Hello readers, I first want to thank those who took the time to leave a review. I legitimately can't believe how popular this has become as we now have over 200 people following and/or favouriting. I hope you'll enjoy this and please leave any comments you have whether it be praise, criticism or ideas, I would love to hear from you. Oh, and thanks to everyone who has voted on the poll.

If you guys haven't already noticed I'm going to be using cliff hangers whenever I can, I like them because it makes you guys want to know what happens next and hopefully get you more excited for the next chapter. Although I did lose a favourite ten minutes after I uploaded the last chapter. Coincidence? Probably but you never know.

'– This will be Pokémon Speaking (People cannot understand it unless I say otherwise. Ash can get the gist of it due to his close bond with his Pokémon.)

Italics – This will be telepathy

"– Is, of course, regular speech.

Let the chapter begin!

In the room Pikachu had burst into there was a woman locked in handcuffs that were chained to the wall, the rags she was wearing barely covered her and to say the room she'd been locked in was disgusting was a massive understatement. Ash walked into the room and fought down his nausea, so he could help the woman and upon getting a closer look at her recognised her as the real Roxie.

"Roxie can you hear me?" Ash asked.

The young woman heard the voice and stood up shakily while looking pleadingly at Ash, but due to how weak she was she passed out and started to collapse. Luckily Ash was quick to react, and he managed to catch her before she could hit the floor. Ash was worried about the rocker in his arms, she was extremely gaunt and light as a feather which worried Ash but not as much as the amount of blood around her wrists where she had obviously been fighting against the handcuffs.

"Pikachu break the chains with Iron Tail."

The mouse nodded, his tail turned metallic and he quickly broke the chains fearing Roxie from her prison. With the rocker now free Ash stood up carrying Roxie who was still unconscious. Knowing that Team Rocket were probably still in the area, Ash sent all of his Pokémon to protect them just in case they were attacked.

"I've found Roxie and she needs medical attention now!" Ash yelled as he carried Roxie out of the room earning a shocked gasp from Iris and Alder.

"Indeed, I will pursue Team Rocket while you two take Roxie to the Pokémon Centre. Once she is safe come and join me, so we can stop them." Alder instructed.

The trio quickly made their way out of the gym and just as they were about to split up an explosion from the south caused the ground to shake which would have knocked Ash to the floor had Scizor not caught him. Ash gave the bug a grateful nod and then cast his gaze to the south where a thick plume of black smoke was rising from the ground. Alder suddenly spotted an airship over the Virbank Complex which was clearly one of Team Plasma's vehicles.

"It's Team Plasma, they're here too. I have to go and stop them, there's no telling what they might do."

"What about Roxie and Team Rocket?" Ash asked.

"You two take Roxie to the Pokémon Centre and make sure she's safe then come and join me at the Virbank Complex."

"What about Team Rocket?"

Alder sighed and looked in the direction Team Rocket had fled in, although it pained him to think this he knew that they would have to let Team Rocket escape. There was no telling what Team Plasma were up to at the Virbank Complex while Team Rocket had lost their base of operations in this area and would be unlikely to cause any problems in the near future.

"We'll have to let them escape this time, Roxie needs medical attention and we have to stop Team Plasma."

"I could go after Team Rocket on my own." Ash suggested.

"No! I cannot allow you to go after them alone, you have no idea what could happen."

The thought of letting Team Rocket get away after what they'd done to the woman in his arms grated against Ash, but Alder was a Champion, and, in these situations, they knew best. So, despite his own thoughts on the situation Ash nodded and started walking to the Pokémon Centre. Alder could tell that Ash didn't agree with his decision, but he was relieved to see that the young trainer was albeit reluctantly following his orders.

"Fine. We'll catch up with you as quick as possible." Ash muttered.

With that Alder quickly made his way south to the Virbank Complex while Ash and Iris ran to the Pokémon Centre.

"Go to the Virbank Complex Iris, Alder may need your help. I'll make sure Roxie gets the help we need."

"Okay I'll go but first promise me you'll join us there and won't go after Team Rocket."

Ash sighed, he'd been hoping that Iris wouldn't suspect a thing, so he could chase down Team Rocket and he was a little annoyed that Iris had obviously seen though his. Since there was no way he would be able to do that now he sighed again and nodded.

"I promise."

Iris smiled and then sprinted off after Alder while Ash entered the Pokémon Centre with Roxie still unconscious in his arms. Once his inside Nurse Joy began her normal greeting she gave to all trainers but stopped as soon as she saw the young woman in Ash's arms. Seeing the state Roxie was in Nurse Joy's eyes widened in horror and she quickly shouted for a couple of Audino to come with a stretcher. In mere moments a pair of Audino ran in with a stretcher, Ash gently placed the rocker on it and watched as the Audino took her to the medical area.

"Do you know what happened to Roxie?" Nurse Joy asked.

"Team Rocket captured her and have kept her locked away for Arceus know how long."

"Well judging by the looks of her I don't know how much longer she could have survived. We're lucky you found her when you did."

"I'm just glad we found her. I'm sorry but I have to go now, Alder is at the Virbank Complex battling Team Plasma and needs my help."

Nurse Joy nodded in response, she was fully focussed on Roxie now who was now laid on a hospital bed thanks to the Audino. Knowing that his job here was done for now Ash charged out of the building, he looked to the west for a moment, considering going that way but he'd made a promise to Iris and no matter how much he wanted to stop Team Rocket he wouldn't break that promise. After a moment of staring west Ash sighed and then started running south to help Alder and Iris against Team Plasma.

As Ash got closer to the complex the sounds of battle could be heard and seen as beams of various colours lit up the skies. Just as he was about to enter the complex a couple of Team Plasma grunts stood in his way both with a couple of Pokéballs ready. Ash looked over his shoulder and knew that all his Pokémon could easily deal with whatever these goons sent out, but Iris and Alder needed his help and quick, so he couldn't spend to long dealing with these two.

"I don't have time to waste on the likes of you, Pikachu Thunder Wave."

The mouse launched a paralysing bolt of electricity at the Team Plasma grunts which left them on the floor spasming at the paralysis that they were now under. With the first guards dealt with Ash ran into the complex and immediately spotted Iris, Axe, Bagon and an Excadrill which was obviously Iris' older Pokémon that she didn't want to talk about. It was obvious why; the ground type was blatantly ignoring Iris which made Ash think back to when Charizard was like that. Time would tell whether Iris would be able to earn Excadrill's trust and respect like he had earned Charizard.

Ash shook away the memory and then made his way to Iris' side who was relieved to see that Ash had come and joined them in the fight against Team Rocket. She had been certain he'd come but there was a small nagging doubt regardless. He gave Iris a quick nod and returned it and then the pair started taking the fight to Team Plasma, both trainers issuing commands to support each other's Pokémon. Well apart from Excadrill who was doing his own thing and getting pushed back because of it.

Alder spotted Ash out of the corner of his eye and was surprised to see the young man here, after Iris had come here alone Alder was certain that Ash would go after Team Rocket. Although when he said this to Iris she was adamant that Ash would be here, and it appeared as though she was right. Ash had come here to help just as she said he would. Alder had to wonder what made Iris so sure that Ash would come here and not chase after Team Rocket. His question was soon answered as he watched the pair interact, despite them only knowing each other for a short time they seemed to have developed a close friendship. One that gave them the ability to confidently believe in each other and fight effectively as a team.

"You two stay here and stop any Team Plasma members trying to assist their leader."

Ash and Iris nodded in response and focussed once again on the battle with Team Plasma while Alder sallied forth and delved deeper into the complex searching for the leader of this group of Team Plasma grunts. Upon seeing Alder heading towards where their leader was a few grunts tried to stop him however Scizor and Gliscor immediately got in their way and prevented them from chasing down the Champion.

Throughout the complex the battle raged on, Team Plasma were slowly getting pushed back by the combined strength of Ash and Iris as their Pokémon started to defeat more and more of the Team Plasma Pokémon. Due to the teamwork shown by almost all of their Pokémon, Ash and Iris knew that their Pokémon had taken very little damage as there had always been one Pokémon ready to defend the other if they needed support.

Excadrill was not so lucky though as he had gradually been overwhelmed by the Team Plasma grunts Pokémon, Ash and Iris had tried to help him, but he had fought on his own away from the group, so they had been unable to support him leading to him being trapped in a net. A grappling rope was suddenly shot from the air ship at the net that Excadrill had now been trapped in. This had gone unnoticed by Ash and Iris who had been focussed on the battle against the Plasma grunts.

With the Pokémon belonging to Team Plasma being gradually taken out Ash turned his focus from the Pokémon to the grunts themselves. It was clear that they were on the verge of retreating to their air ship and escaping however Ash and Pikachu weren't about to let that happen.

"Pikachu paralyse them with Thunder Wave."

As he had done to the first grunt they met Pikachu shot a paralysing wave of electricity at the grunts taking down a few while the rest started to retreat as they saw some of their companions being paralysed by the Pikachu, they fell back to one of the aircrafts they had used to get here. The pilot of the air ship overhead started to flee fearing for their freedom and started to retract the net that had captured Excadrill. Iris suddenly saw this and without a moment thought she jumped onto the net and started pulling at it trying to break it. The mole was surprised to see Iris acting so recklessly and risking herself to try and help him escape.

"I failed you once Excadrill. I won't do it again."

Even though he was focussed on battling Team Plasma, Ash noticed Iris quickly being drawn towards the ship flying overhead. His eyes widened as he saw her ascending higher and higher meaning the drop should she fall would be fatal. Ash looked around at all of his Pokémon wondering who could help her and spotted Gliscor easily beating the Swoobat he was facing.

"Gliscor help Iris."

The bat nodded and knocked away the nearby Swoobat sending it crashing to the ground unconscious, with his enemy defeated Gliscor tried flying towards Iris but was quickly blocked off by a trio of Woobat's. Ash once again looked at all of their Pokémon hoping that someone could help but they were all still battling off the retreating Team Plasma grunts. With no one able to help Ash looked up helplessly and a horrified look appeared on his face as he saw Iris lose her grip on the net and start plummeting towards the ground as she let out a scream of pure terror.

Authors Notes

Well, there's chapter 21, I hope you enjoyed it. Please tell me what you liked/disliked and how I can improve future chapters. Also feel free to ask any questions you may have.

Thank you all for reading and I hope you continue to stick with this story.

Oh an one last thing before I stop my rambling, I know there are errors in my speeling, punctuation, grammar and other writing aspects. Thing is I'm just doing this for a bit of fun, I'm not an amazing writing and I would never profess to be one. So by all means point out the mistakes so I can fix them but tell me in a casual friendly way. Saying you've got this wrong you *bleeping* idiot is really not helpful.

Pokémon Ash currently has with him: Pikachu, Eevee, Vaporeon, Elgyem, Scizor, Gliscor, Ninetales & Deino