Well here's the first chapter for today, I was lucky enough to get this one polished up a bit early. This chapter is probably the weakest thus far when it comes to Ash and Misty. That's because the main focus of this chapter isn't really about them... However at the same time the main focus of this chapter didn't really have enough content to fill up a chapter. So consider the content involving Ash and Misty in this chapter to be filler.

Fortunately though, the next 5 chapters after this will be pretty important, and pretty intense.

One last thing, I'd like to address; This past week has been... Busy. I've been running errands all week, and whenever I finally had a chance to work on this, I'd be faced with severe writer's block. Because of that, I only have five of the ten chapters I wanted to complete this week done. I'll try my best to post the next ten as quickly as possible, but I'm really sorry to say that I can't guarantee that they will all be released daily. Fortunately the next four chapters are ready to go.

Now, enough talk, Have at y... er... I mean... Enjoy!

Nightfall covered the region of Kanto like a blanket of darkness. There had been an overcast all day, causing the stars and the moon to be shrouded out by the clouds. As the veil of night's hours of darkness covered Team Rocket's HQ, the watchtowers around the base's parameter turned on their spotlights, searching for anyone who'd dare intrude onto the base's grounds.

Inside, Giovanni sat in his dimly lit office, cutting a piece of rare steak with a knife that shinned under the lamp he kept on his desk, the only source light in the entire room. As the knife sliced through the hunk of meat, blood began to ooze from it, creating a small puddle of blood in his plate. Once he had a small piece cut, he lifted it up with his fork, and placed it in his mouth. His teeth gnashed into the warm meal, tasting the warm blood that acted as a natural condiment for the finely cooked steak.

As he continued eating, there was a buzz from the phone on his desk. Giovanni placed his eating utensils neatly on the napkin next to his plate, and pressed the red button on the phone, activating the speaker. "Yes?" The crime lord answered plainly.

"The Officer you requested is here to see you." His secretary's voice came from the phone's intercom.

"Send her in."

"Yes sir."

Giovanni pressed the red button again, ending the call. After he did this, the wooden door on the other side of his office opened, allowing the bright light from his secretary's office to shine into the darkened room. A blonde woman stepped into his workplace, silhouetted by the light from outside.

"It's good to see you, Domino." Giovanni greeted as she shut the door behind her, blocking off the bright light that invaded the room.

"You requested to see me, sir?" She stood out of his lamps reach, only allowing the crime lord to see her outline through the darkness.

"Yes, please take a seat." His voice seemed to make a sly hiss as he pointed to the chair sitting directly in front of his desk.

Domino nodded, and approached the chair, casually taking a seat before her boss. "I'm guessing this has to do with the stone from Chester Town?" She said, leaning back in the soft chair, crossing her legs as she did so.

"You would be correct in that assumption." Her boss said as he began cutting away at the steak again. "It seems that the stone is indeed the birthing stone of our little legendary friend." He said, taking a bite of another small piece of steak.

"Well, I already knew that." She replied. "Why don't you tell me the real reason you called me in here?"

Giovanni lowered his knife and fork once again, this time placing them on his plate. "That's what I like about you Domino, always to the point." He folded his hands on his desk, as he continued speaking. "You see, the stone's power grows whenever the Pokémon is near, and as such it can act as a pseudo tracking device."

"So you want me to track it down?" She figured as much, it was only the next logical step for them to take.

"No." He put flatly.

Domino's eyes widened. "What?" It was easy to tell she was quite puzzled by his words. "I thought you said that its retrieval was of top priority?"

"And it is, He made a crooked grin. "but Team Rocket has a vast supply of resources, as well as many other skilled officers who are capable of retrieving the Pokémon. However, it could take seven to nine months before we can at the very least track down its approximant location." He paused. "And I can't let your talents go to waste in a year long goose chase." As he said this, Domino's eyes began to narrow.

"So what do you have planned for me?"

"I want for you to spy on that Ketchum boy and the Cerulean City Gym Leader."

Domino's eyes widened once again, finding her boss' orders to be completely asinine. "Sir!?" Her outburst was a sheer gut reaction. "I already have agent Jessie and agent Jam-"

"Those two are so incompetent they couldn't find their way out of a cardboard box." He hissed. "Besides, the knowledge those two teenagers carry is far more valuable than that idiotic duo is worth!"

"Sir, we aren't even sure if they know anything about Mount Quena."

"Domino?" Giovanni's voice was stern.

"Yes, boss?"

"How many members outside of Team Rocket know your codename, and are still alive to tell about it?" Giovanni's voice began to grow the slightest bit agitated.

Domino sighed. "Five people." She answered. "Lance, Cynthia, Steven Stone, and those two."

Giovanni leaned back in his chair. "Do you think that the champions have revealed your identity to those two teenagers?"

"No," She answered. "That would be absurd."

"Then how else would they know who you are?"

The blonde Elite Officer sighed. Her boss was right, there was no other logical explanation that she could think of that would explain how those two trainers knew who she was. However, she still couldn't help but feel skeptical about all this. "The Mount Quena reports don't say anything about two trainers that interfered with the operation."

"There's a lot of things the Mount Quena reports don't mention. The only thing they elaborate on is that we went there to apprehend Mewtwo, and that at some point during the operation, he erased our memories of him." He began to lean over his desk, allowing for his face to be seen by the lamp that sat on his desk. His expression was quite serious, his eyes beaming right into Domino's. "There are a lot of unanswered questions, and the only one I trust with obtaining answers to those questions, is you."

Domino exhaled, and leaned her head back against the chair, staring up at the ceiling. The idea of her doing nothing more than simple reconnaissance was infuriating, but her boss was right. Those two could probably answer a lot of questions, and their answers could be extremely valuable to Team Rocket. "Yes sir." She replied.

"Good," He said, leaning away from his desk, his face becoming shrouded by the darkness of his office once more. "You will be traveling back to Zerra tomorrow. Everything you find out about them will be reported directly to me. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir." She replied. "What about agent Jessie and agent James?"

Giovanni snickered. "Let them continue their reconnaissance on the two. It'll keep them out of the way, and there is always the off chance they might discover something."

"Whatever you say, sir." Domino replied.

Giovanni picked up his knife and fork again, cutting away at his steak. "You may leave now."

Without saying a word, Domino rose from the seat, and made her way back to the wooden door. As she opened it, light began to pour into the office, and when she closed it after leaving, the darkness returned.

XXXXXXXXXX

Ash began to stretch as the sun peaked over the trees, being awakened by the brilliant rays of light that beamed into his eyes. Pikachu and Misty soon followed suit, stretching and yawning as they awakened from their slumber. This was the fourth night in a row of sleeping in the middle of the woods, and the two teens had grown quite tired of it.

The road from Gainesboro to Sunnyport went straight through one of the biggest forests the two had ever seen in their lives. All they really knew about the area was that it was a nature reserve, so that meant there wasn't a Pokémon Center anywhere near them, and the only places for them to sleep was in the sleeping bags they brought with them.

This also meant there were no restaurants or fast-food joints around either. This came much to the disdain of Ash, who had to eat the "food" Misty made him. Last night, she claimed that it was canned beans she was serving him, but what she gave him certainly didn't look or taste like it. How on earth someone could screw up canned beans was beyond him, but the redhead had found a way to do it.

I miss Brock's cooking. Ash thought as he felt his stomach gurgle, still slightly upset from last night's meal.

"How'd you sleep, Ash?" She looked over at him as she stretched, sleep still in her eyes.

"I slept alright I guess." He replied, leaning up and wiping his eyes.

"Well," She said getting out of her sleeping bag. "I guess we should pack our bags and get moving. Sunnyport Beach is about a week away.

The trainer groaned. "We left Gainesboro a week and a half ago." He began to crawl out of his sleeping bag. "Are you sure we still have another week to go?"

"Hey, I'm not happy about this either." Misty replied, too sleepy to put any spunk into her voice.

"Yeah, I could tell by how much you were moaning about wanting to take a bath."

"Hey!" The spunk fired up. "Unlike you, I actually care about how clean I am."

The trainer from Pallet was too tired to retort. "Okay, whatever." He rolled up his sleeping bag, and crammed it into his backpack. "Are you ready to go Pikachu?" A little bit of energy came back to him.

"Pika!"

Ash cracked a grin. "Alright then, let's go!"

XXXXXXXXXX

"Jessie, they're moving." James said to his partner as he watched the two teens from behind his binoculars. After not getting a reaction, he turned to see her and Meowth were still sleeping soundly. "Jessie wake up!" He shouted, awakening the scarlet haired woman.

"Ah! What is it?" She snarled, angered for being awakened from her beauty sleep.

"They're moving." He answered.

Jessie rolled her eyes. "What's the point, James?"

"What do you mean what's the point? The boss said that it's vital that we follow them, and report anything we find interesting."

Jessie sighed. "Domino said that's what the boss told us, and even if that's true, what's the point?"

"I don't follow." A puzzled expression crossed the blue haired Rocket agent's face.

"All we've been doing is watching them walk around and get into Pokémon battles every once in a while. It's been the same thing for almost seven years." Jessie looked up at the sunny sky and began to realize all the time they had been wasting following Ash and his Pikachu around. Almost seven years of foiled plan after foiled plan, all for what? A Pikachu that blew up a Pokémon Center once. Jessie let out a sigh. "Where did it all go wrong, James?"

James put down the binoculars and turned to her. "Probably when we flunked out of Pokémon Tech."

Jessie let out another sigh.

"Will you two keep it down?" I'm tryin' to sleep over here." Meowth grumbled as he rolled over and closed his eyes. Jessie glared at the talking Pokémon, and kicked him in the head.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Ow!" A voice echoed throughout the forest.

"Hey Ash, did you hear that?" Misty asked as the two stopped in their tracks, looking around the woods, trying to figure out where the noise came from.

"I don't know, but it sounded kinda' familiar." Ash said as he and Pikachu looked all around them to see if anyone was nearby. "I don't see anyone. Do you, Pikachu?"

The little mouse shook his head.

"I guess it was nothing then." Misty said, walking up next to Ash. "C'mon Ash, we should get going." The black haired trainer nodded, and the two continued on through the thick forest.

The teens continued their trek in relative silence, neither one saying much. It wasn't like there was much they could take note of anyways. After a week in the same forest, everything started to look alike. It was at this point Ash was almost hoping that Team Rocket would fly down in their balloon and try to steal Pikachu, at least that would give them something to do other than walk for hours on end.

"Does this forest ever end?" He groaned.

"Quit whining you big baby." Misty snapped,. "Besides, we're over halfway to Sunnyport Beach!" Upon mentioning the beach, her voice began to grow shrill.

"Why are you so excited about this beach?" The black haired trainer asked as he handed a berry to Pikachu, the yellow mouse taking it into his tiny hands, then proceeding to nibble away at the fruit.

"What's there not to be excited about?" She chirped. "Ever since I was a little girl I've always wanted to go there!"

"It's just a beach." Ash rolled his eyes at her over enthusiasm. "What makes this one so special."

"What makes it so special?!" The gym leader sounded almost offended by the question. "It's the most beautiful beach in the world! The ocean is such a perfect blue, the sun is always bright, and I hear there are even some rare water Pokémon that live there!"

"Rare Pokémon?" That seemed to be the only thing she said that caught his attention.

"Yes Ash, rare Pokémon."

"Like what kind of rare Pokémon?!" The trainer began to jump up and down with excitement at the idea of getting a chance to catch some rare Pokémon.

Misty looked over at the trainer and smirked. "I don't think I should tell you."

"Why not?!" Ash's expression began to dissipate from excitement to something more along the lines of livid. "You've got to tell me!"

She shook her head. "Nope, if I told you, you'd spend all your time there trying to catch Pokémon."

"Of course I would!" Ash didn't see any problem with that. "So please tell me what rare Pokémon live there?" He got onto his knees, practically begging her. "Please Misty, you've gotta' tell me!"

The redhead looked down at his pleading eyes. He looked like a puppy begging for a meal. She let out a sigh, giving in to his pleas. "Fine." She grumbled.

Ash's eyes lit up when he heard this. He then got up and wrapped his arms around her. "Oh thank you so, so, so much Misty! So tell me what rare Pokémon live there?!"

Misty tried to push him away, but his grip around her was too tight. "Ash, I'll tell you if you just let g-"

"Am I interrupting something?" A familiar, cynical voice carried over to the two, causing Ash to let go of Misty. The trainer from Pallet turned around to see that the voice belonged to none other than his purple haired rival from Sinnoh.

"Oh, it's you." Ash growled upon seeing Paul standing before him. "What are you doing here?"

"Me?" He snickered. "I'm on my way to Sunnyport Beach." He cracked a crooked grin. "But I can see you and your little friend are busy. So I guess I'll be on my way."

"Hey!" Ash shouted, not letting his rival just leave like this. "How about a little battle?" He had been itching for a good battle since he left Gainesboro. He had run into a few trainers scattered throughout the forest, but they were easy pickings, and Ash actually felt almost bad for beating them as badly as he did.

"A battle with you?" The Sinnoh native tried his best to sound uninterested, but truth be told he had been waiting for a chance to get a rematch against Ketchum ever since their battle in the Lily of the Valley Conference. "I guess beating you in a quick one on one battle might be fun."

"Wow, this guy really is a jerk." Misty whispered. "He's worse than Gary."

Ash nodded. "At least Gary actually cared about his Pokémon." He then turned away from Misty and faced his opponent. "Pick your Pokémon, Paul!"

The purple haired trainer shook his head. "I insist, you pick first."

Ash scowled. "Alright, if you insist!" he reached for Pidgeot's Poké Ball, but the stopped as Professor Oak's words traveled through his head. "Pseudo Legendary". After remembering this, Ash instead reached for his small dragon type's Poké Ball. "Go Gible!" Upon tossing the red and white sphere, the little grayish-blue land-shark was released onto the battlefield.

Paul tried to resist the urge to laugh when he saw who his opponent was. "A Gible?" He laughed. "How about I show you what a real Pokémon is!" He reached for a Poké Ball. "Go Honchkrow!" The orb busted open, freeing one of his most loyal Pokémon.

"Honchkrow!" It cawed as it flapped its wings, hovering only a few feet above the ground.

"Honchkrow!" Paul shouted, not even waiting to see if Ash was ready. "Start if off with haze!" The black and red bird then began to flap his wings rapidly, releasing a dark, gaseous smog that completely overtook Gible, leaving him lost inside of the murky cloud.

The land-shark was completely blinded by the smog's darkness, unable to see anything. He began to frantically look all around him, trying to find any form of light. "Oh no!" Misty cried out. "Ash, you've got to get him out of there, he can't see anything!" The black haired trainer nodded, already widely aware of the situation.

"Now that he's blinded, use aerial ace!" The dark flying type soared downward, directly towards the shrouded dragon type, being able to see through the smog due to its own dark powers.

Ash watched on as the bird began to close in, picking up speed as he descended. He couldn't order a counter attack, nor could he tell him to jump out of the way due to being blinded by the smog. However, there was one thing he could do. "Gible!" Ash's voice reached through the smog, catching the Pokémon's attention. "Use dig!" Gible heard the order, and quickly turned his massive mouth towards the dirt, and began to chomp its way through the ground, sheltering itself underground.

Honchkrow saw what happened, and tried to halt its decent. However, it had already picked up too much speed, causing it to crash into the ground. Upon impact, the displacement of the air around the bird caused the dark cloud to scatter and ultimately dissipate into nothing.

Now that Paul and Ash could see the battlefield, The black haired trainer was happy to see that Gible had managed to dig underground and dodge the attack. Paul on the other hand was quite unpleasantly surprised to see Honchcrow's aerial ace had not only missed, but ended up working against him.

"Honchkrow!" Paul barked. "Get up now!" The dark bird tried lifting itself up, but was still a bit dazed from the crash.

"You know what to do Gible!" Without any hesitation between his action and his master's command, Gible shot out of the ground, right under Honchkrow, and clamped down onto the bird's torso with his massive jaws.

"Krow!" It cried out, trying its best to lift itself into the air and shake off the little land-shark. However, the tenacious little Pokémon stayed latched on.

"Get that thing off!" Paul demanded. Honchkrow began soar across the sky, making jarring turns and steep accents and descents, hoping that the little dragon's grip would loosen. However, this proved to be of no avail as his teeth kept digging deeper and deeper into the bird's chest.

"Wow," Misty let out. "Gible sure knows how to hang on."

Ash chuckled. "Just wait, this is where it gets good." A grin crossed his face. "Gible, stay latched onto him and use rock smash!" The little dragon type's right arm began to glow, his mouth still tightly latched onto the bird. Paul could see what the little Pokémon was about to do, and knew he had to bring an end to it quickly.

"Honchkrow! Get him off, now!" Honchkrow desperately made one last attempt to get Gible off of him by descending directly downward at blinding speeds, however it proved completely useless. Gible smashed his glowing fist directly into the bird's chest, sending the Pokémon crashing down to the ground. The black and red bird landed with a loud "thud" upon impact, and it was clear to both Paul an Ash that this battle was over.

Gible unlatched himself from Honchkrow, and then ran back to Ash and Misty's side. "That was great, Gible!" His trainer praised, running to the little dragon to give him a hug. However, before he could do that, the land-shark leapt into the air and clamped down onto Ash's head. "Ahh!" His trainer cried as he fell off his feet. It was Gible's on way of showing affection, but this was often to the dismay of his trainer.

Misty approached the two, Pikachu resting on her shoulder. "You did a great job Gible!" The little ball shaped Pokémon looked up at the redhead, and leapt towards her. Misty let out a scream, thinking he was going to clamp down on her head like he did with Ash. However, instead he landed in her arms, and began snuggling against her chest.

Ash looked on with an incredulous expression. "Why does he cuddle with you, but he bites me?"

Misty giggled. "I guess he just knows how to treat a lady." She gave the trainer a wink.

Meanwhile, Paul looked down at the injured Honchkrow with disappointment. "You should have won that battle!" He snapped. His Pokémon looked up at him, taking his master's dissatisfaction with him to heart. Paul let out a sigh upon seeing his battler saddened by his criticism. "It's my fault." He admitted. "I shouldn't have underestimated my opponent."

Ash looked on in aw of what he was seeing. "Is Paul actually being nice to his Pokémon?"

"You call that being nice?" Misty replied.

"You never saw him in Sinnoh." The trainer mumbled.

Paul withdrew Honchkrow, and looked over at Ash and Misty. "You may have won this little battle, but next time I'm not holding anything back."

Ash nodded. "I wouldn't expect anything less."

Paul returned the nod, then began making his way towards Sunnyport Beach, though taking a different route so he wouldn't have to stick around Ash and Misty any longer than he had to.

"He may be a bigger jerk than Gary, but at least he's not as childish." The gym leader said once he vanished from sight.

Ash couldn't help but chuckle at the comment. "I think that's because me and Gary just wanted to be better than the other." He paused so he could return Gible. "Me and Paul just have different views on how Pokémon should be raised."

Misty nodded, understanding what he meant. "Well, I guess we should be getting on our way to Sunnyport."

Ash agreed. "Yeah, let's go!" The two then continued their way down the dirt trail, hoping that they'd be able to get out of the reserve and into a Pokémon Center before nightfall. "Oh" The black haired trainer remembered. "You said something about rare Pokémon in Sunnyport?"

Misty rolled her eyes while keeping a mischievous grin. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do!"

"Nope. I have no idea what you're talking about Ash."

"Please, please, please tell me?" He begged.

Misty shook her head. "Nope."

"I'll be your best friend."

"You already are my best friend Ash."

"Okay, well I'll be your super best friend!"

Misty rolled her eyes once again as he continued his begging and pleading. The gym leader knew he'd be so upset when she finally told him she was joking about there being rare Pokémon in Sunnyport, but the redhead figured she could get a few more laughs out of this before breaking the news to him.

Like I said, filler. I hope you guys at least found the part involving Team Rocket interesting. The chapter I'll be posting later tonight will be a lot better though, I promise. The latter half of this chapter was literally made while faced with severe writers block, and I'm sorry if it shows.

Well, I've got to go. I have more chapters to finish, and I'd like to get all ten chapters to you as soon as possible, while at the same time retaining good quality writing.

I'll see you guys later tonight when I post the next chapter, till then. See ya.