation."

"I said habitat observatory, not an entrance. Follow my orders, Ketchum."

With only the barest hint of a grimace, he motioned for Apep to slide across the floor in his strange manner. The arbok poked his head around every bench and the large desk, checking for anything still living within the walls. He reemerged with a pokeball loosely gripped in his teeth. Ash took a hold and, listening to Jenny's muttered instructions, slipped it into the dirt around one of the plants. Her reasoning was far from comforting.

If he was captured, there was no reason to give Team Rocket any more weapons to utilize other than his own pokemon.

Spine whip straight and trying to pretend an icy wind hadn't settled over his shoulders, he nudged at the left door. It swung open without resistance, letting him creep inside.

It was a narrow passage, only ten feet across and fifty or more long. Same crisp white tiles scuffed with burns and poisonous marks. Four benches cornerstoned by filing cabinets and computers lined one wall. The other was dominated by a floor to ceiling window made of the purest glass.

Beyond that was but a section of the Wilderness, trapped off. Shortened trees twirled around with vines and bared branches for perches. The brush was softer but just as unmanageable, writhing stiffly against the barriers of glass and earth. The entire thing was encircled with hundreds of pounds of steel and glass, bound together to be unbreakably safe.

Except for the ten-foot wide break shattered through the glass.

The edges were ragged and speckled with dried blood. Something had forced its way through the window and by the hideous scratches marring every wall, it had been far from happy. The door on the other side of the observatory was ripped in half and only one rung was still attaching, hanging weakly as the gashes in the wall betrayed the size of the beast.

He muttered over what he saw, adrenaline crackling through his veins. Whatever had happened, this had gone beyond Team Rocket just poking their head in. The League had made the observatory as safe as could be. The rockets must have done something.

"I don't see anything moving inside. Do you think it could still be in there? Should I go and check it out?"

"Short answers, Ketchum. No. Keep moving." There was a hiss in her teeth born from quick movement and muffled shouts fought their way through the static of the headpiece, echoing in his ear. She was busy, wherever she was.

Apep suddenly froze, hood flaring out and revealing the glaring face to the world. Fifteen feet of diamond purple scales flashed as he used Coil, gaining strength and power. Ash couldn't stop the shudder that raced over his body. Something was beyond the doors, and his blood sang for him to figure it out. Team Rocket had done Arceus-knows-what to the pokemon and scientists here..

"Apep's acting strange. What's after the door?"

"The secondary lab. They'll be in there if they're anywhere. Recall your pokemon and scope it." She turned her head slightly and bellowed a command that rattled his eardrums. "Hang on, Ketchum, I've nearly landed a psychic."

There wasn't any sort of window he could peer through in the door - or really, any sort of door to hide behind - but he did his best, tucking himself to the shadows as Apep coiled near him, fangs dripping the shadows of Crunch. Muffled sounds reached his non-earpiece ear. Something was close.

Staring into Apep's eyes for a second, he recalled the snake and steadied his position. Standing, but hunched over, to keep his head lower to the in order to better avoid detection. He blinked and lightly touched the door.

Sucking in his breath, he looked around the corner.

The lab was enormous, two stories at the least. Windows were flung open, letting moonlight trickle through and land squarely on the floor. The floor was the same but the walls were drywalled as a pale grey, giving more life to the environment. A staircase clung to one wall as it wound upward, perched above the dozen-or-so tables and lab equipment dotted over the floor.

Except they were pushed to the side and a gathering of people stood in the middle, talking quietly. Black clothes. Red accents marred the accents and stood forward as a prominent R neatly printed on their shirts.

Someone stood in front of them all, wearing a different clothing line. White sleeves and shorts, and their curly blonde hair was pinned beneath a hat. Though he only caught a glimpse, flashing violet eyes swung smugly over the Team Rocket grunts.

He immediately retracted his head, pressing his back against the wall. "Grunts. Dozens. There's a leader - yellow hair, purple eyes. Short."

"Don't know them. Find out more," Jenny demanded. "Any pokemon? Are they prepared for an attack or any sorts?"

Though he didn't think it was the smartest plan, he peered back around the door frame. He couldn't see any pokemon, but pokeballs glinted from the belts of the grunts. The leader had five pokeballs, the fifth pinned beneath two fingers as they admired the shining surface. He moved closer, shifting his reach up to stable himself against the doorframe.

His hand slipped.

Violet eyes flashed.

Ash whirled around the corner once again but now a voice echoed over the room that was suddenly silent except for the lilting tones trickling toward his ears. "Come, friend, don't hide like that! Let me see you."

"I've been seen!" He hissed furiously to Jenny. A muffled curse slipped through the earpiece.

"Get out of there this instant," she demanded. "Back down the observatory - hide in the habitat if you have to."

He had barely pushed off of the wall when a shadow filled the doorway. His hands fell to his pokeballs as a Team Rocket grunt stared down at him with narrowed eyes. Something pushed them aside and then the leader was standing in front of him, lips drawn back into a quiet smirk.

She was nearly as heavily muscled as Officer Jenny, well beyond Leaf. There was a strength to her that showed through her white sleeves and toned legs. Next to her five pokeballs, there was a mockery of a flower, done completely in black. It seemed so out of place he couldn't help but stare at it for a second.

Jenny's voice barked in his ear again. "Ash! Are you out?"

The woman pursed her lips. "This is hardly the way to treat your hosts, boy - Ash, was it? Come and join us in the main room, won't you?" Her voice was rather high and bubbly, matching her hair more so than any other part of her body. Her eyes gleamed.

He spared a glance, but there was no way he could run down the fifty-foot observatory without one of them releasing their pokemon or just catching him. So instead he followed the woman into the wider space and glanced around furiously.

The grunts were lining the middle of the room, but quickly ducked their heads and cleared a spot for the woman to lead him to. She was shorter by almost a head to some of them but steel ran through her veins and they bowed to her dominance.

Leaning forward, balancing on one foot, she clicked his earpiece and shut off Jenny's furious shouts. He flinched back from her being so close but she didn't seem to notice, lips still pulled back.

"Let me introduce myself - I will be known to you as only Domino, far from my name and instead a mere copy of my brilliance. I am one of the many leaders of the industrialist and powerful Team Rocket, and am the most important person you will have ever met in your admittedly short life."

"Not an Executive," he muttered darkly, fingers falling.

Her smirk bared teeth and transformed into a snarl. "For your information, boy, I alone hold the Boss' admiration as one of his hand-chosen Elite Officers. The Executives are weak compared to me."

"Only five pokeballs," he pointed out.

Her shoulders looked like they would snap. He was rather proud of himself.

His excitement was short lived as Domino merely straightened, eyes narrowed. Snapping her fingers, three members stepped forward with carefully rehearsed behaviors. Each clutched at least one pokeball, faces grim. "Grunts, get him."

With a grin, red flashes burned into his eyes. Pokemon appeared, pokemon stronger than the normal grunts had appeared in front of him. Only three, but each were strong in their own right.

A koffing took to the air, the sick, twisted body bobbing as poisonous gasses leaked over the room. Ash hurriedly took a step back. A grimer, one hissing and spitting poison, slammed into the ground and immediately began to erode the sterile tiles. The most surprising was the mightyena, barking furiously and baring its fangs.

His eyes narrowed. It had been this way last time. Team Rocket had grabbed his means of communication and had forced him into being controlled by Psychic. Not this time. With a growl, he danced a step backward and threw his own pokeballs at the ground.

The grimer was the biggest problem. Even though it wasn't an evolved pokemon, that meant it couldn't control its toxins as well as muk could and had a much high chance of simply imploding if it grew frustrated or scared, hitting all of the pokemon around it with toxins that nearly rivaled Toxic or Gunk Shot. Already his eyes were watering from the horrific smell wafting over the battlefield - the pokemon's ability was definitely Stench.

"Apep, get the dog. Ice Beam the others, Ro - Vulpix, protect him."

The grunts' plans twisted around each other, made for a one on one battle. Their pokemon were used to them - it was hard to command a dark type, not to mention a fully evolved dark type, in battle without letting it accept you - but their trainers clearly hadn't spent much time on the battlefield. By the time their conflicting plans and open strategies were given, Ro had charged his first Ice Beam.

It barked through the air, three beams tightly pressed to each other, and slammed into the grimer. The pokemon lost a third of its body, splattering against the ground, but it rose again and tensed.

Mightyena roared, body flat against the ground, before springing forward. Apep lunged to meet it, fangs flashing. Poison Fang met Bite and Apep's mouth, which was large enough to nearly fit the entirety of Mightyena's head inside, quickly won.

Vulpix barked out a Protect over her and Ro as Koffing attempted to spit Smog over the pair of them. She dropped it the second before Ro let another Ice Beam rip through the air. The grimer exploded fully and laid on the ground, hissing through the floor tiles without the energy to reconstruct itself.

Mightyena yelped as Apep coiled around it, flashing several times as he alternated between Wrap and Coil. For both, he only squeezed harder, and he eventually relaxed and left only his tail still wrapped around the dog-like pokemon. A fling into the nearby wall and it was down.

Ro let loose a weakened Ice Beam, and it knocked Koffing low enough for Vulpix to get it. Flames broiling, she burnt the creature black and slammed it into the ground with a vicious Tail Whip.

"Apep! Wrap on her!" He barked, his starter hissing in agreement. Domino snarled furiously and chucked her fifth pokeball at the ground between them.

From the red smoke emerged a giant.

Seven feet tall at the minimum and at least three in girth, it stretched high enough to stare Apep easily in the eyes. Black fur curled around its body, its belly bleeding to a pale white, and a sort of strange flap of hair extended from behind its neck, fluttering over its back as if a cape. Its fur stuck up like spikes running down its spines, protecting skin thick enough to survive dozens of attacks. Enormous fists, smaller head, and a thin stem with a leaf peeked from behind sharp pearly whites.

He had seen one battle before on TV. A pangoro - a fighting and dark type pokemon known for their brutality in battles, though they would not challenge those it deemed too weak to matter. Judging by the glimmering fury roiling within its eyes that filled all of the other Team Rocket pokemon, that wouldn't apply here.

But it was a Kalosian pokemon. Kalos had closed its door for a decade and a half and had only opened them recently - certainly not long enough for Team Rocket to find a way to find a way around the ruthless poaching and criminal laws the war-tarnished region had added. It didn't make sense.

Domino accepted his silence and stepped forward, a good two feet shorter than her monsterous pokemon. "You are not as pathetic as you could be, but your pokemon's strength means nothing. How would you fare against five members? Ten? The two dozen in this room? Weakness is nothing I will allow. Although-" she let a smile mixed with a snarl slip over her lips, eyes dancing.

"You may count yourself among the few I deem fortunate. Your attire and overall attitude reveal you for what you have thus attempted to hide - a spineless beginner with no real sense of pokemon or their abilities. Team Rocket has no need for a weakling such as you and, of course, neither do I. You are hardly worth the time of my most powerful pokemon - instead, my weakest member will have no problem crushing you and all of your failures. Pangoro has only been mine for a short while, and I imagine that the time it will take to crush you will be much shorter."

Ash gripped Siren's pokeball. He needed every chance he had to win this battle. Pangoro snorted, fists clenching. Its leaf flicked through the air, and he dimly remembered that its leaf worked like a sensor, delivering the movements of enemies straight to the pokemon's brain. It was attached to its skull through the roof of its mouth, a special slot in its teeth in order to allow it to stay unbroken.

The doors exploded open.

He whirled and saw Officer Jenny burst into the room, blue hair pinned back. An arcanine bellowed at her back and two alakazam hovered by her side, their spoons glowing a fierce cyan as psychic energy poured into the room. A dozen other officers appeared behind her, teeth bared and pokeballs at the ready.

Domino actually yelped as Jenny charged for her. "Pangoro, take out the brat!" She bellowed, raising her fists and plunging in. Flashes of red light lit the room as grunts and officers alike released their team members and began to brawl.

In front of Ash, Pangoro smacked its fists together and roared.

The sound ruffled his hair and made his hat slip back an inch. It was a real move, Roar, one designed to scare weaker pokemon away from a battle. Pangoro slammed its feet into the ground and grunted, pitch black eyes sweeping over the field to look for his targets. Fighting types were incredibly smart, much more so than people gave them credit for, but whatever Team Rocket had done had taken that away. Pangoro's movements, while still smooth, lacked the vitality and derision the fight he had seen on TV had had.

A target presented itself. Apep hissed furiously and spat an Acid Spray over Pangoro's chest.

Pangoro waved the poison away dismissively but turned to face the snake. Its large ears snapped forward and it grunted, lowering its head and leaning forward. Apep matched his position as best he could, coiling his lower half on the ground. Vulpix made a sort of hooting noise and spat a glob of misshapen fire at Pangoro's back. It did nothing, facing Apep as the largest threat.

They snarled and lunged. One enormous fist met scales with a crack like thunder. Apep fought with all of his strength but he wasn't built for defense and was thrown back. Bruises bloomed beneath his scales and a line of blood trickled out between a crack, leaking onto the floor.

Ro bellowed a battle cry and spat a Shock Wave at Pangoro. It roared back as the electricity crackled over its body, sinking past its thick skin. Spinning, it slammed its foot hard enough on the ground to shatter four tiles and make the ground shake. Leaning down and closing its eyes, a gentle burst of light began to shine through its fur. Some sort of boosting move.

"Apep! Acid Spray!" He barked.

His starter pulled himself off of the ground, pain darkening his eyes. After a second, he finished charging up the poison and launched another assault. This time, he didn't stop, letting more and more rain down on the distracted pokemon.

Damnit. Acid Spray was Apep's most toxic move - he'd run out of poison eventually, especially at this rate. "Switch to Acid! Just try to keep it from using its move!"

The only two moves he had that were effective were Peck and Double Kick, both of which Ro had. Most fighting types didn't have many moves that involved their feet so Ro had a chance to avoid getting hit with his shorter bulk, but he was far from happy putting his friend that close to the behemoth. It had to be done.

"Ro! Double Kick or Peck, whatever you can manage! Vulpix, I need you to distract it somehow until I get Siren out!"

Vulpix's ears pinned themselves to the back of her skull. Hearing was something she did not have the liberty of as she streaked around Pangoro, Quick Attack bleeding her scarlet fur into a blur. Embers littered the floor around the fighting type's feet but it hardly seemed to care, grunting idly as a piece of fur caught alight.

Ro barked, voice deep and gruff, horn stained a pale blue reminiscent of the sky. He charged in and slammed the hunched over Pangoro directly in the chest.

The fighting type bellowed, but was pulled out of his boosting move before it could receive the full effects. Both of its fists glowed a fearsome scarlet, burning past the black fur, rich with fighting type energy.

Ash took the opportunity as Ro turned around and blasted Double Kick at the pokemon's side. Only one connected as Pangoro roared in defiance and punched his partner back five feet, dull silver claws skidding over the ground and ripping up a few more tiles. He chucked his final pokeball at the ground and let his ghost type emerge.

"Siren. We're in a fight. A bad one. I need you to hit Pangoro," he hissed, desperately trying to not let the dark type's attention land on the newest battler before she was ready or even understood.

Siren froze mid-chitter and stared over the battlefield. Her dull eyes flashed for the first time with a hint of fear he hadn't ever seen before, pupils dilating as she stared at the creature. Pangoro lunged and caught Apep with a vicious Slash, dull claws ripping a thin line of scales off of his body.

"Water moves only! Ghost ones won't do as much. Float as high as you can - stay away from its fists," he offered, his own fists clenching, before he pointed up. Pangoro turned away from Apep and focused back on the one who had hurt it in the first place, Ro. The nidorino rumbled, letting a bolt of electricity flash off of his horn and splatter over the fighting type's chest. Spasms rippled over its body but still, it forced itself forward and slammed a Bullet Punch toward the poison type.

Ro bellowed and was flung backward, directly below Siren. Pangoro's black eyes slowly moved upward to land on her pale pink form. She hissed, energy dripping from her teeth and eyes even as water was pulled from her cells and condensed over her arms.

Vulpix tasted the moisture on the air and darted away, but even her burning form couldn't pull Pangoro's attention. It barked, almost dog-like, before leaning down and jumping high enough to slam a shadowed fist into Siren's chest.

The unfinished Water Pulse burst harmlessly over its fur as it fell back to the ground, Siren sent whirling through the air until she slammed into a wall opposite. A pair of fighting grunts and officers jerked back but she forced herself back up, bobbing back toward Ash with an indention as large as his torso staining her middle.

She glowed faintly, light spilling from beneath her skin, and after a few seconds, Recover had fixed the worst of it. But he could still see the furious pain lingering in her stiff movements as she floated back toward the battle and all within it.

"Shock Wave, Ro and Siren!" He shouted. "Now, while it's wet!"

Twin rays of lightning curved through the air, swerving underneath the flashing Apep and slamming into Pangoro's dripping side. It bellowed fearsomely, swiveling, and Apep struck. He let the pain from the last Karate Chop rebuild until his shadowed tail cracked Payback against Pangoro's knee. A roar and the behemoth actually fell forward, fur cape smoking from a weakened Flamethrower.

Ash spared a second to search for Domino and nearly shouted - there she was, bright blonde hair bouncing as she fought Officer Jenny in hand-to-hand combat. But the worst part was that she was winning.

Jenny had her fists raised, elbows settled near her chest, feet firmly planted on the ground. But Domino was more relaxed, movements smooth and focused. Her fists flew without worry, feinting and punching without any sort of tells Ash could see. Jenny was holding her own but it was clear who the victor would eventually be.

He was desperate. Domino sprang back, folding smoothly into a roundhouse kick that looked like it would take Jenny's head off. "Apep, Poison Sting!"

Domino immediately froze and fell to the ground to avoid the barrage of venomous needles, eyes widening before they narrowed the next second. She rolled into a quick backflip and got onto her feet once again, fists tucked by her side. Jenny sprang forward.

Only to be greeted with three rapid-fire punches and a knee to the chest. She screeched muffledly and doubled over. Domino turned to flee as more and more backup poured into the building, armed to the teeth with pokeballs and furious expressions. Her violet eyes flicked toward an open window on the second floor, next to the staircase.

Ash's eyes widened. He opened his mouth to command his pokemon to attack but quickly saw there were none that could stop battling in order to do so. Pangoro bellowed again, rising to its feet and shrugging off the various attacks they had launched at it. It slammed its fists into the ground, pure fury bubbling into energy as the ground bucked beneath its fists. Stomping Tantrum, but with fists. Ash was nearly launched into the air, lurching forward to grab a hold of a table bolted to the ground.

All of his pokemon were flung up, Siren only barely managing to avoid a table that was ripped from its bolts and sent sailing toward her. Pangoro straightened and, shaking off the exhaustion as if it was nothing, turned towards her with narrowed black eyes. There was a reason that every spirit didn't come back as a ghost type after they died. No scientist had for certain figured out why dark moves were so efficient against ghost types, but many had guessed.

Apep slammed a Poison Fang into the crook between Pangoro's neck and shoulder before forcing himself back. Poison types could resist fighting type moves better than most but that hardly meant he was ready for close combat with the beast. It hissed, but he couldn't see whether it had flinched. Maybe it had been poisoned from the very first Acid Spray - he couldn't see smaller movements through the veritable curtain of fur that covered its entire body. Pangoro spun and punched Apep between the eyes. The snake went flying backward once again and took a painstakingly long time to rise back up.

Ro caught the charging Pangoro on the side with another Peck, but another Bullet Punch forced him to the ground. Siren caterwauled as she was hit through the air once again, the move clipping her tentacles and forcing her up to the ceiling. Her head smacked the tiles and wobbled furiously on her thin neck, quivering.

"Absorb and Recover, Siren! Stay farther away and just use Bubble Beams!" He shouted a bit desperately. All of his pokemon were being slowly picked away - though they weren't hit often, the few times we almost enough to knock them out of the battle every time.

Ash clenched his fists and stared over the floor. Pangoro regarded its opponents with far more caution in its narrow black eyes, fists shifting between several attacks as it waited for something to strike at it.

A trembling beam of green light hit it directly on its cape, which seemed to have much fewer nerve endings than the rest of its body. Pangoro didn't notice but Siren perked up, if slightly, and used the excess energy to enter a second Recover, which took the edge of the pain away once again and slithered together the ends of her cuts.

But it wasn't enough. They needed to find some way to cripple it. Already, the beast wasn't the fastest. He needed to ground it before it managed to knock one of his friends out of the battle. Apep roared furiously as Pangoro scored another hit.

"Dammit," he hissed. "Vulpix! Take down one of its legs! Don't use Fire Spin."

She yipped tiredly back and immediately took in a deep breath, her chest glowing with the force of the fire building behind it. He had never been so grateful to have such an intelligent pokemon. Vulpix kept the Flamethrower inside her mouth as she weaved through a series of absent-minded Karate Chops before finally releasing it at the back of Pangoro's knee.

The pain made it grunt once again, but the sound carried far more weight behind it then they had before. It spun, kicking wildly out at Vulpix and launching her nearly a dozen feet to the side. If it had been a move, it might have broken her ribs. But it was just a kick and she was able to force herself back up on sheer willpower, baring her fangs and coughing out another small army of Will-O-Wisps to launch at him.

Pangoro blasted Apep with two punches, one Bullet and the other a Hammer Arm. He went soaring back, screeching with pain, firing off a noticeably purple-tinged Acid. He was running out of poison to use.

Ro darted back and hid under a bolted table, forcing Ash to jump farther backward in order to avoid the fight. He spat only a single icy beam that crackled against Pangoro's side. But it was the wrong move - the fighting type's eyes gleamed.

It lunged forward as Apep spat off several Poison Stings, enormous fists clawing under the table. Though Ro bellowed and fought back, Pangoro managed to get its hands around the pokemon and lift him into the air. Barbs punctured its skin but the behemoth hardly seemed to notice, flinging the nidorino around to use him as a shield against Apep's attacks.

The snake immediately stopped, eyes flying open wide. Ro thrashed furiously, using Pecks and Double Kicks as best he could, but before he could make a dent, Pangoro crouched and flung him sky high to collide with Siren.

They both fell, Ro slammed much harder into the ground. Siren barely caught herself but there was both blood and poison from Ro's bodyslam. Pangoro snorted, pleased, turning back to Apep and keeping his weight onto his uninjured side.

Siren gave a hiss with a strong note of exhaustion. Her arms raised and, tentacles flicking, she launched two Shock Waves that sailed through the air and met their mark on the back of Pangoro's neck, forcing it a few more steps away from her. It grunted again and spun to face her, knee buckling slightly beneath its weight. Siren hissed and shot higher into the air, letting Vulpix pull its attention with another weakened Ember. She groaned and forced her third Recover, the healing hormones barely pulling together her wounds. The injuries healed weren't worth the energy consumed.

Ro forced himself up, a muffled screech escaping his throat. His barbs extended farther and he charged up more Ice Beams, calling the last of his water reserves in order to continue attacking.

Apep was nearly at the end. He had been up close for most of the battle and it was showing - patches of his scales were missing in large pockets and he was bleeding heavily elsewhere. But his fangs still gleamed and though he had given up on poison moves, Crunch and Iron Tail slammed onto Pangoro without an ounce of mercy.

There was a wild, pained shriek. Ash whirled just in time to see Vulpix get thrown to the floor. Her side was a much darker shade of red and dripping onto the floor, and even as she forced herself to her feet she put as little weight as she could on her left side.

Ash recalled the vixen immediately. There was no way she could go on fighting without hurting herself more.

Ro was hit next. The Bullet Punch clipped his spine and broke off several of his extended barbs, the nidorino knocked down with pain. But he stayed fighting, blasting several Ice Beams to force Pangoro back as he struggled to his feet.

Siren fought to stay up, even with the slim amount of energy from Absorb. She had given up on Bubble Beams and now launched wavering Bubbles as best she could, managing to gather the energy to spit Shock Waves as many times as she could muster, which was unfortunately few.

Apep let out a pained, furious hiss and slammed an Iron Tail into the back of Pangoro's leg.

Bone snapped.

Ash froze. Pangoro's knee twisted out, bone crumbled beneath the heavy hits his friends had been attacking it with. The fighting type howled but stayed standing, twisting and bending as its balance was shot. Neither side attacked, but it was clear. They had crippled Pangoro. It wouldn't take much before it was knocked out.

Pangoro, in a final bellow of defiance, raised its fists. It was bleeding heavily and its black fur was sticky with more scarlet than white and black, its injured leg quivering as it pushed more weight onto it. But the reasonless fury still bubbled forward and, with its fists gleaming a brilliant brown that seemed pulled from the ground itself, Pangoro performed Earthquake.

The building shrieked.

Tiles fell and the drywall shattered, creating several gaping holes to the outside. Tables were uprooted and flung around, lab equipment cracking against the floor. Glass in the windows exploded. Pangoro let out a final, satisfied grunt before collapsing face down on the ground, its broken leg twisting beneath it and cracking against the cold stone of the ground. But that thought was the farthest from Ash's mind as anything else could be.

The League had prepared for earthquakes used outside the building, not inside.

Officer Jenny's voice fought its way to be heard. "Get out!" She bellowed, supporting the majority of her weight on someone else as they struggled toward an opening. Grunts and officers alike fled, clogging the exits as they rushed for the relative safety of the outside.

Damnit! The walls shuddered again. Pokemon battles were never held inside unprepared buildings for this exact reason - he had to get outside in case anything happened. But there wasn't any time to get out the front through the mass of struggling people and pokemon.

Gritting his teeth, he recalled all of his pokemon and clipped them safely to his belt, making sure nothing happened to them. Each trembled, even Vulpix's, but he wouldn't let them out until he could get to safety and heal them as best he could before sending them out to a Pokecenter. He flung himself toward the break in the wall and out into the League protected lands he wasn't supposed to be in.

The building shuddered again, but he merely started running. The Wilderness was on the other side of the fence, he quickly noticed, and there was a hearty lack of trees or underbrush within the actual protected area. Rock and stone were just as common as dirt and the flat ground bucked and broiled into hills and valleys as he ran on. His feet landed on ground that trembled mightily as the earthquake spread over the mountain range, cracking and snapping.

Before long, he stood at the foot of a mountain.

It could hardly compare to Mount Moon, barely a third or more of the height, but he still had to crane his neck back to see the bare tip. It sagged, more of a rectangle than a triangle, but the sheer power of the stone was obvious to see. He sucked in a breath, slowing to a stop before his feet attempted to carry him up a mountain.

The earthquake carried on and slammed into the mountain.

It shuddered.

Ash whirled in time to see a pillar of smoke erupt into the air, the shriek of breaking metal echoing over the valley. While he could still see most of the lab, the room he had been in had collapsed. Tiny dots of fleeing officers and grunts darted away on the correct side of the fence. The one opposite of where he was.

A rock the size of his fist crumbled next to his feet. Something roared, far beneath the surface of the earth, muffled by hundreds of tons of earth. Ash tensed, hand reaching for his pokeballs before he forced himself away. They were injured. Now, he would do his best to take care of them.

The earthquake had called the pokemon of this valley, undisturbed for centuries. He did not want to be there when they rose to the surface to find what had disturbed their rest. Straightening fully up and turning from the mountain, he waited until the last tremors stopped before starting to move.

His hand came up and fumbled for a moment before finding the switch on his earpiece. It switched back on in a crackle of static, humming like a bug before fading away to hearty pants and the shuffle of clothing. "Officer Jenny?"

"Ketchum! Where the hell are you?" Her voice was rough and tinted with more than an edge of pain - Domino had been far from easy to fight, even though he had only seen a few seconds of it.

"I ran out of the lab. I'm in the valley, other side of the fence. Should I go back to the building or-"

"No. We have no idea whether there are any more grunts in there and we don't have the manpower to try and figure it out - I'll send someone to pick you up. Get as close to the fence as you can without disturbing any pokemon." There was a disturbingly wet cough and muffled sounds from someone else close to her.

He nodded. "Okay." Keeping his pokeballs close to his side, he started to trot toward the gleaming silver fence. There were three different figures, humming with cyan energy and crouching near the fence. The psychic guardians, ready to stop any pokemon that wanted to escape the valley.

An alakazam shifted its black eyes toward his face, foxish face impassive. He couldn't find a hint of an emotion but something feathery brushed his barriers, making his head throb impressively. It immediately drew back and the pokemon turned back to the valley, the other two following its example.

Ash grew near, and before long someone appeared on the opposite side of the fence. It was a man in uniform, a bright red bushy beard poking overtop the crisp blue clothing. He peered at Ash's face, eyes narrowed, before relaying something into his own earpiece.

Officer Jenny's voice snapped at him, "Kid, is there an officer there? Brown eyes, red beard?"

"Yes. How am I going to get over the fence?"

"One of the alakazam'll do it for you. Just let it do what it needs to - they've all been trained by the League, mainly Will himself, and know what to do." There was a hiss of pain he was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to hear.

Indeed, one of the most powerful mortal psychic types in existence walked over to him, a twisted silver spoon gripped in each hand. Its gaze was impassive and dead, and he would have thought the creature not of the living except for the fact it was hovering and breathing. There was no touch on his mind this time, but with a feeling similar to his heart rising in his chest that comes with a great fall, his vision turned cyan. The next second, it cleared and he was standing next to the burly bearded man, doubled over and gasping for breath.

"It'll never get easier, kid," the man said as some sort of apology. "Been teleportin' for nearly twenty years and it's always knocked the breath out of me. Even the Lady Sabrina gets the wind out of her when she does it, though I suppose she handles it better than most. If you'll come with me, just one more teleport to the Pokecenter to get you and your pokemon all healed up. You suffered some damages there, I see."

Ash nodded weakly and let the man pull him fully up to his feet. His head spun and the barest hints of cyan trickled away from his eyes, but for the most part, the wave of nausea had passed. But that had been a ten-foot teleportation - what about a near hour and a half's walk distance?

They walked away from the fence, angling toward where he guessed the path was. Five minutes later and they broke out of the weak trees the League kept trimmed near the fence and onto the gentle path. A dozen or more people bustled around, an arcanine and a poliwrath standing guard at either end of the path. Arcanine had its eyes fixed on Ash before he even pushed through the trees, but a single glance at the man by his side had the fire dog relaxing, if slightly.

A dozen Team Rocket grunts, clothing ruffled or ripped, were tied securely in both ropes and handcuffs. Four officers stood over them, pokemon circling slowly, and more than one grunt bore bite marks and scratches. Their pokeballs were safely contained in a bag held by a particularly vicious looking officer.

Officer Jenny was sitting on a hastily assembled travel chair, teeth gritted in pain as someone wrapped around her ribs. Her shirt was pulled up and though Ash couldn't see anything, he still blushed and averted his eyes. A rough laugh, like the bark of a poochyena, greeted his ears.

"I'm decent, kid, just a splint to take the edge off. Any injuries?" Her helper tucked the edge of the gauze back into another side and dropped her shirt again, though Jenny kept her back straight and didn't let any more pain enter her voice.

"Nothing on me, but my pokemon are pretty hurt. Are we teleporting back?"

The bearded police officer nodded. "Our alakazam helped in the battle and need a moment or five to recharge enough to take us all back. There's only two of them and fifteen of us, and it's already a bit of a strain. Shouldn't take more than five, maybe ten minutes, though. Give 'em time."

Officer Jenny waved Ash over and he trotted forward. Even sitting, she was able to stare him almost directly in the eyes. "You did good, kid, especially against the Domino bitch. I haven't fought her personally before but she's been a pain in the ass since the beginning of Team Rocket. We found records of nearly fifteen years of martial art training and a couple of challenges she's won, but that's the only dirt we've been able to dig up in ten years. Went by Flos Black for most of her time out in the open, but that's just an alias meaning Black Tulip, roughly. It's actually a weapon she uses, harnesses electricity for some serious pain. Pretty similar to what the grunts had back in Saffron but more regulated. I'm just damn happy I managed to distract her long enough so she couldn't use it."

"What happened to Pangoro?" He asked, fidgeting - he didn't know whether to sit or stay standing. Did looking up, even if slightly, hurt her neck?

"Well, after you managed to knock it out, Arcanine managed to grab the damned thing and get it out before the building collapsed. Domino can't recall it unless she's much closer than she'll dare to be now, and once one of the alakazam manage to get enough energy to teleport it with its dark typing, we'll send it to a facility we developed after the Orre fiasco. It'll take a while but they can break the bond with its pokeball and then we can send it to rehabilitation. Good job on breaking its leg - if it had managed to use a few more Earthquakes, it could have woken valley pokemon." Her voice was deathly serious.

One phrase stuck out to him, mentioning some sort of place he hadn't ever heard before. "What do you mean, Orre fiasco?"

Officer Jenny's eyes snapped blank so fast it was as if she had been shot. "Nothing you need to concern yourself about." She switched gears before he could ask another question about whatever Orre was. "You're going to a Pokecenter, and after your rightful Nurse Joy chew-out, you'll meet with me. Domino attacked first and I can only guess she was the one to shut off your earpiece instead of you-" at his furious nod, she continued, "-and that means a spot of money as a reward."

He hadn't forgotten about his original reward, but it didn't seem like quite the right time to bring it up. It had only been about a week, maybe more, and she had promised up to a month and a half until she managed to score him something.

Someone shouted from across the clearing. "The alakazam are ready! They've taken the Rocket pokemon already."

Jenny pulled her lips back into a snarl as she just about staggered to her feet. Ash lurched forward to help her but she pushed him back, straightening up and flexing her arms. "She packs one hell of a punch, I'll grant her that," she muttered.

"Are you hurt? I didn't get to see most of your battle but it looked like she was winning," Ash said a bit hesitantly.

She twitched her arm in a motion meant to imply brushing off. "I'm fine. A couple of nicks but I was at least able to keep up with her. Escaped through a window like the damn coward she is - probably still in the valley. If she doesn't have a psychic to teleport out, the alakazam on the border will catch her before anything else happens."

Though the movement was slow, she raised her hand and whistled sharply. Every officer froze and glanced up, pausing in their packing of the hastily set out supplies. The bearded man held up a pokeball and recalled the poliwrath guarding the route. Jenny looked around but someone else made a show of holding up a pokeball and recalling Jenny's arcanine, handing it over to the woman. She took the pokeball and attached it to her own waist, a much stranger-looking belt settled on her hips.

The alakazam bled out of the trees, four spoons gleaming with brilliant psychic energy. Ash flinched but they each raised their arms, yellow fur almost seeming to bubble as they expended energy they had only so recently regained. The world folded.

Ash collapsed on his back, breath missing from his lungs. The sky, dark enough the moon fought to have a grip, gleamed overhead, stars casting their wavering glows as clouds undercut their beauty. Officer Jenny grunted and extended a hand, pulling him to his feet without somehow managing to bend her back and upset her spine. "Get to the Pokecenter. I need to talk to someone in Fuchsia but I'll meet you back there as soon as I can. You'll need to answer as many questions as we can muster about your scoping sights."

He nodded, still winded, and she marched off to join the rest of her officers. Ash turned and saw the gleaming dome of the Pokecenter, only a street or so away. Gritting his teeth and trying to massage feeling back into his lungs, he started toward the dim glow from the always active center.

It took him longer to arrive than his pride would allow him to tell. Adrenaline had carried him through most of the fight, even though he was running on nearly 36 hours of sleep, and now he was crashing spectacularly. His brain hurt.

But then he was pushing open the glass doors and entering the welcoming front room, shoes clicking on the smooth tiles. Nurse Joy glanced over, blinking once before recognition filled her features. It was quickly replaced by righteous fury. "Mr. Ketchum!"

He winced. "I-"

"Running off in the dead of night after sleeping on a concussion, not to mention the fact you had your vulpix melt one of my windows! Disconnecting the IV that was feeding you desperately needed fluids and then not drinking a drop of the water I offered you! And as if that wasn't enough, you ran away to go Arceus-knows-where while I had a League official here trying to figure out where other survivors might have gone in order to save their lives! There is no reason good enough that you could tell me that wouldn't make any of my or the League official's well-deserved anger disappear!"

He tried anyway. "I was fighting Team Rocket!"

That did actually stop her short, if only slightly. He pressed on his advantage, words spilling out one after another. "Proton had an aerodactyl and talked about the Research Lab, and I had to go check it out as soon as I could before Team Rocket decided to pull their forces away or doing something after the SS Anne! I called everyone whose number I could reach and I did manage to get an Officer Jenny here - one from Lavender Town, as well as a dozen of her officers, and we managed to capture a bunch of grunts."

"Well then." Her voice had lost the furious edge and was now frostily cold, eyes narrowed and looking anything but friendly. "But then why would you come to the Pokecenter instead of wherever Ms. Jenny is?"

Ash averted his eyes. Nurse Joy had a manner that made him suddenly remember everything he had done wrong and then some - quite similar to his mom whenever he did something he knew he shouldn't have. "My pokemon were attacked. We managed to take down the pangoro but they were pretty hurt."

"Hand them here, please." She extended her hand, and he quietly detached the pokeballs from his belt and placed them in her grasp. With a touch of a button, she settled them onto a buzzing machine that quickly sucked them inside. A screen lit up and displayed a series of information. Her eyes only grew sharper as she read on.

"Pretty hurt, Mr. Ketchum." Her voice echoed in the silent room.

"Do you know how we heal pokemon, Mr. Ketchum?" Nurse Joy said quietly, the frosty tone fading slightly. "It isn't nearly as simple as dropping their pokeballs into a machine and having them jump out the next minute. These are living, breathing creatures with real injuries you bring us."

"While you are still beginners, we merely take them out in our healing rooms and give them potions and bandages. Most wounds are merely superficial and are healed quickly. But now, as you grow stronger, so do the pokemon your own face. Modern medicine is constantly improving, true, but we cannot rely on that alone. Bandages will not heal a broken bone and while potions do, the pokemon are often sore and unable to battle for a while after. For those cheap, failed healing machines you see that the League offers to the high payers, they merely inject potions into the pokemon. It doesn't fully heal them, not the way our special, personalized care in our rooms perform."

"But therein lies the true problem. Three healing rooms of various sizes are well-enough to work with. Our largest can handle those of over twelve feet tall with a little room to spare. But even those rooms, as advanced as they are, cannot handle such excessive injuries such as those you have let your pokemon take! We will have to spend one full day, perhaps two, just to get your pokemon into a stable position, and then another two after that until they can move around and possibly battle, and even then the soreness will not fade until at least a week or more. At the very least, you haven't broken a bone of any sort, I shudder to think if the pangoro had landed any true hits on your pokemon."

"Our life is a rather thankless task, but there is a reason you only find specially trained nurses working in Pokecenter. An unappreciated job but one Kanto and the pokemon world could not run without. Let me put it this way; without the proper care my team and I are available to deliver, your pokemon would not survive."

The chilling words settled over him, leering down with pointed fangs. He hadn't ever considered a world without Nurse Joys and Pokecenters - a world where the only healing his pokemon could receive would be the healing he could perform himself, which was only the bare minimum. She was far from joking - his pokemon wouldn't make it long if left in their current positions. "I'm- I'm sorry, Nurse Joy. I've never thought about it that way. If there is a way I can make it up to you-"

"Let me heal your pokemon, Mr. Ketchum. We can talk more about this in the morning, when you are properly rested and restored. I am putting you back on the IV tonight, so as soon as you finish your talk with Ms. Jenny, return here and tell my assistant who you are and they will lead you to where you need to be. I have not yet had time to replace the broken window, so I do hope you enjoy the draft!"

With one last narrow look, she snatched up his pokeballs and disappeared into the back. He winced again and turned back toward the door. That could have gone better.

Ash padded toward the door, pushing it open and letting the humid heat roll over his body. The Lab and the Pokecenter had had ample air conditioning but it was readily apparent again how much warmer it was than he was used to. At least it had helped them develop truly spectacular air conditioning. In the buildings, he could hardly tell he was anywhere but back in the main grasslands of Kanto.

He couldn't see where anyone else was, all of the Lavender officers disappearing into somewhere he didn't know. So instead he idled, walking a dozen feet or so and collapsing down on the rough wooden surfaced, the armrests smoothed flat by thousands of hands. His feet hurt.

After around ten minutes of blissful peace, Officer Jenny emerged from around the corner. Her eyes snapped to him and she gave him a brisk nod, pointing with her chin toward the Pokecenter. He bounced back to his feet and followed her inside.

Nurse Joy was gone already and a blond haired man took her place. A nervous smile flicked over his face as the officer stormed up to him, passing over seven pokeballs and informing him that she needed them shipped to Lavender except for the two alakazam, for which she needed full restores. The man blinked but accepted.

Jenny turned back to him. "Alright Ketchum, we're going back to this place's police department so I can get you in a proper questioning room - just to record the conversation in higher quality, no need to get so nervous. Come along."

With that, she marched him back out of the Pokecenter and back toward where she had come from. It was surprisingly close, but then again Fuchsia was a smaller city with a quieter atmosphere. The Wilderness seemed to suck away any feeling over infinite space that most cities seemed to have and it more felt like each of the buildings, just three stories at the max without a skyscraper in sight, were all a simple cabin in the forest, surrounded by trees. The wooden designs and hooting wildlife supported it.

His eyes lit up as a squat building was visible over a hill. There was a pokeball stamped over the doors and purple stained bricks made up a rather intense walkway, molding with the regular stone making up most of the town. The Fuchsia City Gym, master of the poison type. Something of which he had plenty to spare.

The police station was interesting, if nothing else, but he didn't quite think it was anything to write home about. Officer Jenny pushed her way inside, nodding at all of her officers, talking to the Fuchsia City officers.

To Ash's rather discomfort, another Officer Jenny came up to greet his Jenny. They had different haircuts, different body shapes, and different facial structures, and there was also the fact the Lavender Jenny had cuts and bruises over her body, but it was like seeing a mirror behaving differently than whatever it was showing. After a moment, they both nodded and led him to a questioning room.

It was boring, metal with a bolted down table and two chairs on either side. He sat, she sat, the door closed behind them and the real talk began.

"Okay, Mr. Ketchum, while I hate to make Nurse Joy even more upset with you the fact remains that we need some answers about the base there. I'll ask and answer some of the more personal questions and then we'll send it someone else to get to the meat of the issue. Remember, all of this is being recorded and watched."

Ash really didn't have any questions, other than what was going to happen to the missing fossil pokemon. He relayed it over to her, to which she sighed.

"Tracking devices in a few of the more dangerous ones. My guess is that they most likely took the more impressive pokemon, like tyrunt and cranidos, and just smashed the containment systems for the others. We have a few psychics scouring the valley as delicately as they can and more to come, and they've already found all but two of the archen missing and the omanyte never left the pond set up in one of the back rooms. My guess is that Team Rocket didn't take any sort of manual about the pokemon and that should make it slightly easier - you can't train a fossil pokemon without having deep, present knowledge of how it operated in its past life and what you're going to have to change. They'll probably be a few tyrunt rampages, which should lead us to them nicely."

"The scientists are still missing, and we haven't heard of any sign here in Fuchsia about them appearing here, but neither could we find bodies. These people were masters of cloning and bringing fossils back from the dead - my guess, as horrible as it is, is that Team Rocket took them to a safer base in order to force them to work. Maybe they'll turn up, but for now, we're just praying they're still alive in order for us to find them."

She rubbed a section of her temple, still sitting bone straight to not disturb her ribs. Someone else probably should have been asking him questions, even if she was just going over the more personal stuff.

"Not more questions? Good. Now, please remember that you shouldn't tell anyone not affiliated with the League the details we don't release in our press report. I'll send a copy over to you but those facts are what we tell the public and we don't need someone spilling more than we think is comfortable. Do you understand?"

He bobbed his head.

"What are you doing after your pokemon are healed?"

The question came a bit out of nowhere, and he struggled for a quick answer. "I'm challenging the Fuchsia City gym, then I'll probably go up to Celadon and challenge Erika. Then I'm planning on maybe Blaine then-" she held up her hand, and he stopped.

"It'll probably take you a month with letting your pokemon heal to reach Celadon, no?" He nodded. "Then I want you to head to Vermillion, instead. I guess I can let you know, but not all of the details - are you aware that Team Rocket drugs their pokemon?"

Ash tried to think back, but he couldn't remember anything specifically mentioning drugs. They were always rumored to have tampered with them somehow but he didn't know that it was some sort of drug.

"They pump them full the moment they capture them, and it turns them feral, or at least that's the term we're coining. Mindbreak, uncontrollable aggression, attacking without reason or following their nature. The kindest pokemon would still rip out your throat under these drugs. And for whatever reason, they've become stronger. Those grunts you fought in Lavender? Their pokemon haven't even passed the first step of rehabilitation, which means it could take probably a year or more to get them to the point they can safely be around other undefended people. I promised you a pokemon, but I'm not sure you want one by the time the Indigo League is done and finished."

At his nod, she continued. "Surge's got his own personal pokemon rehabilitation center, built after the Great War, mainly for pokemon treated poorly by their trainers or abandoned in the wild. I'll speak to him before you get there but I'd like for you to talk to him and let him get you a pokemon from his stores instead of the ones from Team Rocket."

He couldn't stop the grin that flickered over his face. While he had known it would come eventually, now he had a clear path in mind to get the next member of his team. "Thank you. I'll head there right after Erika."

She snorted. "Sure you will, kid. Don't hound Surge too much - his town was hit the hardest by the SS Anne. Speaking of which, you will also be held here until the League official shows up and we can talk you through that as well."

Ash groaned. She smirked, stood up, and walked out the door. The next second the burly officer with the impressive beard stepped back inside, sitting smoothly on the chair and holding a collection of papers. The questioning began.

It took nearly an hour and a half to describe what he had seen in the Research Lab. From if he had seen any pokemon, to whether there had been any areas where the scientists could be hiding, and where did Domino escape through? Every question led to seven more until he would probably shrivel up if he didn't get water. The officer gave him a glass and refilled it after he was done, but not five minutes later the League official, wearing a truly displeased expression, marched inside and began immediately.

That was more difficult. Having a concussion and sleeping on it meant his memories were far hazier than they should have been, but he was able to recall most of what happened. Proton's destruction of survivors and pokemon alike made him shiver even as he told the story. The man, taking slight pity on him, assured him that he was far from the only survivor of the terrible incident.

He was never told how many had been found, or how many had been lost, before they sent him back to the Pokecenter.

His feet throbbed and he trudged most of the way there, pushing open the doors and nearing falling flat on his face. The assistant led him back to his original room and deftly stabbed his arm with a needle, finding his apparently difficult veins with no problems. The IV was movable, settled on four wheels, in case he got up to use the restroom or something, but if it was removed the full force of Nurse Joy would descend on him.

With that cheering thought, the lights were turned out and the assistant turned to leave. He asked one last, rather desperate question - how his pokemon were. Their answer was vague and unhelpful.

They are still in Urgent Care and are expected to remain there for most, if not all, of the night.

The room was very quiet after the fact as they left. He closed his eyes.

Nurse Joy was, rather unfortunately, right. The draft from the melted window was unpleasantly warm. He pushed his covers off of his chest and tried to fall asleep.

---

For the next two days, he just puttered around the building helping all those he could. It was a nice feeling, grabbing supplies and sweeping around the couches. He did get the power to glare fearsomely at trainers who came in without wiping their shoes, and some of them even looked guilty.

But for those two days, all four of his pokemon were in critical care, kept under by sedatives and looked after constantly by a team of three rotating nurses. He wasn't allowed to see them, as to not disturb their condition, but Nurse Joy offered him updates. They had stitched together most of their superficial wounds and healed the inner bruising Apep had. Vulpix's wound on her chest was taking longer. Siren was kept in a large aquarium for her ability, Water Absorb, to assist, but even that wasn't doing much.

On the third day, Ro was pulled out of Intense Care and he was told it would be three more days until he healed up enough to move around, and another two until he was able to battle. Ash rushed to the recovery ward and spent several hours next to his pokemon, reading off funny stories and trying to ignore the slowly regrowing barbs on his back.

Siren was next, a bit surprisingly. With the sheer amount of ways she could heal herself available - Absorb, Recover, Water Absorb - her body accepted medicine much better than others and used it to pull her into a much safer plane of surviving. Her aquarium was bare and waterproof electrodes littered her body, but Ash pressed his hand against the glass and talked to her.

Vulpix and Apep both pulled through at the same time. Apep had scales ripped off and the skin underneath torn, but the injuries hadn't warranted ditto cells and after four days, was moved safely to the recovery ward. Vulpix followed - she had a large wound on her side, but it hadn't reached any inner organs and other than that, she was relatively unharmed. Ash spent the night in the ward, though Nurse Joy showed up around midnight and chased him out. He wasn't sure whether she slept or not.

With his pokemon still in the Pokecenter but Nurse Joy relaxing her hold over him, he was free to explore Fuchsia. It was a small, quaint town that operated on self-growth and care. The only tourist attractions were the gym and the Safari Zone, which he peered curiously at. But he didn't think he wanted to enter it yet. After he fought the gym, maybe, but it didn't appeal to him as much as it had at the beginning of his journey.

Oh, he still wished for the dratini line and a powerful scyther to rip into any opponents he had, but he had faded away from what he thought he wanted. Before, he had marked it down that he was going to have one water type, one fire type, one grass type, and so forth. He had already broken the rule with his first two pokemon and didn't mind if he did it again. Every pokemon was different and their typing didn't decide whether he captured them. Hell, if he found a nidorina who looked powerful enough to join him, he'd capture her if he could.

The pokemon in the Safari Zone were rather pampered, if he was being truly honest. While they were stacked with powerful pokemon he would no doubt have a difficult finding elsewhere, that didn't mean they were strong. Growing up with League officials providing food if they ran out, stopping fights before they could end in death, and keeping trainers from attacking them gave them a simpler approach to life. Those same pokemon found in the wild would be much stronger.

So while he looked over the complex, welcoming building that marked the entrance into the Safari Zone, he kept walking on.

The town was still plenty interesting. He found many people willing to talk to him and tell him about their own adventures, full of wild stories and chilling defeats. It was a town where everyone knew each other and he repaid their time by telling his own stories, sticking away from those that involved Team Rocket in order to keep Officer Jenny's command. He even got to see a few of their pokemon, including one enormous kangaskhan that peered down at him baleful brown eyes.

People spoke with hushed whispers about some sort of Pokemon Zoo, built to keep rescued pokemon in an environment where they wouldn't ever have to battle again. It was slow going, but people were excited about the new life it would bring to their town and spoke of it with high praise.

But then eight days passed and his pokemon were ready. He accepted their pokeballs back with gleeful hope and immediately raced into a clear stretch of the Wilderness, throwing them down to the ground and letting his friends emerge.

He tested their limits and found their sores. Another day passed with only the barest hints of training but each were ready to fight. All of them except for Vulpix had some sort of advantage, but he was going to keep his promise and use Apep most of all. He'd throw Siren first, then Ro, and clean up the rest with Apep. Vulpix had been a bit miffed but she was the most injured still out of them all, and had enjoyed her last few days lounging around and not doing much of anything.

It was a bright morning as he stood in front of the Fuchsia City gym. There hadn't been much information online, especially since Koga had up and left a few years ago.

Well, not left, exactly. But he'd given his gym to his almost-prepared daughter and had offered himself to Lance to be an Elite Four reserve. He proved his worth winning against a shrunken battle against Lorelei and another against Bruno, though he all but lost for that one. So now, for the past three years, he had worked alongside Karen, a dark type trainer, preparing for the moment when one of the Elite Four decided to retire or the worst happened. It was generally accepted that if you won the Indigo Conference, you battled the Elite Four, but if you placed in the top four, you would get the chance to test your skills in a reserved battle with either Koga or Karen. Those battles weren't released to the public, in order to protect the challenger, but they were said to be impressive.

Janine had floundered for her first couple of months but had quickly settled into her new role as the gym leader. Her father had been a harsh trainer, believing in both the strength of the mind as well as the body, and despite training poison types they also offered many martial art classes in a side building when there were no challengers. A few had earned the moniker of ninja, but they were few.

Pokeballs on his waist, he entered the gym for his fourth badge.

It was well maintained, wooden paneling bursting with faux golden veins that lit the entire gym up with a sparkle of light. It was a welcoming place, despite training poison types that would normally corrode everything except for specially strengthened stone. He felt a glimmer against his barriers and guessed psychic guards, though he couldn't be sure. There was a missing tile in the ceiling, which was a bit strange.

There wasn't anyone in the room, which was a bit surprising. He had shown up fifteen minutes after it open, which he guessed was early, but maybe there was Janine was just late today? He couldn't tell.

A figure fell through the missing tile and landed on the ground with a thud.

He blinked. They were taller than him, black hair bound back in a tight bun on the back of their head. Rather pale skin that looked like far too many days inside instead of enjoying the sun and a neat line of twelve pokeballs skittered around their waist. As they raised their head, he could see flinty grey eyes. Janine, the gym leader of Fuchsia City.

"Welcome, challenger," she said, her voice harsh and barking, as if she hadn't spoken in twenty years. "Are you here for the Soul Badge?"

"I am."

Her eyes fell to his belt, face impassive. The stories told of a father who believed more in hard work and training than relationships or friends, and Janine merely stared across the field at him, a blank face.

"It shall be a three on three. I will throw first." Without looking, she grabbed the third pokeball from her belt and stared over the field toward him.

There wasn't a referee and neither had she asked him how many badges he had gotten already. The pokeball burst out and a golbat took to the skies, eyes closed in muscle memory to adjust to the dim light of the room and screeching to get a temporary view of the battlefield. They were tricky and fast, and though he had fought several in Team Rocket's ranks, he didn't think they counted. While they were fast, if his pokemon managed to get a hold on them it was game over. Their frail bodies wouldn't normally survive more than a few moves, especially in close range. And he had a pokemon who liked to grab a hold.

Siren burst onto the field, chittering warmly. While she had been briefed, she still took a moment to chitter something to Ash before turning back to her opponent. A shark grin spread over her face.

Janine didn't look impressed - or really anything at all. "Begin. Golbat, Astonish," she commanded coolly. Golbat finally opened its eyes and immediately sprang into action, lunging forward and trailing ghostly shadows off of its wings.

He had wanted to save the move as a surprise later, but that wasn't going to happen. Siren got violent if too much ghostly energy started flying around. "Siren, zap it!"

She giggled and raised her arms, careful to keep the electricity off of her. A burst of lightning shot through the air and slammed directly into Golbat's face, throwing it back and stopping the Astonish in its tracks. It hissed in pain, catching itself before it fell to the ground and flying back up to a decent position.

"Double Team." Her voice stayed the same quiet, raspy tone. Golbat shook itself so fast it almost seemed to vibrate, images bleeding out of its body and appearing in an arc around the room. Siren chittered, but Ash just grinned. Janine hadn't realized what 'zap it' meant, which meant she didn't know Siren could use Shock Wave, which homed in on the pokemon's inner power and never missed.

"Siren, Shock Wave!"

The electricity slammed into the fourth Golbat, sending it screeching and flying over the battlefield. Its wings crackled as it struggled back into the air, black eyes narrowed and fangs bared.

Janine inclined her head slightly. "Sludge Bomb, and then Wing Attack." Golbat reared back in midair and opened its mouth, venom slipping out and drenching the wooden tiles beneath it. The psychic barriers caught it an inch above the wood and held it, hissing and spitting. It was strong poison - Ash could smell the rather putrid smell through the barriers. With a screech, it spat it at Siren.

She stopped concentrating and dropped like a stone, letting the poison fly over her head. Golbat flew like an arrow, wings thrumming with silvery-blue energy, managing to land two cuts close to her head.

Hissing in pain, Siren lunged forward and wrapped all three of her tentacles around its body. Golbat screeched again and thrashed violently, but Ash just grinned. "Night Shade, please."

Golbat managed one truly impressive Bite that nearly made Siren drop it, but two Night Shades point blank to the chest knocked it out of the battle. It had been rather easy, and Siren let it drop instead of even attempting anything, not even close to worked up.

It disappeared from the ground in a flash of scarlet. "You may have beaten my first pokemon, but the rest are far from as easy. Go!"

To his light surprise, an ivysaur appeared on the field. While it did have a poison typing, it was a rare pokemon that specialised in grass types more than poison, and gyms were often heavily implied to either use pure or primary typed pokemon. Janine didn't seem like the type to care about superstitions.

The ivysaur looked well cared for, its fronds a bright green and the bulb on its back just beginning to show breaks in the petals that showed it was close to evolution. Its skin was slightly wet, probably because it had been recently watered for moisture. Grass type pokemon were cheap, but strange, to feed. It growled over the field, two vines protruding slightly from its bulb. Siren hissed back, but Ash quickly recalled her. "You did great, girl, but let's let others handle this as well," he whispered to her pokeball, slipping her back onto his belt and palming another.

Ro snorted as he was released, barbs extending and his horn weeping clear poison. Janine's eyes showed the first flicker of respect at the sight of the pokemon, head tilting slightly to the side though her stick-straight posture never faded. "Ah, you also know the strength of poison types? Nevertheless, my ivysaur has been a close companion and is a strong ally on the battlefield. You may have the first move."

His nidorino looked less than impressed, though he hadn't ever fought one before. The bulbasaur line were amazingly rare in the wild and there were only twelve successful breeding pairs across Kanto, which was incredibly low for the species to have survived. But they were tough and hardy, and it might be a tough battle.

"Ro, you'll have to get close to avoid those vines," he muttered. "Peck."

The poison type snorted a bit at having to get close but nodded, starting to move forward on his stubby legs. Silvery-blue energy trickled up from his skin, molding into a protective layer around his horn.

Ivysaur waited for a command, scarlet eyes narrowed. Janine spoke as Ro was mere feet away. "Energy Ball."

As if it had been waiting, Ivysaur only had to open its mouth in order to launch a gleaming ball of thrashing green energy into Ro's face. The nidorino bellowed but he resisted grass moves and the sheer force of his bulk was able to carry him through the move. Peck landed underneath Ivysaur's chin and blasted it backward, landing on its back.

Ash grinned. "Ice Beam!"

Janine frowned, her tight bun shifting as she turned to the side and pursued her options as if she had all the time in the world, not like she was preceding over a battle. "Razor Whip, please."

He didn't like the sound of that, and for good reason. Just as Ro finished charging up an Ice Beam, Ivysaur's bulb shook and a cloud of leaves formed above it, each shimmering with energy. Ro bellowed and jabbed at them with his horn, managing to knock a few off of their course before the rest slammed into his back. The next second, two vines nearly as thick as Ash's arms emerged from below Ivysaur, flipping it right side up before launching themselves as Ro.

The nidorino lunged forward and bit down on one of the vines, pulling it taut. Ivysaur shrieked and beat him around the head with the other, but it did almost nothing. When Ro finally let go, an Ice Beam exploded out with it and caught the vine, freezing it solid and letting it crash against the ground, useless.

Janine looked frustrated, with good reason. While poison moves could still know Ro back, they wouldn't do much, and the grass moves weren't harming Ro too much either. "All out! Seed Storm!" She called, her voice rising a hair above what it normally was.

Ivysaur tensed, forgetting its frozen vine and the pain it was no doubt feeling. The tip of the bulb on its back opened slightly before objects exploded out of it.

No less than nine Leech Seeds landed in various positions on Ro's back. He rumbled and shook violently, managing to shake off three, but the next second they each exploded, wrapping endless vines around his form and grounding him completely. Ivysaur chirped its name, pleased, and Ro shot it a look filled with nothing but burning contempt. Even as his energy was siphoned away, he opened his mouth and spat two twisting Ice Beams.

Ivysaur had no chance to dodge. It collapsed, legs frozen completely, eyes rolling back into its head. Its Leech Seeds shriveled, no host to connect to, but the damage was done. Ro gave one last satisfied grunt before collapsing on the pile of dead vines.

Ash recalled his pokemon, the Leech Seed remains collapsed in a heap. Leech Seeds were a devil to fight - only grass types couldn't be sucked dry and more often than not most pokemon were. It pulled their energy so quickly the collapsed after only a few more minutes, making easy meals in the wild despite most grass types being herbivores. Janine followed suit, frowning.

"You are not disappointing," she said, a touch frostily. "But my final pokemon is the strongest you will face today. We have been training together since I took control of this gym and our losses are few. Venomoth, go!"

Ash wasn't the largest fan of bug type pokemon in the first place, and the moth just as tall as him was no different. It took to the air immediately, each flap of its wing sending loose particles of dust into the surrounding area. Its ability was most likely Shield Dust, which protected it from most status afflictions. Its purple fur ruffled as its wide, almost unseeing eyes flashed over the battlefield. Another secondary poison type, but bug moves rarely did anything against poison types.

Apep appeared with a hiss on the field, rising to his full height. His purple scales gleamed under the light, but Ash could still see the narrow white lines that traced where the pangoro had attacked him. They would fade with time but it was a stark reminder of what Apep had gone through.

Janine's eyes flashed again. "An arbok. You may have fine taste in pokemon but that hardly means your victory. Confusion!"

A psychic move. "Dodge and Coil," Ash said softly, pacing slightly on his side of the field. Apep moved to the side, tail cracking against the barriers, but his speed wasn't completely necessary. Venomoth's spiraling eyes had only just begun to glow a fearsome blue by the time Apep had fled from where it was looking at, and the Confusion faded.

Two, maybe more or maybe less, of those hits would take Apep out of the battle. He had to avoid them. Oh, if only he had managed to teach Apep Fire Fang in time - but no matter. He watched the battle carefully as Apep tucked himself into a tiny spiral, scales humming with a fierce energy. "Crunch if you get close," he said, trying to make it sound as meaningful as he could. Apep seemed to understand, tensing himself as the last boosts from Coil settled over his body.

Ash sucked in a breath and trilled. Apep lunged forward. Venomoth squeaked and instinctually blasted Apep with a burst of wind from its wings, a wave of powder bouncing against his body. But the Silver Wind only moved him back a few feet, which he quickly made up and slammed an Iron Tail at Venomoth's lower half.

The short, squat building and Apep's tall height made it easy for him to catch the flying pokemon. He slithered back, chuffing as his form of laughter, and waited for another command. Apep hissed and ducked under another Confusion, although it clipped his head. A spare drop of poison fell from his mouth onto the ground, but he hardly seemed affected. Venomoth, on the other hand, had definitely felt those attacks.

"Psybeam!" Janine barked, fists tensing as she stared over the field with a lowered brow. It wasn't going according to plan for her, and Ash barely kept his grin to a minimum. That was good for him.

At least until Apep took a moment to slither closer and the Psybeam caught him across the hood.

He caterwauled, flung backward nearly a dozen feet to slam against the psychic barrier. Venom bubbled from his fangs, the psychic energy loosening his control over his poison sacs. It hissed and writhed against the floor, but Apep's fury as he rose back up made it seemed like children's bubbles. He was furious and in pain, and Janine actually looked slightly worried, flinty eyes narrowing. "Venomoth, Confusion-"

Ash trilled, Apep lunged, and the battle changed back into his favor.

The Iron Tail landed across one of Venomoth's wings and launched it to the ground. Its eyes burned with cyan ready to fire but Apep nipped its chest with Crunch, diffusing the psychic energy with the burst of darkness. Another Iron Tail across the side of the head and it was knocked out.

Ash blinked as Janine recalled her pokemon. That had been the easiest gym battle he had ever fought it before, only one of his pokemon being knocked out by a cheap move that nearly knocked out the user as well. His friends had only been hit a few times, scuffed up more the correct wording, but it hadn't felt nearly like the struggle Lt. Surge or Brock or even Misty had given him.

Janine had a burning pit of fury in her eyes, but she stalked over to him and nearly slammed a badge into his palm. Her hands were heavily calloused and looked strong enough to rip his arm off but after a second, she sucked in a deep breath and looked back down at him, much calmer.

"I apologize. I have not reached the zen as I should have, and must return to my studies. You have done well to earn this badge. If you wish for a rematch any time along your journey, return here and bare your badge. I will fight."

She turned sharply on her heel, marching back toward her side of the field. Crouching, she leapt nearly three feet in the air and kicked off a wall, landing a hand up the missing ceiling tile. A second later of incredibly impressive acrobatics and then she was gone, disappearing quite literately into the woodworks.

Ash blinked. Apep came closer, still leaking a not inconsiderable amount of poison from his gaping mouth, and brushed a coil of his scales against his trainer's hand. Ash scritched along them, working out a few chunks of dirt, and the snake rumbled happily.

"Well, bud," he offered to the empty room. "I guess we won."

A chortling hiss was his reply.

---

While Nurse Joy hadn't been entirely too pleased with him wanting to leave while his pokemon were still a little sore (and that wasn't counting the fact he had fought a gym battle with them so soon after Team Rocket), she had to let him leave. Healing up his pokemon took only a single night, though she had frowned at Apep's venom sacs. But then they were as good as new and Ash was fully stocked up for the journey.

It would take around three weeks to journey through the Fuchsia Wilderness and reach Celadon. Three weeks would be plenty of time to train with his team, as well as figure out where to go from there with them. He had seen Ro's adoring look of the sandslash's sandstorm and Celadon was filled to the brim of TMs ripe for the taking, including a few more he wanted for the rest of his team.

Not including the new member he'd be getting from Surge. He bubbled with excitement at the thought. It had the chance to be an electric type, which made sense being Surge, but in all honesty, it could be anything.

Staring ahead, he took in the humid depths of the Wilderness ahead. Apep hissed at his side, golden eyes bright at the warmth around him. Ash touched his head and took a step forward. His pokedex buzzed.

He stopped, reaching down to pull it off of his belt. It wasn't a call, no ringtone, but messages were rather rare to receive over pokedexes, as both parties had to have each other's number as well as a pokedex or other League registered device. But there on the screen was a notice, a crisp white against the black of the background. He pressed on it, holding it down slightly to let Apep peer at the device despite not being able to read.

It had been sent five minutes ago, but the location was undisclosed. No subject line, and no attached links.

The sender was on the top line. Ash Ketchum, 10, Pokemon Trainer.

He had sent this to himself?

There was only one line of text, the letters bolded and underlined against the blank of the page.

Pathetic.

---

*crickets chirp*

Heeeeeeeeeeeey guys

So yeah. I'm sorry. I really am! But as much as I love this story, I took a quick break for some family stuff as well as a bit of a relaxer. Its hard to get chapters out, as much as I love it.

But I'm back! A bit of a shorter chapter but I'll get back into the swing of things shortly. Not entirely pleased with the gym battle but you guys have waited long enough for me to put something out there. I hope you enjoy!

Also YAY 200,000 words!

Totally random question - what's everyone's favourite eeveelution? Personally, it's either Jolteon or Vaporeon for me. I played through my pokemon X again and fell in love again xD

Anyway! Please read and review!

Frost OUT!