(A/N): I'm really sorry about my extended absence... academics took over my life for a few weeks, but we're all clear now! Hope you guys enjoy Chapter 9!
Ash dodged the first strike- a textbook style roundhouse kick from the man with the nunchuks. He knew through Kōkani that Aurian had dealt the first blow for their side with a well-timed blow to the chest of one of the dagger-carrying men. He immediately hit the ground to dodge an arrow, which lodged itself in a tree twenty yards behind him.
The distinctive clicks of Pokéballs opening revealed each of the other side's Pokémon- twenty total, mostly Dark, Poison, and Psychic types. The two patonai ended up back to back, with Pikachu, his cheeks sparking with charging electricity, at their feet.
This is rather cliché, Ash noted with an amused grin. Any ideas?
Aurian frowned. We don't want to overuse our Pokémon this close to the tournament, and if we called for backups from our Professors tomorrow, it would look rather suspicious. I vote we try to fight our way out of this with as few Pokémon as possible while aiming for the Trainers. If they're taken down, then they can't have any help from their teams. I'll send out some aerial help with Togekiss. Ready?
Count me in. Takes you right back to Orre and Cipher, doesn't it? Ash pondered, repositioning his sword in his sweaty hands. Michael would love to be here right now.
Heck yes, Aurian answered. We're a little more prepared this time, though, even though we're at a numerical disadvantage. Ready, Captain Ketchum?
Aye aye, Captain Borealis.
As Aurian's Togekiss made her way to the air, the two patonai split up to take down the trainers. Ash quickly called out both Pidgeot and Typhlosion after sending Pikachu off to take down a Shuppet, and the new fighters started their attacks almost as soon as they hit the ground. The two Pokémon immediately took action to see that they kept two of the trainers busy with rapid fire and wind attacks so that the Rocket Grunts wouldn't get a chance to take the patonai on five on two.
He could hear the too-familiar sounds of Flamethrowers and Aerial Aces hitting their marks every single time. For a second, he was transported back to he, Aurian, and Michael's last battle against Cipher- lots of Peons, with the head of the organization shouting orders to everyone. Ash was distracted from his thoughts by a swinging stick above his head. He dropped to the ground and swept his opponent's feet out from under him. One pressure point pinch later, and the man was out for the count. Ash collected the nunchucks and pocketed them, and moved on to his next opponent, the man with the sword.
You doing all right? he asked, dodging a left handed uppercut from his new opponent.
Never better! Aurian replied. He felt her deal a stinging whack to the chest with the flat side of her blade, and heard her opponent thump into the dirt. She used the standard G-Men way of knocking someone out, a simple punch to under the chin. That took them straight back to the day after their initiation- one heck of a first day of training.
The other two trainers, who were formerly occupied by Typhlosion and Togekiss, now saw their chance. One lunged at Ash, who just managed to dodge a strike from one of the dagger carrying grunts. The knife cut through his long-sleeved pijama shirt and left a shalow cut in his arm. He gritted his teeth, and disarmed the man with one strike of his own sword. One kick to the stomach and a hard punch to the temple sent the man down, hard, to the ground.
The only remaining Rocket member for Ash to fight was Domino, who delicately plucked a flower from a holster in her belt.
"My my, I certainly wasn't expecting our conflict to come to this so quickly. Shall we begin, my opponent?"
Ash started hand-to-hand combat with the Black Tulip herself, who was quite proficient and -sadly- knew exactly what she was doing. He knew that if even one of her black flowers found any place on his body, he'd be out for the count. The blond in front of him gracefully dodged a punch and tried to grab his other arm in preparation to flip him over. A quick kick from the dark-haired trainer sent her flying into the air, where she executed a quick cartwheel to reorient herself.
"You seem familiar," she pondered, flipping her hair out of her face. "Have we met somewhere before?"
Ash grinned. "I get that a lot. Your move, Miss."
Domino loaded one of her poisoned flowers, and threw it. The bud tumbled end over end and was deflected by Ash' sword, and rebounded to find its mark- one of the Dark types that Togekiss was beginning to attack with a Sky Attack. The Houndoom dropped to the ground, dreaming peacefully, and Togekiss attacked a Banette instead, the attack knocking it unconscious.
The Black Tulip cursed under her breath. "Dang. I had that one specially made."
Ash managed to catch her off guard during her musings with a hard grab to a very specific point on her shoulder. The curly-haired trainer dropped to the ground, out for the count. He looked over his shoulder to find Aurian finishing off the last of the grunts, who she knocked out with the same method- one grab to the shoulder, and the man was sleeping like a baby. Or a Snorlax, at least.
The remaining Pokémon returned to their Pokéballs, and left the two patonai, Pikachu, Typhlosion, Pidgeot, and Togekiss standing alone. Aurian let her sword dissapate into thin air, and watched as the blue slowly evaporated and the weapon slowly vanished from existence. Ash did the same, but the process for his was much quicker- he meant business.
"What should we do with them?" Aurian asked.
Ash reached inside his pocket and pulled out a Pokégear. "I'm calling Dragon Master. Go find some Pokémon that know String Shot and tie these grunts up.
"No problem," the female trainer replied. "Volcarona, come on out and use String Shot on these Rockets. Tie their wrists and ankles together, please."
The fire moth appeared, let loose a soft "ca!" and completed Aurian's order.
Ash quickly hit several buttons in a complicated sequence, and Lance's face appeared on the small screen.
"Red, it's two thirty in the morning here, why are you calling?"
"Does being ambushed by Rocket grunts count as an emergency?" Aurian deadpanned, moving the camera to show the mass of grunts lying unconscious.
"What should we do?" Ash asked. "We can't just leave them here."
Lance frowned as he thought for a little bit. "They're also registered to compete in the tournament, so we can't extract them without some people asking a few unwanted questions. I say that you should transport them back to the Center and leave them after untying their wrists."
"And ankles," Aurian answered.
Lance sighed. "Ah, hand to hand protocol. Are all their Pokémon back within their Pokéballs?"
"Yep, we already made sure of that. We'll start moving them as soon as possible," Ash responded with a grim smile.
"That," Lance yawned, "concludes our talk. Good night."
The screen went black, and Ash returned the Pokégear to his back pocket with a smile. Lance hated being woken up in the middle of the night. They'd probably be on the receiving end of a rather crabby call tomorrow.
"Let's get started, then," Aurian sighed, dragging Domino on top of her Togekiss. A little bit later, the grunts were as secure as possible on top of the patonai's strongest Pokémon, and the group started off towards the Center.
After much trekking through woods and many close calls with a few late-night parties, the patonai finally made it to the Center. Ash did most of the work with arranging the grunts to make it look like they passed out from too much alcohol consumption- anyone over twenty-one could buy it at any of the League sponsored tournaments, though the practice was looked down upon- and finished his work as his watch beeped an alarm.
"One in the morning," Aurian groaned. "We need to head back."
"Wait," Ash countered. "We should check their pockets."
The patonai fished around in various shirt and pants pockets, and unearthed a black Pokédex, a small Pokégear, and a folded note.
"We can transfer all of the info to my Dex," Ash offered. Aurian tossed him a wire, which he plugged into a port in the side of the black Dex and his own red one. As he finished, he inserted the wire into the Pokégear. A few short minutes later, the process was complete.
"Now we really need to head back."
Ash nodded wordlessly as he climbed on top of his Typhlosion, and wondered what kind of data was encrypted into the Pokédex that he found. Aurian clambered up onto Togekiss' back, and the two fled back to their campsite.
Brock lay awake in the room he shared with Forrest, who was currently sleeptalking his way through an upcoming battle. The ex-gym leader smiled at his brother's enthusiasm, and grabbed his shoes and a key as he walked out the door.
A walk should tire me out enough, he thought, trudging along the hallways and down the staircase to the main lobby.
As he walked through the automatic doors, he did a double take. Why were five people lying unconscious against the side of the building? His Pokémon doctor instincts took over as he examined each person. Most of them looked as if they had just been involved in a brutal fight, and some- except one man with a slightly bloody dagger- had empty holsters on their belts. All of their Pokéballs were marked as occupied.
"Where are the rest of their weapons?" he muttered, looking around. He caught sight of large tracks leading away from the five, and dainty little marks that disappeared after they increased in number, proving that a flying-type had to have been present.
Should I follow the tracks, or could it lead me to something worse?
Brock eventually made up his mind, and followed the large prints, which were most definitely of a four-legged Pokémon. After much circling and dodging of tree branches, he came upon a campsite- where the boy and girl that Paul referred to as Red and Blue were asleep inside of sleeping bags, and where Max was snoring- ah, memories!- as he rolled over. One other guy- Michael, wasn't it?- lay like a log, completely unmoving.
How could these kids presumably get involved in a fight with the five people that were still unconscious back at the center? Blue and Red were at least six years younger than the youngest person back there, and looked like they couldn't really hold their own in a fist fight. But a Pokémon battle... he had seen first hand as part of the massive mob that gathered when Red and Blue completely smashed Gary and Paul into the ground. From the looks of it, their entire teams were conditioned to the extreme, based on Pikachu and Mienshao's example.
I think I'll try to figure this out when I have more sleep... Brock pondered, trudging back to the Center while suppressing a yawn. There's something here that I'm just not seeing.
As he climbed back into bed, he wondered if Red and Ash were connected somehow.
Max dreamed that he was once again journeying with Ash, May, and Brock, but Ash looked different. He had longer hair from the back, and never really showed his face while he was walking.
"Wait, R-Ash! I'm coming!" he yelled while mentally smacking his forehead. That was the second time- once in reality, once in dream land- that he had confused Ash and Red. The two weren't even all that alike- the Ash he remembered was a lot less serious about everything than Red was, and seemed to enjoy everything more.
"Are you ready to move on?" Ash asked. "It'll be dangerous ahead."
Max nodded. "Yep! I've got my team with me, and everything will be a-okay!"
"Things won't be easy. The road ahead will be filled with difficult decisions."
"That's why I have my friends with me!"
He could practically hear Ash frowning as the older trainer put a hand to his forehead. "Some decisions you have to make alone."
Max didn't really have an answer to that one.
"You've got some thinking to do, Max. You'll find me when you're ready."
The younger trainer started to protest, but his dream suddenly shifted, showing the Jirachi he had befriended all those years ago. His third eye was closed, and the little psychic-type warmed to be dreaming peacefully.
Hello, friend. I don't have much time... turns out that things are about to start looking really, really bad!
"Why?" Max asked. "Does this have something to do with Blue and Red and Michael?"
The Wish Pokémon sighed. I can't say yet. Keep your eyes peeled. Best wishes!
"Wait wait wait! Don't go yet, Jirachi, I still have more questions!" Max yelled, making a lunge for the chrysalis that the dual type was encased in. The crystalline structure vanished as he woke up with a gasp. Sunlight streamed into his eyes, and he squinted in displeasure, groping around for his glasses. After finding them and putting them on, he noticed that Red was in a completely different position than he was last night, and that he slept cradling his right arm. Max creeped over to the older trainer, and found a sizable scratch in Red's forearm that stretched from his wrist to his elbow. His Pokédex was about a foot away from his head, laying front-side down.
Aurian stretched, yawned, and nearly had a heart attack when she saw Max about to open Ash's Pokédex. She knelt down next to the younger boy and tapped him on the shoulder, which made him jump about a foot into the air.
"Dang, Blue, you scared the heck out of me!"
The female trainer took the red Pokémon tracker device and tucked it into Red's bag. "He really doesn't like it when other people mess with his stuff. What were you looking for?"
Max sighed, and decided that he'd check the Pokédex later, when no one was looking. "Nothing. Should I wake Michael?"
"That would be a good idea. He'll sleep until noon if we let him, and that won't be great- we've got opening ceremonies tonight!"
"Oh yeah," Max answered, "I completely forgot! I'll go wake Michael! Be right back!"
Aurian grinned as he ran off to shake her spiky-haired friend awake. She poked Ash's shoulder and started tapping her foot in impatience when he didn't stir. She eventually settled for shaking his shoulders wildly while exclaiming "Red, if you don't wake up now, the Center will run out of food!"
"WHAT ABOUT NO FOOD?" Ash yelled, jolting upright. He gingerly touched his neck. "Ow," he muttered. "Cricked my neck."
His patonai smirked. "That's what you get for not waking up on time."
"Never again," Ash moaned, setting a still sleepy Pikachu on his shoulder. "Everyone awake?"
"Am now," groaned Michael, sitting up while rubbing his head. "Why do you have to yell so loud?"
Max smiled. "That's Red for ya."
"We should go check on the girls and Noah," Ash announced, standing up. Max noticed that he winced whenever his weight transferred from his left arm to his right, but didn't say anything.
The pack of four set off towards the Center without another word. They passed many late night partiers who were passed out in various positions- draped over logs on the ground, asleep in branches, passed out around campfires.
The sliding doors opened, and the four found Misty, Maddy, and Noah waiting on them.
"What took you so long?" Misty asked, putting her hands on her hips. "It's almost ten thirty!"
"Ten thirty?" Ash yelped. "Dang, didn't know we slept that late! Guess Dexter's alarm didn't go off..." Or I forgot to set it after the brawl last night...
Aurian shook her head. "Sorry, guys. We'll grab some food and then venture out to the stadium, and see what the plan is for the Opening Ceremonies."
"They have breakfast tacos over there," Noah motioned towards the buffet. "They're really good- Noah approved!"
The oversleepers grabbed the tortilla encased meal to go, and followed Misty out of the sliding door. What the group saw outside astounded them.
"Oh. My. Arceus," Misty exclaimed, putting a hand over her mouth.
Max's smile turned to an expression of shock. "Holy crud."
Aurian and Ash did their best to feign surprise. "Well, that was unexpected."
"Are they alright?" Noah asked, wheeling over to check the five trainer's vitals.
Dang, wasn't expecting our job to go over so well, Ash commented through Kōkani.
Aurian bit her lip. Went a little too well, in my opinion. Should we go get Brock, to make it look like we went for help?
The darker haired trainer nodded. Yup. Think he's coming out now.
Brock emerged from the Center, greeted the group of seven, and then noticed what they were staring at. He immediately started helping Noah check the trainers and make sure that they were still alive.
"I'm seeing consistent bruising among two of these guys under the neck. The other two guys and the girl have brusing in the shape of a hand around the right shoulder, where a pressure point is located. All of them are alive, but some seem to be better off than others. I'm seeing black eyes forming on two, and a few cuts on arms, torsos, and legs. Must've been some fight they were involved in."
Noah frowned. "What's that sticking out of the girl's pocket?"
Ash removed the black Pokédex that he had leached the data from the night before, and booted it up, showing the rest of the group the poison-purple 'R' that appeared on the screen.
"Rocket," Max breathed, his body tensing. "How the heck did they get here?"
Aurian quickly looked over her shoulder, and sighed in relief when she noticed that no one seemed to be paying them any attention. "We can't have the Jennies deal with this- Rockets are rather notorious for breaking out of normal prisons. I've got some friends in high places, I'll see what they think we should do."
She pulled her Pokégear out of her pocket, and started hitting a few sequences of numbers after distancing herself from the group. A few agonizingly long seconds of ringing later, Flint's face appeared on the screen.
"Yo, Blue! Whassup?"
"Flint, we've got a problem. Can you contact Champion Lance for me? We've found a few Team Rocket agents at the Global Invitational, and we don't really know what to do with them."
The red-haired trainer frowned. "Not sure if he's available, but haven't you already..."
"Flint," she said, raising an eyebrow. "We've got non-G-Men members here," she whispered. "We're undercover."
"Right," he replied. "I'll see what I can do. In the meantime, check for identification. Dexes, cards, anything. Find out who they're impersonating in this tournament. If they wake up, knock them out again- which I'm sure you'll take great pleasure in."
Ash poked his head into the call. "Dang right, but that shouldn't be a problem. Ri and I took care of them last night."
The black-haired trainer flinched from the look that Aurian shot him. "We'll keep an eye out until Lance sends representatives, which is what he'll most likely do."
"Just received contact from him," Flint replied, and the two of them could hear keys clicking in the background. "Says that he'll send reps disguised as the five, and have them flunk their first or second round battles so that way they'll be quickly forgotten. In the meantime, he wants you two to stay low. Don't make yourself stick out too much during your first few battles, and he wishes you the best of luck."
"We appreciate the thought," Ash answered. "See you later, Flint."
"Later, peeps."
The screen went black, and Aurian pocketed the device. "Seems like a solid plan."
"Yeah," Ash replied. "Best we can do at the moment."
The two of them rejoined the group, where Misty, Maddy, Max, Michael, and Noah waited for the results of Aurian's call.
"My call was redirected to Flint of the Sinnoh Elite Four," Aurian announced. "They'll be sending a few League operatives to take these Rocket's place and masquerade as these five. They'll flunk their first battles, and exit. No one will know the wiser."
Max frowned. "But won't their boss miss them?"
"Flint will figure something out," Ash stated. "They always do."
At that, Brock decided that it was time for him to act. "Blue, Red, can I talk to you two for a second?"
"Sure, what's up?" Ash asked.
Brock looked around to make sure that they were out of earshot of the others, and then crossed his arms. "I saw those guys," he motioned towards the group of unconscious grunts, "laying there last night, when their wounds were still fresh. There were also footprints there- two pairs of human prints, one set of flying type prints, and one group of prints belonging a quadruped fire type. I followed them, and saw that they led to your campsite. Red, you have a scratch on your arm consistent with that of a weapon used for slashing, and I found a slightly bloodied dagger tucked in the belt of one of the men."
He watched as the two trainers paled a bit, but stood their ground without saying a word. Aurian's eyes turned steely as she stared the ex-gym leader down, and Ash straightened up a little.
"You two took on a group of five highly trained Rocket Special Operatives... and won. You've obviously had intense training in hand to hand combat. So tell me... who are you working for?"
(A/N): Review response time!
xRoosie: Yeah... sorry about that. My schedule got crazy hectic with no warning.
Harish: As you can probably tell, I have an erratic update schedule, so I can't make any promises about update frequencies. It should get a little better- school gets out in two weeks for me!
partner555: As I mentioned earlier, I'm not sure if I'll end up doing pairings in this story. All I can say is that any Pokeshipping will be strictly one-sided.
Eclipse Wing: First off... THAT'S the kind of review that I love to see! Thanks for the fantastic advice concerning the nicknames, I'll see that I do a better job addressing them in the future.
SerenaTheHedgehog: I took some inspiration from the manga and thought 'Hey, why don't I give them weapons?' It makes for an unusual twist.
As usual, review, please! Tell me what you liked! What you didn't like! What you'd like to see! What you want me to change! I also need YOUR opinion on something- see the poll I've put up on my profile for more information.
PL, signing off!