In hindsight, it was hilariously obvious what would happen the moment Ash met Leah and Chloe's son.

After seeing off his uncle and his sister, Brock had made his way back to Chloe and Leah's house, where they had originally been heading to have breakfast before Brock had been waylaid by a sudden phone call. When he arrived back at the three-storey townhouse, he found the kitchen still in a state of destruction. Leah had been sitting in her conservatory, with what Brock could smell was a healthy measure of whiskey in her green tea.

"We have insurance," she had said, even as the ceiling was slowly defrosting. Sand had been dripping from the kitchen light, like the remnants of water from a shower. Though Brock had asked if she wanted him to help in any way, she had directed him towards the beach, where Ash had AJ had been told to take their excitement, before the rest of the house looked like it had suffered through the apocalypse.

Brock left with a distinctly nostalgic mixture of emotions swirling in his gut. It reminded him of the many, many times he had kicked out his siblings from the house when they had decided to show off pokémon.

There was also the one time that Forrest had taken one of the gym's onix home and accidentally released it at bed time. That had been an eventful Friday night.

He was smiling to himself as he walked down the road towards the beach. Cars were already parked up on the sides of the road and families were busy retrieving their picnic baskets and beach towels from their cars. The seafront breeze whipped towards him, washing another layer of humidity over Brock.

Unlike most of Kanto, Vermillion's beaches were almost all devoid of real sand. They were instead pebble beaches, filled with a mixture of smooth and sharp, jagged pebbles. He pressed his shoe down gently on the beach and felt the way they moved under his weight and started to dig through his shoe.

He glanced down the beach and saw a man running towards the sea, surfboard in hand, feet bare. Brock winced as he imagined the pain that would send shooting through his feet.

Finding Ash was a small matter of following the shouting, and the cold. He walked along the beach front for barely five minutes and found them in the shadow of the pier. A small crowd of people had formed on the pier, and Brock saw the hawkers had moved closer to the crowds to sell their food and drinks. The attractions on the pier were flashing with bright, neon lights that seemed to capture the flecks of sand and snow in the air, making him feel like he was walking through a curtain made from a kaleidoscope.

"Come on Titan!" Ash was shouting. "Let's show them we're not pushovers. Blizzard!"

"Rock tomb!" shouted his opponent. He was wearing an oversized hoodie, one that seemed to be for someone far older than he was. Even the cap he wore seemed designed for someone larger, reminding Brock of when his youngest brothers would walk around the house wearing his clothes.

The pebbled beach rose up by the command of the Kantoan sandshrew. They shot up and formed a pyramid over the pokémon, shielding it perfectly from the oncoming storm Ash's sandshrew summoned into existence.

Brock glanced away from the battle to find Misty and Holly sat some distance away, resting on large, bright blue towels. Pikachu was in Misty's lap, jumping up and down as he cheered on his team mates.

"Have I missed much?" Brock asked.

Misty shook her head as he took a seat between her and Holly. "A lot of poor attempts at trash talk." She went to cradle Pikachu before stopping and staring at the arm she had bound in a cast and sighing. Instead she hugged him with her good arm and guided him out of Brock's way as he stretched out his legs. "Seriously poor. I say worse to myself before I get out of bed in the morning."

"I say worse to myself when I go to bed," Holly confessed. She had her arms wrapped around her legs and her chin resting on her knees as she watched the battle. Titan formed a large iceberg underneath herself as the Kantoan sandshrew dove underground. Mere seconds later it burst out of the ground, shattering Titan's iceberg. She flipped backwards as the iceberg exploded and with a grunt, threw her arms out and directed all the shards of ice at her opponent.

At its trainer's command, the other sandshrew tucked itself into a ball and spun. The icicles slammed into it, knocking it through the sky, but it stayed as a spinning ball. When the assault ended, it landed on the ground with a loud, echoing sound. Before Ash even had time to issue a command, the sandshrew launched itself forwards with surprising speed. It untucked itself and revealed that both of its arms were glowing with built up energy.

The crack that resonated when it slammed its arms into Titan's stomach in a vicious haymaker made Brock wince.

"He's been training to avenge his brother," Misty said. "Even though Titan chose Ash as her trainer, AJ wants to see just how strong a trainer Ash wants. I guess I can understand - Titan was the last of his brother's pokémon."

"He's so strong," Holly said. Pikachu bounced to her side and tried to pull her arms free from her legs. When he realised it was a battle he would lose, he instead ran up her back and settled on her shoulder. She looked equal parts uncertain and amused at his antics. "Meanwhile I got so scared that I had an asthma attack and a panic attack all rolled into one."

"Strength isn't everything in a battle," Brock said. He squinted to try and confirm his suspicions. As Titan rolled backwards, he saw the flash of white beneath her claws. The pebbled beach rumbled in response. As AJ's sandshrew dropped back into its defensive curl, Brock saw the smirk on Ash's face. Titan spun on the spot before launching herself forwards. She twisted in the air and Brock saw the way her tail glowed with a dark blue, almost sapphire colour.

When she brought her tail down on the other sandshrew, a geyser of water erupted from beneath it. She thrust her claws out to either side of the geyser and started to freeze it from the outside in. The other sandshrew, caught in the deluge of water, struggled and fought to get free of the water before it got trapped in ice.

"You've got to be able to think on your feet," Brock continued. "When you rely on just strength, you leave yourself open for other failings."

The geyser froze over, with the other sandshrew trapped inside. Titan snorted loud enough for Brock to hear as AJ fell to his knees in shock. Ash jumped into the air as he celebrated. Pikachu danced on Holly's shoulder.

Brock watched as Titan reached into the ice and pulled the other sandshrew free. There was a sense of kinship as she brushed the large chunks of ice from the other pokémon and patted it on the shoulder. When it looked away, down at the ground, she placed a single claw under its chin and turned its head to face her. She said something that Brock could only hope and dream of understanding, but whatever it was filled the pokémon with a palpable inspiration.

Above them, the people on the pier were shouting and cheering. Ash spun on the spot and flashed them a victory sign before running up to join Brock and the others.

"Did you see that?" he gushed, breathless as he raced towards them. Pikachu bounced from Holly's shoulder and squealed in delight as Ash caught him mid-air and spun on the spot. "We totally kicked butt!"

"Hey Asskicker," Misty said, "maybe you should involve the pokémon who won the battle in your celebrations."

"Huh?" Ash looked so clueless that for a second, it almost looked like his brain had stopped functioning. He looked to his side and jumped back, shrieking before spinning on the spot again. Titan had remained where she had battled, where she was currently sat down and talking to the other sandshrew. AJ sat beside his pokémon, smiling as he rested his head on the sandshrew's shoulder. Ash shouted as he raced back towards his pokémon, whilst Pikachu jumped from his arms and raced along the pebbles beside him.

"Why don't we work on some battle ideas today?" Misty suggested. She leaned forwards to smile over Brock. "Ash mentioned he wants to scout around north of town and AJ said he's interested in doing that too, but I don't think I'm going to be much help to anyone with this," she said, waving her injured arm.

"What's the point?" Holly sighed. She looked down at the ground. "I can train all I like, but we all saw Zapdos. I can't ever hope to be as strong as that."

"Are you being serious?" Misty all but snarled. "You're upset because we got beat by Zapdos?" She shook her head. "Compared to that pokémon, we've only been alive for like five minutes, and that's before we even think about how long we've been training. It's like James said - against those kinda pokémon, you can only hope to survive." She sighed as she leaned back on her elbows, then frowned and sat back up again. "Holly, I remember you and Gary always competing to be the one who knew more about pokémon. You know that if he had seen something like that, he'd have taken a picture and shown it to both of us, just to gloat. Maybe-" she stopped suddenly and shook her head, "you know what? We need a day off. If we're beating ourselves up about this, imagine how our pokémon are feeling."

Brock smiled as he glanced down at Ash, only to see him trying to pry his pikachu off of Titan's frozen body. He snorted, holding his head in a hand as the predictable happened - Ash pulled too hard and Pikachu shocked Ash, AJ and Titan.

"Hopefully that'll jump start a few of his brain cells," Misty muttered. "Anyway, back to us. We're taking a day off, and we're going to relax and enjoy ourselves with our pokémon. Surge told you that you're taking sick leave, right?" She barely even waited for Holly to nod before continuing. "So that's what we're doing. You coming with, Brocko?"

Brock weighed up his options. On the one hand, Ash wanted to go north and investigate the rumours of squirtle playing havoc and causing trouble. He would almost certainly need some form of help, though he would have AJ there. Holly reminded him of Forrest after any defeat - lost and filled with self-doubt. Even Misty was shaken, though she was doing a better job of hiding it.

He also wanted to spend more time with his rhyhorn before having to give him away. Part of Brock wanted to use the opportunity to sneak away, do his own thing and drop all contact with his family. He could explore the world, train his pokémon, come back having achieved his dreams - or never come back at all, and be the exact same as his parents.

He sighed as he stood up, holding Keith's poké ball in his hand. "I'll stick around with you guys," he said. "I've got a pokémon I want to spend some more time with today anyway. I'm sure Ash will be more than happy to go exploring with a new rival."

-O-O-O-

Jessie set a gruelling pace for them to march at. Meowth's paws felt like they were going to drop off. The humidity was cloying, sticking to his fur in a way that made him feel permanently damp. Jessie and James both bore the trek without complaint. Their faces were taught, their expressions serious.

They were two of the strongest people and trainers Meowth had ever met, and Zapdos had blown through everything they could throw at it without much visible effort. In the end, they amounted to nothing more than a distraction for the real players.

Proton liked to think that he was strong, but Meowth knew who the real power players were. Arianna was married to Viridian Gym's own Giovanni, and routinely trained with and against him. Petrel reminded Meowth of a slippery stunfisk in the times that they had met each other, waiting in place with traps waiting to be sprung on his unsuspecting enemies. He knew little of Archer personally, but he could remember seeing him dominate a battlefield.

Then there was Domino, or The Black Tulip. She had appeared on the battlefield only briefly and when he first saw her, Meowth had thought she was a Valkyrie come down to greet him.

If he was honest with himself, he never even got a chance to see what pokémon she brought to the battlefield. He had been clinging to consciousness and it could have been anything from a magikarp to one of the Titans themselves. She had stayed long enough to make sure the three of them were alive, then disappeared as quickly as she had arrived, leaving the defeated Zapdos behind as a testament to her skill.

Meowth knew without needing to ask that his friends were spinning in mental circles, telling themselves that they were nothing compared to her. Whilst they were hardly wrong, there was something off about her that put Meowth on edge.

He sighed as he cut through another fern leaf that reached up above his head, almost able to tickle James' nose. The uncharted marshlands around Kanto's cities were not places Meowth had ever hoped to visit. Tiny bugs were trying to bite him constantly. The swampy ooze beneath their feet stank like a dead muk that was slowly trying to swallow them whole. More than once Jessie or James had to pick Meowth up by his scruff and pull him free.

He could have rode atop one of their packs, but his stubborn pride refused to let them be the only ones suffering. A crimson-looking ledyba glowered at them from the top of a strange plant that reminded Meowth far too much of a vileplume's flower.

To add insult to all injury, Jessie's venonat was following behind them, suspended above the swamp floor under the guise of his own psychic powers. Vincent trailed through the air with a third large pack trailing behind him, covered in the same vague purple shimmer that lit up his eyes. The pokémon had only been under Jessie's command for a short while, but she had worked with him constantly, often to the point of exhaustion and the results spoke to themselves.

"Hold up," Jessie said, raising a hand. It took Meowth by surprise - it was the first time she had spoken in over an hour. James glanced her way, an eyebrow raised. Meowth hopped atop a nearby frond and perched precariously. It was easily as large as he was and held his weight with ease, but still seemed to bob up and down in sync with the nincada's chirps that echoed from underground and the chorus of distant doduo's squawks.

"There's some dry ground over there," she said, pointing to her right. "We should claim it now and set up camp before it gets dark. We'll be moving a daybreak. If we make good time tomorrow, we should get to Vermillion the day after tomorrow."

A humid breeze washed over them, leaving Meowth feeling considerably worse than before. It felt like his fur was wet and heavy, even though he also felt like he was being cooked slowly under the heat of the late afternoon sun.

"Meowth," Jessie said, though her tone made it sound like a command. "What do you think?"

He shrugged. Jessie and James both fell silent. Even when he closed his eyes, he could still feel them staring at him, waiting for the decision.

It was quiet, filled with the distant sounds of wildlife going about their daily routine. His ears twitched. He heard something playing in the mud some distance away. The slithering sound of what had to be an ekans snaking its way after an oblivious raticate. The far-away shrieks of a victreebel as something fell into its trap and was forcefully digested.

The grass around the rustled in the breeze. It combed through Meowth's fur gently, almost like a warm invisible hand's gentle caress.

He opened his mouth and then that was when he heard it. Quiet, barely picked up by even his ears, but close enough to make his heart skip a beat.

"Humans!"

He opened his eyes, swallowed the ball in his throat and leaped to the ground, all in one moment. "Nope," he said, spinning on the spot. His fur was raised. His claws were out and ready. He twisted, back arched, and tried to discern where the whisper came from. He heard nothing but a faint giggle over the rustling of leaves.

"Something's watching us," he whispered. There was a chill that raced down his spine. "Nothing good." He shuddered. "Fae, maybe. I dunno, I can't tell what it is, I just heard something."

"Jessie?" James looked over to her. "What do you think?"

She sighed. "We've only got another hour of sunlight, maybe a little bit more. We're exhausted. We just left the Power Plant this morning. We fought Zapdos yesterday and it left our teams in critical care and us like this. We need to rest." She looked suddenly exhausted, as if stopping finally allowed her body to realise just how exhausted she was. "We'll cover our camp in repels and that should get rid of most ferals, anything else we'll just have to deal with."

"Humans! What're they doing here?"

Meowth shuddered. He caught the way James looked at him in what was obviously concern. "Meowth?"

"It's nothing," Meowth said quickly. "Let's just set up camp."

'They're staying! Humans never come here!"

Meowth growled at the rustling grass. It seemed to giggle back at him. He glanced back at Vincent, but the venonat was too occupied maintaining its psychic hold on itself.

He hung back as Jessie and James started pulling their tent out of one of the packs. His hackles were raised as he prowled around the corner of the flat, dry land. It seemed to have been made purposefully, as if another trainer had been through previously and had their pokémon alter the land.

"Get. Lost," he hissed. The grass rustled in response.

"Meowth," James called. He spun around as James held out a black mask for him, with a bright red R across the front. "We need to spray some repellant. Put this on."

He growled as he slid it over his ears and secured it in place. The mask smelled like pine and bleach. After seconds his nose was beginning to hurt.

Then he saw James spraying the repellant and a headache blossomed into life. The smell of it clung to the inside of his nose and mouth, even through the mask. He dropped to all fours and hacked to try and get rid of the smell. He heard James apologising, but waved in his direction. The smell was lessened by the mask, that much was true. Each breath felt like it was setting his nerves alight and left him with the desire to get as far away from it as possible.

Jessie was squatting in the middle of the repel circle, starting a fire. James was beside her, a chopping board in his lap, knife in his hand and dicing some sort of vegetables. Vincent had fallen asleep beside the black tent that Jessie had set up in record time.

Meowth blinked away the tears in his eyes. He jumped gracefully onto the top of the tent and perched there, watching without blinking. He waited for something - anything to make a move.

The sun set and still nothing had come close to their camp.

James excused himself to go use a nearby tree. Nothing happened.

Jessie swore as whatever was cooking bubbled and spat at her. Still nothing happened.

"Meowth," James said. "Come have some food. It's getting dark out there, you'll be the only one able to see anything soon. Have a rest and let one of us keep watch."

Meowth nodded. He felt his tail swishing behind him and made a conscious effort to curl it around his legs. The grass continued to rustle under the small breezes. There had been no movement, no sound for what felt like an eternity.

Meowth let himself relax, just a little.

That was when vines burst free from the ground. They wrapped themselves around Jessie and James, pulled them to the ground and left them there. Meowth leaped backwards as a thorned ivy vine tried to snatch him. Vincent woke just in time to be cocooned in a nest of leaves and thick stems.

Meowth landed on the dirt. He felt the ground underneath him rumble. He fought his instincts and surged to the side instead of forwards. Thick roots burst free of the ground where he was and where he would have been, had he raced forwards. They flailed in the air like tentacruel tentacles seeking a living victim.

Meowth raced forwards on all fours. His claws were sharp - he prided himself on how sharp they could be, how much he could cut.

They still almost struggled to cut straight through the vines binding his friends. It took him pouring the energy for a slashing attack into his claws to cut them free, leaving himself wide open to an attack from behind.

"Meowth, behind you!"

James' warning came only seconds before James threw himself in harm's way. The thick, spinning sharp leaves should have sliced Meowth's sides into ribbons, but instead they ripped through James' uniform and into the back of his shoulders. Meowth felt him flinch and tremble as the leaves cut deep.

"Jimbo," Meowth whispered, and only then heard the tell-tale sound of a poké ball activating. There was a flash of white light that ruined Meowth's night vision, then there was silent, dark bliss.

The flash of red light was the prelude to anarchy.

A hurricane of razor sharp leaves swirled around them. Meowth saw that Jessie had cut her venonat free and had him held in her arms. James had pulled the leaves free from his back and they joined the tempest surrounding them. Even the grass beneath their feet seemed to be trying to rip itself free from the ground and join the swirling vortex of nature's wrath.

Beneath the howling of the wind, Meowth heard the giggling once again. It seemed distinctly more innocent than something Meowth would associate with what was currently attacking them.

"Wait a minute," Meowth whispered. "Hey Jess, get Vincent to stop the storm!"

She blinked before nodding and telling her pokémon to do exactly that. Meowth watched as Vincent's eyes lit up with a purple sheen. The leaves and rocks that swirled around them were slowly framed purple, one by one. Meowth watched as they slowed before falling to the ground.

"Fun!"

Meowth was uncertain if he should feel pleased his idea worked, or terrified that whatever it was thought that such attacks could be considered playing.

"Whatever's out there is young," Meowth said. "Or not mature, maybe. It thinks this is playing."

At that, James seemed to perk up. He stood on shaking legs, gestured to Meowth and Jessie for them to stay back, and shambled his way to his pack. From the side pocket he pulled free what Meowth could only describe as a ball of leaves, though there was something distinctly odd about it. When James removed it from its plastic case, the air was filled with a smell that was equal parts flowers and fertiliser.

"Here," James said, throwing the ball into the wilds. He flinched as he stretched his arm too far. He stood silently, watching the way the ball rolled into the grassy tundra, ignoring the way blood ran slowly down his back.

Meowth watched as vines ripped free of the ground to engulf the ball. They danced around it before pulling it down into the earth.

Meowth heard the giggle from behind them. He spun in place to see movement in the grass. The blades of grass parted, creating a path down the middle and at the very end, Meowth saw a pokémon laying on the ground, James' mystery plant ball by its feet.

"Not how I first thought of playing," the pokémon said. It looked up, met Meowth's eyes and smiled. It was a leafeon, but seemed more brown and dull compared to others Meowth had seen, almost like it had grown darker to camouflage itself with the swamp. 'Cute that you thought I was young though." It stood and even from a distance, Meowth could tell it was tall, easily at least three times his height. It was lithe, muscular and altogether looked more like a carnivore than anything with a long fern tail should be.

"How easily you fell to my charm," it said. The grass moved to hide the pathway to it once more. Meowth felt eyes on his back and spun in place again. The leafeon saunted closer to their campsite, its eyes narrowed and carefully fixed on Jessie's venonat. It glanced over at James, dropped the ball of leaves and fertiliser at the edge of the repel line and sat in place, tail curled around its legs. "You've been speaking their language this time. Tell them I'm willing to join forces."

"For what?" Meowth found himself asking. Jessie and James had both moved to his side and looked ready to attack at a moment's notice.

"I haven't decided yet," the leafeon said. It stood and moved in a slow circle. "Usually when humans come to this oh-so-convenient flattened part of the marsh, they run when I start to play. Your group is the first to notice me early, and the first to think of a way to stop it. I'm interested to see where this will lead."

"Uh yeah thanks," Meowth said. He shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. "But no thanks. We've got our fill of nut jobs already, and yours ain't exactly the kinda crazy that seems like it'll lead to fun adventures."

"Meowth," James said slowly. He never took his eyes off the leafeon, watching it much like a cornered prey animal would watch a predator. "If it wants to come with us, I think we should let it. After yesterday, we could do with the extra firepower."

Meowth scowled and looked back at the leafeon. It wore an insufferably smug expression that Meowth knew he would have to find a way to break in the most soul-crushing sort of way. "If you wanna team up with that one, be my guest." He moved back to the forgotten pot over their campfire and helped himself to a bowl full of overcooked stew. "But when it all goes wrong, don't be blaming Meowth."

The leafeon looked at him like it thought it was victorious. As James produced a poké ball, crouched down before the pokémon and offered his friendship, it kept its smug gaze on Meowth the whole time.

"Yeah, yeah, keep thinking you're the smartest being around," Meowth muttered into his stew. Their camp filled with a white light as the poké ball engulfed the leafeon. "Won't be long until you show us just what kinda 'mon you are."

'Don't you worry," Jessie said as she took a seat beside him. She shared a conspiring smile with him as she began to fill her own bowl with food. "We're Team Rocket. We're always prepared for trouble."