OK, NOW, we're going back to watching Ash and the gang.
Though, I will be skipping some parts of the series, just want everyone to know that.
I kind of do want to hit the RWBY segment of the story eventually, so some events will be simply glossed over.
Simple and efficient.
And with that out of the way, let's go!
Ash and the others were once more on the move across Kanto.
Over the last week of their adventure, they had passed through quite a few towns and areas, and ended up catching some new pokemon, well, some of them did.
The first of them to catch a pokemon, though accidentally, was Misty, who caught a Psyduck… and one had to wonder just how stupid the pokemon was sometimes, even if Lapis could feel psychic power sleeping within it.
Next had been Brock, who received a Vulpix from a fellow pokemon breeder whom he idolized, a sort of test from what Lapis understood to see how good he was, and they all knew Brock would end up passing it with flying colors what with how much attention he put into making the pokemon food (and Lapis had tasted from a batch of food for psychic types Brock had made once in the event any of them ever caught one, and it was delicious).
After that they ended up finding a small pokemon boxing tournament, where Ash entered his Primeape, and it won hands down, with it now carrying it's belt around itself everywhere. A man had also tried to have Ash 'lend' him Primeape to train him up to take on the pro-circuit, but Primeape himself had refused the offer, wanting to only be trained by Ash.
Then had been the episode where Ash caught a Muk, which Lapis had assisted in due to him having a type advantage. Pikachu had fallen sick that day, and when they had gotten to the pokemon center and the nurse Joy who had just woken up dismissed it as a simple cold… let's just say Summer put the fear of a huntress into the nurse.
Then had been the Diglett incident, where it was Lapis's turn to finally verbally tear into someone, an idiot construction worker who was trying to have a group of Diglett removed from their natural environment to build a dam, in the middle of a forest of all places. Summer, Lapis, Brock and Misty also ended up finally meeting Ash's rival, Gary, and the Remnant native had a few choice words to the cocky boy, that while entertaining… well, let's just say Misty acted like a big sister for a few moments and covered Lapis's ears.
And, of course, during each of those events, they ended up having to deal with Team Rocket, because they just didn't know when to give up, like a bunch of persistent cockroaches.
Speaking of Team Rocket, our heroes didn't know it yet, but their pokemon had evolved, Jessie's Ekans turning into an Arbok, and James Koffing into a Wheezing.
Currently, they were making their way to Fuschia city, where Ash's next gym battle should be, as well as the Safari Zone, where Ash intended to catch a few pokemon, like a Rhyhorn or a Tauros.
After that, they'll head to the Fuschia gym, where Ash plans on testing some of the pokemon he'll catch, and probably give Primeape a chance at a gym battle as well.
As they were nearing the Safari Zone, Lapis stopped for a moment as he turned his head to a pair of very fake bushes, staring at them for a few moments "...Really?"
The shaky voice of Meowth came from one of the bushes "Hey, listen mini-twerp, if we just go now, can we, you know, not get blasted off just this time?"
Lapis stared at the sloppily hidden Rockets, before nodding slowly, prompting the bushes to shuffle away quickly.
"Darn it! We didn't even get to try anything this time!" Jessie whined as she jumped out of her bush.
"It's frustrating. I never thought that mini-twerp was actually so smart." James sighed as they stopped outside of Fuschia City.
"Looks like Team Rocket's just gonna wither away again." the two sighed out, depressed.
"Oh quit whining you two, this ain't the only episode this chapter's covering." Meowth said with a roll of his eyes.
The two humans perked up at that "Oh right, the gym." James said in remembrance.
"I honestly forgot about it since this episode originally aired after the twerp's battle with this town's gym leader." Jessie said in thought.
"Yeah, well, our usual fourth wall breaking funny bits made it so the author let's us know some of this stuff as long as we keep quiet to the twerps and the readers about anything big that might happen." Meowth said as he sat down in a circle with the two humans.
"So is there anything we can say then?" Jessie asked.
"Actually, he passed me a message, since he knows no one reads the author's note, so, yeah." Meowth cleared his throat as he turned to the camera "To all you twerps and twerpettes reading this right now, the reason why some episodes end up getting shortened or outright skipped is because the author wants to reach RWBY canon as quickly as possible while still covering the adventures in our world a bit."
"It feels weird to be doing someone else's dirty work for them, well, you know, that isn't the boss." James said as he turned to Jessie.
"Technically speaking though he's even higher than the boss, he's like a big boss." Jessie responded.
Back to the gang, only Summer had noticed what Lapis had done, and patted him on the head for it.
As they neared the Safari Zone, it seemed that Ash just couldn't hold in his excitement, as he was soon starting to sing a song about, well, the Safari Zone.
Brock politely asked him to stop, only to be ignored, resulting in the older teen turning to Misty for help, followed by Misty joining in the singing, then Pikachu, and when Brock cast a look at Summer and Lapis, both of them grinned as they joined the singing, Brock sighing and finally deciding to join in as well.
"Would you kids quit that racket!" an irate old man who was dressed like some kind of western saloon owner shouted as he walked out of the Safari Zone's main building.
"Ah, excuse us, this is our first time here, and young Ash here is excited about adding new pokemon to his team." Summer said as she stepped forward, having noticed that the old man seemed ready to draw a hidden weapon at any moment.
The old man grumbled a bit before looking at Ash "A trainer huh? Well, as long as you're paying customers and don't annoy me too much, fine then." he said as he walked back inside, the gang following after him as he walked behind a counter.
"Name's Kaiser, I'm the Safari Zone's warden, now then, how many of you are participating?"
"I am." Ash said as he stepped forward.
"So am I actually, I figured it's time I had my own pokemon." Summer said as she stepped up.
Kaiser nodded as he brought up their total on the register, with Ash paying by transfering money from his trainer account "Now then, each of you are given 30 safari balls to catch as many pokemon as you want, you aren't allowed to fight them with your own pokemon though, and you also only have a maximum of 3 hours to catch what you can, once that time's up, I'm coming to get you in there and bringing you back here."
"Is it ok for the rest of us to go in with them? We won't try to catch anything." Brock asked.
Kaiser looked at Brock, Misty and Lapis with a critical eye "Well… considering you two are gym leaders, I can allow it."
Brock and Misty both blinked "Um, how do you know that sir?"
Kaiser pointed at Brock "He looks just like Flint, an old drinking buddy of mine, and you look just like your mom, she ran the gym before she had kids from what I heard."
"You're a friend of my dad's?" Brock asked in surprise.
Kaiser nodded "Yeah, Flint and I go way back, we had a bit of a rivalry back in the day, I was even there at his wedding." Kaiser smiled wistfully "Speaking of which, has your mom…?" Kaiser asked as he looked at Brock.
The teen winced as he turned his head slightly "She… isn't back yet."
Kaiser frowned "I see…" he sighed "Honestly, what was that woman thinking, running away just because she couldn't handle running the gym?"
"At least dad tried after she left, sure he passed the job onto me and didn't show his face much around town after a while because he was depressed, but at least he WAS still in town and dropped money off at home from odd jobs he ended up doing." Brock said with a sigh.
"I'm guessing you being here means he got his act back together then." Kaiser said with a smirk, receiving a nod from Brock.
"You know, your mom reminds me of an old friend of mine." Summer said with a sigh, earning the other's attention.
"How's that Mrs. Rose?" Misty asked the older woman.
"Well, see, I have two girls back home, the youngest is called Ruby, and she's about 3 years old right now, the older is called Yang, and, well, I didn't give birth to her. See, I'm actually my husband's second wife, we got married after his first wife, who was also a good friend of mine, just, disappeared into the night suddenly, when Yang was only a few months old. To be honest, a part of me was happy she was gone, since I'd been in love with my husband back when we were still in school, but I knew that wasn't the time to just swoop into his life like that, so instead I just helped him, as did my friend's brother, who was understandably pissed off at her. About a year later, I got married to my husband, and a year after that, Ruby was born." Summer explained, giving everyone the abridged version of how she married Tai and Raven left.
Unsurprisingly, Misty shed a few tears at the story, being the more emotional one of the group.
"I guess humanity's a mixed bag huh?" Lapis said with a frown.
"Wise words from a kid so young." Kaiser said with a smirk as he looked at Lapis.
"Anyway, let's get going now." Summer said with a sigh, everyone nodding as Kaiser showed them the way into the Safari Zone proper.
When they were in the area, well, Safari Zone was a fitting name, since the place looked like some kind of savanah safari.
After they explored a bit, Ash got to hunting down any pokemon he wanted to add to his team, while Summer went off to try and catch herself her own pokemon, Lapis following after her.
And let it be known that even Ash could get annoyed, as each time he threw a safari ball to try and catch a pokemon, a Tauros got in the way somehow, and he'd end up catching that… times 30.
"Rough time huh?" Summer said as she saw Ash slamming his head against a wall multiple times.
"The boy caught a little over half of the Taurus herd in the area. I'll be honest, I've never seen someone with that kind of luck before." Kaiser said, shaking his head as he tried to wrap his head around it, before he looked at Summer "Why are you already back here when you only used up one ball though?"
Summer shrugged as she held up the lone safari ball she had used "I got what I wanted." the ball then burst open, revealing the pokemon within.
It was a kangaroo shaped pokemon, that had a baby in it's pouch, a Kangaskhan.
Although, the baby was currently asleep as Kangaskhan looked around a bit, before smiling at Summer.
"I decided to call her Kanga, and the little one is Lil' Kanga." Summer said with a smile.
Everyone else just stared at her for how… unoriginal the names were.
Hopefully her horrid naming sense didn't get passed down to her daughter.
Ash took a deep breath after a moment "Right, anyway." he muttered as he turned to Kaiser "I want to pay for another round."
Kaiser shrugged "I'm making money, so I won't complain." he said as he led Ash back into the zone, this time only Lapis followed him back out.
Ash grumbled a bit under his breath as he and Lapis walked through the area, with Lapis having Eevee on top of his head "No more Tauros, this time I'm catching what I want to."
Lapis, Eevee and Pikachu all shot Ash a sympathetic look at that, knowing he had nothing personal against the bull pokemon, but he was getting tired of always having a Tauros get in the way of what he actually wanted to catch.
As they walked around, he soon spotted something he wanted.
A Rhyhorn, a male one if the fact it's horn looked sharp was any hint, and it was asleep to boot.
As Ash prepped a Safari Ball, he looked around the area, sighing in relief at the lack of a Tauros in sight, before finally throwing the ball…
… And catching a Taurus that got up from the tall grass right in front of Rhyhorn.
Ash could feel his eyebrow twitching at this, while Pikachu and Eevee were speechless, and Lapis had his head in his heads, groaning.
The young clone raised his head up and extended his senses, his eyes gaining a blue tint. 'To all Tauros in the area, there's a trainer here who's caught about 30 of your kind, and he looks like he's in the mood for some steak right now, so unless you want to be on the menu, I suggest running.'
He waited for a second, before he and Ash felt the ground tremble around them as most of the Tauros vacated the area.
Keyword being MOST.
Ash groaned as he heard the sounds of hooves walking towards them. "Please don't be another Tauros." he said while turning his head to look. True enough, it was another Tauros. Ash almost felt like shouting to the heavens in frustration...until he noticed something odd about the Tauros.
It's skin was the same color as a lemon, while it's fur was a lime green, it's hooves and the fur on the tips of it's tails being a navy blue.
Ash stared at it for several moments, before turning to Lapis "Uh… is that Tauros sick or something?"
Lapis shook his head, staring at the Tauros with wide eyes "No, it's because it's rare. That's what's known as a Shiny Pokemon, they have different coloration than the normal members of their species. Pokemon only have a 1 in about 8000 chance of being born like that."
Ash blinked at that explanation, then took one look at the Tauros and shrugged. "Eh, one more couldn't hurt." 30 Tauros or not, he wasn't about to let a chance like this get away.
"Are you gonna give it a nickname after you catch it? To better tell it apart to professor Oak so he knows what to actually send you." Lapis asked Ash curiously.
"That's not a bad idea." Ash mumbled as he lobbed the safari ball, the Tauros looking at it before letting it strike its head and suck it in, actually letting itself be caught.
"Huh, guess he was curious about you." Lapis said as the ball flung itself back to Ash, a special mechanism of Safari Balls, storing it away as he turned to the still sleeping Rhyhorn.
Ash laughed sheepishly at it "I'm gonna have my work cut out for me training this guy aren't I?"
"Probably." Lapis said in amusement. "Not too late to turn around though."
Ash chuckled at that, before jokingly made a show of thinking...then chucked another Safari Ball at the sleeping pokemon, easily catching it as the ball came back to him.
He let out a sigh as he relaxed his posture "Well, I'm satisfied with this."
"You sure? We still have time...and 27 more balls to go." Lapis asked.
Ash shook his head. "Naw, it's fine, I think catching anything else here would overwork the professor too much right now. Plus, the other Pokemon found here weren't anything I planned on training yet."
Lapis shrugged at the answer. "Makes sense to me. Just make sure to test out the team you want to use at the pokemon center before we head for the gym."
Ash nodded as they left to go back to the safari zone entrance.
As they returned to the entrance, Ash was thinking hard about what to name is newly caught Tauros, with professor Oak on the other end of the line looking in amusement as he waited patiently for Ash, since he knew Ash also had an important thing to ask after this.
Eventually, Ash nodded as he settled on a name for the Shiny Tauros "I'll call him Wrecker."
Oak nodded as he entered the information into his computer and into Ash's trainer info "Alright, now, what did you want to talk about Ash?"
"Well, see, I was wondering if it was possible to have my carry limit upped a bit, just by two pokemon, it's so I can train everyone better, I mean, I haven't really used Krabby yet you know? He'll need some good practice to become a fighter." Ash explained hopefully.
Oak nodded as he thought about it "There's logic in your words Ash, it would certainly be wise for your pokemon to both train together and get used to one another… oh, what the heck, why not? I'll allow it." Oak agreed with a smile.
"Thank you professor." Ash said with a small bow.
"No problem my boy, now, just insert your pokedex into the computer and I'll handle the rest." Oak said as Ash did just that.
"By the way, how's Haunter doing at the lab with Krabby?" Ash asked, wondering what his ghost type was up to.
"He mostly just wanders around the forest around the lab, I think he's even made it into a game with Krabby." Oak explained as he soon finished and Ash's pokedex popped back out "And there! All done."
"Thanks again professor, and have a good day." Ash said as he hung the phone, turning back to the others.
"Now, what's your game plan Ash?" Summer asked him suddenly.
Ash looked at her for a moment "Game plan?"
Summer nodded "Your strategy to take on the gym, it's always good to have a basic strategy to prepare yourself for the enemy."
Ash nodded in understanding "Well, I don't even know what this gym's type is first, so that's a problem."
"It's poison type." Kaiser said with a smirk as he leaned against the counter, earning a grateful nod from Ash, before he started talking again "As for where the find the gym itself, it's actually hidden in the mountains outside of town, it should take you a few hours to get there."
"Why is it outside of town?" Misty asked.
Kaiser simply smirked "You'll see."
Minutes later, Ash was at the training field in the pokemon center, overlooking the team he was planning on using, and checking all of their moves.
Rhyhorn was, thankfully, rather calm about the fact it was caught while asleep, and quickly accepted the fact it had a trainer now.
As well, Wrecker seemed satisfied with his new name, proud of it even.
And of course, Primeape wasn't letting go of his belt from the boxing tournament.
As Ash looked through the moves each of them knew while letting them exercise a bit to work themselves up for the training they would be doing, he slowly grinned as a plan formed in his head.
A few days worth of training and practice later, and the gang was making their way through the mountains surrounding Fuschia City.
Along the road, Lapis rose an eyebrow as he felt a Venonat following them, and read it's mind to find it belonged to someone from the Fuschia gym, deciding to shrug it off as the pokemon just making sure of their intentions.
Eventually enough, after a lot of searching, and Lapis making use of his psychic powers to find the most likely direction, they ended up in front of an old looking building.
"You sure this is the place?" Ash asked as he looked up at it.
Lapis's eyes glowed blue as he looked at it "Positive, I can sense several different poison type pokemon in there."
"Something about this place screams trap to me." Summer said as she looked at the building with narrowed eyes.
"That doesn't inspire confidence." Misty muttered as she looked around everywhere, feeling a bit unnerved by Summer's words.
As they entered the main building, they looked around, seeing a distinct lack of activity "Hey! Is anyone here?! I'm here for a gym battle!" Ash called out into the building.
Summer looked around with narrowed eyes, soon stopping on a wall to the right, tapping on it for a moment before pushing on it, revealing it to be a revolving door "Figured as much."
"So, a trap mansion then? We should be careful." Brock said as he observed the door before scanning the area for anything that looked out of place.
Suddenly, the same Venonat Lapis had sensed darted out from the other side of the revolving door, running down the hallway and making a turn to the right.
"What was that?" Ash asked in surprise, not having been able to get a good look at it.
"A Venonat, it's a bug and poison type." Lapis said as they treaded carefully down the hallway and took the same turn the pokemon did.
As Ash was about to step forward, his collar was suddenly grabbed by Summer who pulled him back "Mrs. Rose?" he asked in confusion.
"Look down." she answered simply as she stared at the floor, Ash doing the same and his eyes widened.
He was about to step on a Voltorb that was letting off sparks.
"Let's be careful now, alright?" Summer said, everyone nodding as she took the lead to find any traps ahead of them.
She eventually stopped after another turn as she placed her palm on an invisible wall "This way's a no-go." she muttered as she turned around, only to blink as she saw Lapis knocking on another invisible wall behind them.
"We're trapped." the young clone said in deadpan, an expression mimicked by Eevee which had it's head peeking out of his coat, right beneath Lapis's chin.
"Now what do we do?" Misty asked in worry.
"We have to find a way out." Ash said as he noticed the window, trying to hoist himself up to pear through it to look outside… before he felt it start to fall forward.
Luckily, before he fell down with it, and possibly into the ravine below, Summer grabbed him and pulled him back, prompting a sigh of relief from everyone.
"I swear to all that is holy, these people are crazy." Summer muttered as she shook her head.
"This is definitely too over the top, someone could die from that." Brock said in agreement as he peered down into the ravine below.
Suddenly, Lapis noticed another revolving door on the only wall remaining "Alright, I'm getting tired of this." he muttered as he went past the door, and the others heard a surprised gasp from him.
Summer turned to the door in worry, rushing past it "Lapis are you-" only to stop at the sight.
Lapis was using his psychic powers to stop a trio of shuriken in midair that had been flying straight for him.
The others stepped past the revolving door moments later, coming up on the same sight.
Suddenly, the shuriken dropped down, but Lapis's eyes continued to glow as he concentrated on something in the rafters, a surprised shout catching everyone's attention as something fell down.
That something was a young girl, roughly 7 or 8 years of age, dressed in dark purple ninja garb, with purple hair tied into a spiky ponytail, a pink scarf around her neck.
"Owwie, dad always makes landings look easy." the girl muttered as she massaged her rear after falling on it from Lapis shaking the beam she'd been standing on.
"What's a kid so young doing here?" Misty wondered.
The girl quickly recovered as she remembered that people were present, standing up and putting on a brave front "I see you intruders have finally made it here, however, you shall-"
"Oh drop the grandstanding will you, you're not fooling anyone." Lapis said in deadpan, making the girl face fault.
"Oh come on! I had a super imposing speech planned and everything! You could have at least let me finish you know? Auntie Aya said it was good to boot." the girl whined to Lapis.
"Trust me, we have to deal with stuff like this nearly every day of the week, when we can avoid it, we try to." Lapis said as he thought of all of Team Rocket's antics so far, and it's only been two weeks since they started encountering them.
The girl pouted with a as she turned her head to the side "Well, you won't get to leave until you beat me in a battle then."
"Sounds easy enough." Ash said as he prepared to reach for a pokeball.
"Not you!" the girl said, before pointing to Lapis "Him."
Everyone, save for Lapis, blinked as they slowly looked at him.
Lapis merely rose an eyebrow before looking down at Eevee "You feeling up to your first battle Eevee?"
He received a nod from the fox-like pokemon, smiling as he let it out of his coat and it stepped forward "I accept your challenge." Lapis said with a small grin.
The girl grinned back, before whistling towards the back of the room, prompting the same Venonat the group had been chasing to come out of hiding and walk in front of her.
The two stared each other down for a few moments, before both uttered at the same time "Use Tackle!"
The two pokemon ran at each other, clashing foreheads against each other for several moments, before both of them jumped back from the stalemate.
"Venonat use Poison Powder!" the girl ordered, the purple pokemon releasing a purple powder from it's body towards Eevee.
"Dodge it with Quick Attack!" Lapis ordered, with Eevee zipping around the cloud of poison power, and took the initiative, rushing into Venonat and sending it skidding back a bit.
"Go for Stun Spore!" the girl shouted quickly, Venonat obeying and releasing a golden colored cloud from its body, which made contact with Eevee due to the close proximity, paralyzing the smaller pokemon.
"Won't help you too much. Eevee, Refresh!" Lapis said with a grin, as Eevee closed it's eyes, it's body glowing white for a moment, before it's paralysis was lifted.
The girl growled a bit at the fact her strategy was nullified, before switching tactics "Use Psybeam Venonat!" Venonat jumped up to get a better shot as a multi colored beam of energy shot off from its antennae towards Eevee.
"Eevee, Sand Attack quick!" Lapis said urgently, with Eevee's paws glowing as it struck the ground, turning the surface layer of wood into sand and kicking it up around itself, hiding it's body in the sand for a little bit.
"Darn." the girl muttered as her Venonat's Psybeam missed it's target.
"Let's finish it Eevee, use Hidden Power!" Lapis shouted as Eevee jumped out of the cloud of sand, it's eyes glowing blue as it created several orbs of white energy, which quickly took on a magenta color, before shooting them at Venonat, the poison and bug pokemon too surprised to dodge in time.
"Venonat no!" the girl gasped as the smoke soon cleared, showing Venonat unconscious on it's back.
"Way to go Eevee." Lapis said as Eevee ran up to him and jumped on his shoulder.
The girl sighed as she returned Venonat to it's pokeball, looking at Lapis "Well, you won… now what?"
"How about telling us who you are and why this place has so much traps?" Lapis requested.
The girl nodded reluctantly "My name is Janine, the daughter of Fuschia City's gym leader. As for why this mansion is trapped, it's a ninja training ground… as well as the gym."
Everyone blinked in surprise "You're the leader's daughter? Then where are they?" Summer asked in confusion.
"Right here." a man's voice said from the rafters, making everyone look up to see a man with black ninja garb and a red scarf around his neck, his hair dark and spiky.
Janine looked up nervously at her father "Huh… hi dad." she said with a nervous laugh.
"Janine." the man sighed as he shook his head "Where did you get this idea to attack a gym challenger?"
Janine kicked her foot on the floor as she looked aside "Auntie Aya said I should do that to everyone."
The man facepalmed with a groan "Clearly I need to have a chat with my sister." he said before jumping down, landing on his feet, turning to look at the gang "I apologize for my daughter's actions. I was out in the mountains to calm down some of the more rowdy pokemon around here."
"No harm done I suppose. We managed to get past the traps, though we did trigger one." Summer said, while waving it off.
The gym leader nodded, though he noticed how Summer kept a battle ready posture, mentally making him wonder what kind of person she was, before pushing the thought aside for now "I'm glad to hear you are all in good condition. My name is Koga, Fuschia City gym leader, now, which one of you is here to challenge me?"
Ash stepped forward "Right here sir."
"And how many badges do you have young man?" Koga asked as he looked at Ash.
"5, and, if it's ok, could we put the fight outside? I wouldn't want to damage the place since some of the moves my pokemon use could break it." Ash answered before adding sheepishly.
Koga chuckled a bit at that "Of course, there is a courtyard not far from here were we can have our battle. What say you to 3 on 3?"
Ash nodded "It's what I was hoping for sir."
Minutes later, everyone had gathered in the courtyard, with Ash and Koga standing across from each other on a battlefield, and, for once, no referee present.
"Normally Janine would be refereeing this battle, but after that stunt she pulled…" Koga trailed off as he gave his daughter a look, making her blush in embarrassment as she looked down "I think we'll do without one just this once."
"Alright." Ash agreed with a nod as he grabbed a pokeball off of his belt, Koga pulling one out of his clothes, both throwing them at the same time.
From Koga's pokeball came Venonat's evolution, Venomoth, the purple moth pokemon fluttering around to stretch it's wings.
From Ash's pokeball came Primeape, the monkey pokemon throwing a few mock punches in front of itself, the sunlight reflecting off it's belt, which Koga rose an eyebrow at before shrugging.
Suddenly, Lapis stiffened as he felt three familiar people enter his range, making him groan quietly, though Janine heard him and turned to him "What's wrong?" she asked in a whisper.
Lapis looked at her, weighing his options, before figuring she could help "Three pokemon thieves just entered the mansion, think we could go turn on as many traps as possible to stall them."
Janine looked at him, before slowly grinning like the cat that caught the canary "I like your way of thinking Lapis." she said with a nod as the two of them snuck off to hinder a trio of idiots.
As they entered the mansion, Janine jumped up to the rafters, and was about to lower a rope to Lapis when he copied her, making her blink in surprise before shrugging and running down the beam.
What Lapis didn't say was that he had used his psychic abilities to make the leap, his legs weren't that strong yet after all.
As they ran along the beam, they soon reached the entrance where Team Rocket was… apparently trying to lift the floorboards to see if any pokemon where underneath.
Well, more like James was trying to lift the floorboards while Jessie and Meowth were simply looking on.
"Well… I guess we don't have to do much." Lapis muttered with a grin that was mirrored by Janine, the two of them realising what would happen next.
As soon as James managed to lift the floorboard up, he paled, while his two cohorts looked on in confusion.
A large group of Voltorb were glaring at them while sparking menacingly.
"Back away… slowly." James muttered as he slowly backed up, the other two not realising the issue as they'd never seen a Voltorb before.
"What's the big issue, their just electric types?" Jessie said as she slipped on a pair of rubber gloves and went to pick one up.
Just as she was about to touch it the Voltorb's glare got fiercer as it started to quickly flash, it's cohorts copying the action.
"You just had to be stupid didn't you?" James said to Jessie, who realised she'd goofed up and looked at him nervously.
A second later, the Voltorb blew up, blowing out the front doors and sending Team Rocket flying out.
"Why couldn't you just listen to me for once?!" James said in irritation as he looked at Jessie dryly.
"Because usually you tend to be wrong." Jessie admitted guiltily.
As for Meowth, he was looking straight up at the sky "Nice, you just had to bait us mister author." he muttered before staring at the screen "Well, got another message for all the twerps and twerpettes reading and watching this at home, the author says to stop telling him what pokemon everyone should get, since he has them all figured out, unless of course you want to suggest new catches for the main twerp, then he's open to listening."
"What was that Meowth?" both humans said, not having been listening to the pokemon.
"Just lamenting the fact we lost so quickly." Meowth said in deadpan, the two humans nodding as they kept on flying.
"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off again!"
Meanwhile, back at the gym battle, Ash's Wrecker had just finished knocking out Koga's Golbat using a Zen Headbutt, when the group heard the explosion, and were about to go check it out, before they saw Lapis and Janine walk back towards them.
"Janine… what was that?" Koga asked seriously.
"We were just looking at a bunch of wannabe thieves getting blasted off by the Voltorb under the floorboards." Janine said with a shrug, it was the truth after all, they didn't even have to do anything.
"Team Rocket got blow up by them." Lapis said with a grin to the others, making them all nod in understanding.
"Team Rocket?" Koga asked curiously, having heard the name before as mere whispers.
"A bunch of pokemon thieves that keep trying to steal Ash's Pikachu and anything else they can get their hands on." Summer said with a sigh as Lapis and Janine walked back to the side to continue watching the battle.
"Well… I suppose our battle continues then." Koga said as he returned Golbat, reaching for his third pokeball, which was actually a net ball "I actually found this last pokemon while on a trip to Johto a year ago, I'm sure you'll find it interesting. Come, Ariados!"
The net ball opened, releasing the pink colored spider like pokemon known as Ariados.
Misty shivered just from looking at it "Not another bug." she whimpered a bit as she moved to stand behind Summer, the older woman looking at her from over her shoulder in amusement.
Getting rid of Misty's fear of insects was a work in progress, though she was at least ok if the bug in question was more cute than creepy looking, like butterfree for example.
Ash looked at the pokemon for a moment, knowing it had to be a poison type because of the gym, and also quickly guessing it was a bug type as well, recalled Wrecker, before choosing his third pokemon "Go, Rhyhorn!"
The rock and ground type pokemon landed on it's four feet with a heavy thud as the ground shook slightly from it's weight, before looking up at it's opponent, snorting as it anticipated the challenge.
"Use Horn Attack!" Ash called out, with Rhyhorn rushing forward and angling it's horn forwards at surprising speeds, the Ariados moving out of the way, but still being grazed by the attack.
"Your pokemon is surprisingly fast, how long have you had it?" Koga asked in an impressed tone.
"A few days, we made sure he was fast enough before coming here." Ash replied with a grin.
"Impressive. However, let's see what you do about this. Poison Sting Ariados!" Koga called out as Ariados shot out several poisonous needles from it's mouth.
"Use your hide Rhyhorn!" Ash called out, with Rhyhorn turning it's body so the needles simply bounced off his stone hard body, Koga frowning as he had forgotten how durable a Rhyhorn's skin was.
"Now use Take Down!" Ash ordered as Rhyhorn ran at Ariados at an even faster rate than before, surprising the spider pokemon and causing it to be hit by the attack, sending it flying back and falling on it's back where it struggled to get back up.
"Earth Power! Now!" Ash said, and Rhyhorn grinned as it stomped a foot on the ground, causing it to rumble underneath Ariados before a pillar of stone shot out from the earth, super heated from the heat below the surface.
Ariados cried out as the heat burned it on it's back, before falling back down and weakly trying to get up, before falling back down, it's eyes replaced with swirls.
Koga sighed as he returned Ariados while walking up to Ash, who was petting Rhyhorn and congratulating it on winning the battle "Well fought young Ash. You've proven yourself to be a capable trainer, and have earned this." he said as he unraveled a scroll, showing the pink, heart shaped Soul Badge resting within, with Ash accepted with a smile as he stored it in his badge case.
Later, Koga and Janine were wishing the gang safe travels on their journey, as they headed off towards the next part of their journey, and towards Ash's next gym battle.
Yes, I actually had Meowth do that, because so many people just seem to ignore the author's notes, so I decided to break the fourth wall.
Seriously people, the main pokemon teams RWBY and JNPR have are all decided, but, I am open to suggestions as to what Ash catches while we'll be following him.
To the person who suggested the shiny Tauros, I don't remember who said it, but, I considered the name you had given at the time, and with some help, ended up realising it didn't work very well, so a new name was given to it, sorry about that, for those curious, the original name was Blackjack.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and we'll see you all next time!