We're Back, Twerp!
"The phone is ringing, should we answer it?" James asked with a fearful expression. They spent well over a year in the Alola region and had nothing to show for it, they couldn't even take credit for dismantling a rival criminal organization to save their skins as Alola didn't have one!
"If we don't dat Matori woman will have our heads," Meowth groaned out, not looking forward to seeing his Alolan counterpart's smug expression again.
Jessie rubbed her face against her hands while uttering out a sigh. "Let's just get this over with, least we're across the ocean and not in Headquarters. If Headquarters wants to yell then we'll simply turn down the volume."
The three Rocket members looked at one another with nervous expressions before pressing a button as a strange man they'd never seen before appeared onscreen, sitting where Matori once sat. The man had a cold and calculating expression as his teal colored eyes looked them over, his hair was a similar color and cut in a short well groomed manner. His uniform was white much like their own but not a complete copy as it was in the style of a Rocket Executive with the red R in a smaller shape and positioned above where his heart would be.
"You three are Jessie, James, and Meowth. I'm Matori's replacement, Archer. I've read your performance reports on previous operations of yours and I must say I am rather impressed, thanks to you Team Rocket has branches in Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Kalos!" Archer spoke, complimenting them but keeping a serious expression and not showing signs of emotion or pleasure despite his words. "Giovanni has lost all interest in the Alola takeover, he sees little value in taking over a tropical region. Instead he has shifted his eyes towards the region of Galar, we've been trying to get a hold of that region since Madame Boss ran the show about eighteen years ago. Every agent we've seen has winded up disappearing or turning up dead." Archer pressed a button as faces of former operatives appeared on the screen.
"The formerly unstoppable partners in crime and love, Hilbert and Selene. A former freelancer turned loyal, Dmitri. Even one of our own Executives, Cliff turned up missing quite recently which is quite unfortunate. We want you to do what they all presumably perished trying to do, form a Rocket Headquarters in the Galar region. It's free real estate as no other organization is currently present far as we can tell."
"W-What'd he just say?!" Meowth hissed out with a frightened expression. James was shaking with a similar look of fear in his eyes.
"Oh come on you don't guys don't honestly believe something is killing Rocket agents there, do you?" Jessie rolled her eyes. "They probably just got caught or ran off."
"I don't know Jessie, that Cliff fellow sure is a big one!" James pointed towards the final picture in which a large and muscular stood with a Tyranitar by his side, both looking equally fearsome and intimidating.
"Yeah if something took out a guy like that what chance do we have?"
Archer looked between them before placing a briefcase upon his desk, opening it before turning it to face the camera to reveal a large variety of gold and rare gems. The sight of such treasure immediately drew the trio's attention, causing them to temporarily forget about the possible dangers.
"All of this will be yours upon succeeding in starting up an operation." Archer spoke while also handing a package to a familiar pair of red flippers. "And this will surely help against any dangers you may come across!"
"Deli deli!" Delibird suddenly shot up behind them causing the Rocket trio to cry out from fright before angrily glaring at Delibird. Delibird didn't flinch, merely holding up his sack and shaking it.
James reached inside and pulled out a box, opening it up to reveal a pair of black rings with the familiar Team Rocket insignia drawn on the side of them. "An invention of Dr. Zager's, the Rocket Band! Capable of allowing you to Mega Evolve or even Dynamax, whichever best suits the scenario!"
"But sir we don't have Pokemon capable of-" Jessie began to speak up only for Delibird to shake his delivery bag once again, she placed her hand inside and withdrew two Pokeballs, handing one off to James before opening the other.
"Mawile!"
"Ampharos!"
The two Pokemon cried out as each Pokemon stood by their trainers side. Jessie and James immediately equipped their rings to try them out, both activating the crystal.
"Mawile," Jessie began
"Ampharos," James spoke up
"Let's try out Mega Evolution!" They cried as a bright pink light encased both of them, all three Rocket member's eyes shined brightly as the light faded to reveal a Mega Mawile and Mega Ampharos!
"Let me make one thing clear, they are not toys to be played with whenever you desire. Mega Evolution is a rare commodity in the Galar region, they're still your Pokemon by all means but you're to catch some on your own to help keep a low profile. While also sending some back here so we can research the Dynamax phenomenon!" Archer spoke, looking them over once more. "You're to take the tickets that Delibird will hand you and leave for Galar immediately. Dismissed and good luck, agent Arlo will contact you with any further orders we may have for you."
The three turned to one another before looking back at Mawile and Ampharos while wondering what mysteries and Pokemon awaited them in the Galar region!
"Chew!" A tiny blue snapping turtle crawled across the ground in front of the trio as they ventured through the Wild Area.
Jessie let out an "Aw, so cute!" immediately upon seeing it resulting in Meowth and James giving her a questionable look as Jessie once again displayed her odd taste in Pokemon she deemed 'cute'. "James what do your cards say about this little guy?"
"Hmmm, let's see..." James shuffled through a deck of card he'd bought at a gift shop before eventually coming across the matching one. "It's a Chewtle and apparently they have a habit of biting things in front of it."
"What-?! Ouch!" Jessie growled at Chewtle, she'd knelt down to pet the 'cute' turtle only for it to go and bite her. "Grrr, I'll show you whose boss!" James and Meowth's eyes widened along with Chewtle's as Jessie violently shook her arm in an attempt to get him loose before thrusting out her arm, launching Chewtle into the air before the turtle landed on his back and began struggling to get back up.
Jessie enlarged a Pokeball before throwing it at Chewtle, the turtle Pokemon disappearing as the ball chimed to announce the capture quite quickly and landing Team Rocket their first recruit from the Galar region!
Later that same day the Rocket trio had stopped to eat with their Pokemon eating alongside them when a Cramorant started walking towards them before plopping itself down and awkwardly beginning to stare at them. The Rocket trio continued to eat but eventually James caught sight of the blue bird out of the corner of his eye, a smile formed across his face before breaking off a part of his sandwich and handing it to the strange bird.
"Hungry?" Cramorant responded by opening his beak and swallowing the sandwich, taking James' arm along with it as the Rocket member cried out, trying to pull away from Cramorant before quickly reaching for his belt and grabbing an empty Pokeball, tapping Cramorant's head and freeing his arm as the bird disappeared in a beam of red light. The pokeball shook within the palm of his hand before chiming to announce the capture complete!
"Chewtle!" Chewtle fired off a powerful blast of water at a Greedent, the squirrel Pokemon coming to a collapse before a black and purple Pokeball was thrown at it, the Pokemon disappeared in a beam of sinister purple light as the ball hit the ground and started to shake, however once the ball chimed James immediately picked it up and handed it to Delibrd.
"Deliver this to Arlo, will you chum?"
"Deli deli!" Delibird took off with the Pokeball while Chewtle let out a cry as he became encased in a bright blue light, growing taller and more muscular in shape before taking form of it's evolution, Drednaw!
"He's evolved already!" Jessie squealed out, they'd captured quite a few Galar Pokemon to send to their associate Arlo who in turned passed it to Giovanni afterwards during the past few months. However they made little progress on constructing a Headquarters or even finding a good spot for one.
"Well done you three, Giovanni will be most proud of this haul. I'm going to take them back to Kanto while I give him a progress report, I'll be back in a few months." A voice spoke from a black Rotom Phone that Meowth was currently holding, a gift from their associate for all the good work they'd done lately. However there was the drawback that they no longer had excuses for not calling Headquarters and going silent for months.
"Metapod use Harden!"
"You use Harden too!" Zach retaliated as his Metapod was in the midst of fighting another Metapod. Team Rocket were currently stalking Ash, regressing to their old ways as the allure of capturing Pikachu for their boss was always too powerful for them to resist. They were hidden in nearby bushes and waiting for the perfect moment to strike and finally capture that Pikachu!
"Harden!"
"Harden!"
Marnie couldn't help but facepalm before shouting out. "Ya know Metapod still knows the attacks he knew as a Caterpie, right?! Start fighting with your brain instead of what's between your legs!"
Zach began to sweat, glancing away out of embarrassment before muttering out. "Tackle."
"Pod!"
Zach's Metapod flung itself at the other Metapod knocking it over while a bug catcher trainer let out a defeated groan as he hung his head.
"Alright Metapod, you did it!"
"Pod!" A bright light encased Metapod's body as his cocoon started to crack, his trainer's eyes lit up from excitement as the long training sessions could finally come to an end as a beautiful purple butterfly broke free of the cocoon before fluttering in the air in front of his trainer, a smile on the Bug type's face before the pair hugged.
"Ya did it, Butterfree!"
"Freee!"
"That new male twerp, don't he look familiar?" Meowth muttered, narrowing his eyes.
"Not from what I recall." James shook his head.
"Focus on the mission you two, the twerp's just ahead. Any second now he should run into our trap..." Her gaze turned towards a rather obvious pitfall trap in the middle of the road leading to Wedgehurst. Once Zach claimed his prize money from the bug catcher Ash and the others started down the path, heading right towards the pitfall... and walked right over it.
"What the-?!" Jessie shot over and began angrily stomping on the spot "Why didn't it work?! Meowth I thought you said that you set it-aaahhh!" The pitfall finally gave way and Jessie went falling down into the hole, James and Meowth immediately rushing over to help their friend out of their own trap.
"So this is Wedgehurst, eh? Reminds me a lot of home." Ash looked around at the small town. The buildings were built in another style but it still had the right sense about it, neighbors and Pokemon alike could be seen interacting with one another in a friendly manner while there was also the rather obvious similarity that both locations had a lab, this lab appeared to be a two story building with the lab most likely being on the first floor while the Professor lived on the second floor. However there was one slight addition that Ash's town lacked... a train station.
"We can take that right back to Motostoke," Zach informed as he noticed Ash eyeing the train station. "We could have just taken it here in the first place but we wouldn't have been able to catch Pokemon if we did, or at least the ones that we did."
Ash nodded in understanding though he was actually hoping to go back out to the Wild Area afterwards, there was still enough time that he could hopefully locate the Championship opponent that was present somewhere in the midst of it. He was sure the others wouldn't mind if he asked. "Right, so your friend lives there?"
"Yeah, she's-"
"Right here!" Marnie's eyes widened in surprise at the sight of a beautiful orange haired woman standing right behind Zach, her arms wrapped around his head while her hands covered up his eyes. Marnie immediately identified the look on her face, warm and a loving smile. Marnie wasn't blind, she'd never acted that way but she sure saw crazy fans looking that way at both her and her brother! Making Marnie wonder why he was trying to get a girlfriend when the perfect choice was right there, perhaps he was blind to those emotions?
The girl caught Marnie staring and narrowed her eyes lightly as a bit of a possessive look formed within them, pulling Zach closer to her as if to say 'He's mine!'. Marnie stuck out her tongue while making a disgusted face at the accusation.
'Ew, as if!' Marnie mouthed back.
"Sonia!" A smile quickly formed across Zach's face as she pulled her hands away from him, the two close friends stood there for a moment just staring at one another. 'Huh, something's different about you." Zach tilted his head, trying to figure it out.
Sonia blushed, knowing it was most likely the makeup she'd applied prior to his arrival. "Well I did do a bit of self maintenance before you arrived,"
"Hm, you cut your hair!" Zach guessed, Marnie facepalmed while Sonia face faulted.
"Scor!" Scorbunny giggled out from the reaction, the Pokemon's cry alerted Sonia to her presence as the girl quickly shot up before pulling Scorbunny up into her arms while letting out an excited cry.
"Aw, she's so cute!"
"Scor!" Scorbunny grinned from the compliment, perhaps life at the lab wouldn't be too bad but she'd still prefer to be at her trainer's side as he conquered the Galar Gym Challenge!
"Rio." Riolu huffed.
"And how could I forget you!" Riolu's eyes widened as he was pulled up into her grasp as well, looking towards his trainer with an expression that screamed for help. "So you two are still as close as ever, eh? You're lucky you know, getting to travel with him..." Riolu looked up at her with a confused look, proving to be just like his trainer as Zach reached out and grabbed hold of Riolu.
"And you two are the friends he mentioned, I'm Sonia!"
"I'm Ash Ketchum,"
"And I'm Marnie, pleased to meet ya!"
"How about we all head to the lab? My grandmother is cooking lunch and she'd love to have you all over, we don't get many visitors out here."
Ash's stomach rumbled loudly upon hearing the question, causing Ash to blush from embarrassment before forcing a smile. "We'd love to!"
"About the lab, Sonia do you mind if-"
Sonia let out a light laugh before turning back to her friend. "Your Pokemon are more than welcome to stay here, we'd be happy to watch them for you. You're like family to grandma, and I'd love the chance to research any Pokemon you capture during your trip to other regions!" Sonia said with an ecstatic expression.
"Sounds like you should capture Pokemon from other regions then, eh?" Marnie elbowed Zach, trying to help him out with a hint.
"Huh?" Zach glanced at Marnie with a clueless expression before looking back at Sonia as Marnie facepalmed again. "I won't catch too many, I don't want to be a burden to you and Professor Magnolia."
"You aren't!" Sonia quickly retorted. "Er-You won't! Most trainers that begin their journey here don't even catch a full team so we don't have a lot of Pokemon here, it'd basically be just your Pokemon and my Yamper."
"Still I don't want to catch too many, I want to give time to all of my Pokemon and I won't be able to do that if I catch every wild Pokemon I see!"
"Of course, I'd happily watch them no matter the amount you catch!" Sonia stated while giving him a warm smile. "So you mind showing off the ones you have when we get there?"
"Well they'll be eating too so why not?"
"Yamp yamp!" A yellow and brown corgi Pokemon trotted out of the lab to greet Sonia and Zach as they approached, his tail wagging from excitement.
"I've never seen that Pokemon before, it's kinda cute." Ash spoke, causing Pikachu to face him with narrowed eyes. Ash had still yet to capture an Electric type and Pikachu had always been hoping that day would never come, even though him and Pikachu had an incredible bond the electrical mouse often had nightmares about another Electric type entering the picture and stealing his thunder.
"Yamper, the puppy Pokemon. This gluttonous Pokemon is quite popular in the Galar region and only assists people with their work because it wants treats. As it runs, it crackles with electricity!" Ash's Rotom Phone read out upon him scanning the Electric type.
"Oh I know, I've always wanted to catch one of my own!" Zach stated as he knelt down to pet Yamper, the corgi responded by leaping up and excitedly licking his face.
"Well if we see one in the wild you can have it," Pikachu breathed a sigh of relief hearing Ash say that but he had a strange feeling that he'd be revisiting this feeling of emotion fairly soon!
Marnie gazed at Pikachu with a look of understanding, recognizing it as her Morpeko had gone through a similar phase early on when she was first starting her dream. Morpeko had winded up going ballistic before realizing that she'd still be Marnie's number one partner and best friend, she hoped that Pikachu would be okay if Ash did wind up with another Electric type.
"Sonia dear, food's ready!" The voice of an elderly female could be heard calling from within the lab.
"Coming grandma!" Sonia called back before excitedly grabbing Zach's hand. "Come on, I'm eager to see what sort of Pokemon you've caught!"
"So this is the Ash Ketchum that Professor Oak's hyped up!" An elderly woman wearing a lab coat looked Ash over as he entered the lab with the others, Magnolia picking up on his identity instantly due to him having Pikachu on his shoulder along with his signature cap, that and Professor Oak had informed her that he might drop by at some point due to his strange habit of meeting Pokemon Professors that were colleagues of his. Magnolia walked over and began examining Pikachu with a magnifying glass. "Hm, you've definitely taken great care of this Pikachu. His fur is a healthy shade of yellow and he appears to have a great bond with you, Oak sure wasn't kidding about that... but where are my manners! I'm Professor Magnolia and that over there is my granddaughter, someday she'll be my successor!"
"I'm Ash Ketchum, future Pokemon World Champion!"
"Yes, I know." Professor Magnolia laughed lightly.
"And I'm Marnie, pleasure to meet ya miss!"
"Pleasure's all mine, I assure you. Now how about we all eat some lunch? It's all ready to go!" She led them to the kitchen where the table was set with a variety of delicious homemade food to choose from.
"Wow, it all looks delicious!" Ash drooled at the sight.
"And smells great!" Marnie added.
"Sonia made most of it," Magnolia gazed towards Zach. "Definitely good qualities for a wife, don'tcha think?"
"Gran!" Sonia's face shot bright red from embarrassment.
"Huh? What'd you say?" Zach hadn't heard much as he was busy letting out his Pokemon. Sonia losing track of the conversation as well upon seeing the remainder of his current team.
"A Butterfree, no doubt your first catch! And a Zigzagoon and Corvisquire! You've made great choices for the start of your team, they're all fairly easy Pokemon to raise!"
"Freee!"
"Corvi!"
His Pokemon called out in greeting while Zigzagoon was quick to dig in and begin eating.
"So how about once we finish eating you take Pikachu out back and show him off in action? Sorry to ask but with the way Oak hyped him up I'm just eager to see it for myself!" Magnolia asked with an apologetic look.
"Pikachu and I would love to, it's about time we got in some more practice and I'm sure Emboar would love testing his strength against yours, right buddy?" Ash asked while Pikachu raised his fists with a smirk.
"Pi Pikachu!"
Ash and Zach both ate far more than the rest of them, asking for seconds, and thirds. Ash beat him with a fourth serving but Sonia was still pleased that he'd enjoyed her cooking. After finishing Zach opted to stay behind with Sonia and help clean up which she was very grateful to hear while the others went out back to watch Ash's training session.
Emboar practicing his Fire attacks against Pikachu, the heat coming off of the attacks was far stronger than it had been as Pignite! The attacks didn't even hit Pikachu and he was still sweating from the intense heat!
"Alright Emboar, Pikachu's gonna hit you with a fully charged Volt Tackle. You think you can handle that?" Emboar responded by giving Ash a thumbs up while firmly digging his feet into the ground in preparation.
"Pikachu, let's go! Volt Tackle!"
"Pika!" Pikachu began charging across the field as his body became covered in electricity before ramming into Emboar's body, Emboar grunted out as he was pushed back. The electricity surged through his body but Emboar remained on his feet, gritting his teeth before flashing Ash a grin.
"Embo!"
"Way to go Emboar!" Ash cheered the Unova starter on. Very few Pokemon of his could actually take the attack without going down, Emboar was quickly proving to be one of his strongest team members!
Suddenly a net shot out and trapped both Pikachu and Emboar inside of it as a familiar laughter could be heard, Ash grit his teeth upon hearing it. It'd been some time since they had last met, he'd honestly hoped that they had given up and went legit, they seemed quite successful when they weren't committing crimes from what he'd seen.
"We're back twerp!" Meowth laughed as he jumped into view.
"So prepare for trouble," Jessie appeared.
"And make it double," James added as he appeared.
"To protect the world from devastation,"
"To unite all people within our nation,"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love,"
"To extend our reach to the stars above,"
"Jessie,"
"James,"
"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light so surrender now or prepare to fight!" Jessie and James said in unison.
"Meowth, that's right!"
"Wobbuffet!" The blue blob Pokemon added on as he popped out from his ball.
"Team Rocket!" Ash angrily growled out.
"Team Rocket?" Magnolia gasped lightly.
"Did that Meowth just talk?" Marnie raised an eyebrow while Morpeko made a matching expression.
"We've had a major power upgrade since last we met, twerp!" Jessie bragged, showing off the Rocket Band as a smirk formed across her face.
"Yeah, we can't wait to show it off!"
"Those two sound more like they're bragging than threatening..." Marnie muttered with a light glare.
"So without further ado, Mawile let's stun the twerps with your beauty!"
"And Ampharos, let's give them a shocking surprise!"
"Mawile!"
"Ampharos!"
"Am I supposed to be impressed?" Ash looked at them with a bored expression, figuring he'd just call out Snivy to handle them. It'd be easy experience if nothing else. Though his attitude quickly changed as they activated the rings and had the Pokemon encased in the familiar glow of Mega Evolution!
"Tada!" The trio grinned as Mega Mawile and Mega Ampharos stood ready and eager to attack Ash and his friends.
"Charizard I choose you!"
"Char!" Charizard landed on the ground with a ticked off expression upon seeing his two closest friends trapped in a net. "Charrr!" He roared, not even awaiting a command before blasting Ampharos and Mawile with a powerful Flamethrower! Ampharos and Mawile let out painful cries as they were hit by the powerful flames, the Rocket Trio looking worried for them as the light soon returned, Mawile and Ampharos now resumed their normal forms as they laid in defeat.
"Uh oh," They began backing up as they returned their Pokemon to their Pokeballs, beginning to shake in fear as they knew any second now that Pikachu would be cut free and they'd be blasted off!
"I'm only going to ask you once, leave and I won't blast you off." Ash warned. Charizard let out a threatening roar as he shot a flamethrower up into the air causing the Rocket trio to quickly panic before rushing off into the woods, planning a retreat for now.
"We'll be back, twerp!"
"But until next time, Team Rocket is running off!"
"Wobbuffet!"
"Those buffoons show up often?" Marnie asked with an annoyed expression.
"Occasionally, they're not that bad. They've actually helped me save the world more than a dozen times!"
"What?!" Marnie's jaw dropped, not from the fact he saved the world but the fact that he addressed it so casually as if it was a regular Tuesday or something.
"That wasn't the brightest of ideas..." James muttered as the Rocket trio stopped to catch their breath.
"Yeah, perhaps next time we should wait and make sure he doesn't have the most powerful Pokemon waiting in ambush!" Meowth breathed out.
"There you fools are!" Pierce suddenly appeared from the darkness, an agitated look on his face. "I've been looking all over for you, I only managed to find you cause one of you used the Rocket card to buy a spa day in Motostoke!"
James and Meowth turned to Jessie with a light glare. "What? My beauty is quite essential, I can't be seen stealing without looking my best!"
"Silence!" Pierce growled out.
"W-What are you doing here, Pierce? Last time we saw you... actually when was the last time we saw you?" James paused to think.
"It got retconned out of existence as the episode got cancelled." Meowth addressed. "We never saw him after."
"Cause I have a mission that is well above your paygrade!" Pierce rolled his eyes. "Macro Cosmos, whose your informant there?"
"Macro... what now?" The Rocket trio blinked while Pierce's eye twitched.
"Macro Cosmos... the biggest tech company in Galar, it literally runs the Galar League financially! Surely at least one of your subordinates has a job there!"
"Uh..." The Rocket trio turned to face on another.
Pierce facepalmed. "I'm surrounded by idiots! Fine, I'll do this myself." Unlike most Rocket members he was entirely off the grid, no recorded criminal history, no known affiliation, it should be fairly easy for him to get a position at Macro Cosmos and locate Yung! "Arlo and I are so going to talk, 'bloody good job' my foot!"
"You're leaving already?" Sonia's expression turned to that of sadness as she stood next to Zach as he prepared to head off with Ash and Marnie for their next destination.
"I'd love to stay longer but the Galar League opening ceremony is in a few days and I'd like to be there, besides there's an opponent in the Wild Area that Ash wants to face so we've gotta get there before whoever it is moves on and gets too far away. I'm sorry," Sonia let out a sigh before smiling as she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him close against her.
"It's alright, just call me okay? That'll more than make up for it!"
"You know I hate talking on that thing," Zach grumbled lightly, much preferring to talk to other people in person. "But I'll try and call you occasionally."
"Even just one would mean the world to me!" She released him from the hug before giving him a light wave. "Good luck on your adventure you three, hopefully we'll cross paths at some point!"
Magnolia remained inside the lab, looking at an old photo. A man that looked like an older version of Zach stood on one half while a woman with long silky black hair stood on the other half, she remembered them all too well. The man and woman moved into town and seemed like any other ordinary family until one day the man and woman had disappeared while a detective named Nanu and his protégé Looker came seeking answers right around that time, it turned out that the two were on the agency's most wanted list and they'd tracked them down to Galar only for them to disappear again. Magnolia always found it odd though, the love they had for their child was definitely genuine so they wouldn't have just left him. Regardless of the situation Magnolia decided to take him in and help raise him rather than let him go live in an orphanage somewhere, Sonia was the same age and there weren't other kids around in town so she figured it'd do them some good having each other to grow up with and given the way they act around one another, she knew she was right. She just hoped the sins of the parents wouldn't come to haunt the child now that Team Rocket had returned to the region!
I'd give a hint as to who Ash is facing but I figure it's obvious if you watched Generations.
And yeah, I'm adapting the GO Rocket members. I love Arlo and Sierra's designs!
