Last Time, Ash and the gang head to the Mistralton City Gym, but find out it's closed due to a certain someone, Cody, who is actually Missile, who caused the gym the close in the first place suggested to Ash that he should head to Mistralton Tower, Ash and co. agree, but Missile stays back as he got an attack to plan, our heroes get to Mistralton Tower the following morning, and meet their old pal Steffen, they all take place in the competition held there, and Steffen wins, he wishes that someone would say his name right, even though that's been happening the entire time, he also wishes to win the upcoming Clubsplosion in Iccirus City, also someone else seems to be investigating Team Rocket, or Plasma, maybe both? Find out eventually!

In the forest near Mistralton Tower…

"Okay Ash, it should take us another day to head back to Mistralton" Cilan said, cooking dinner.

"We should start going tommorow morning" Iris said. "In the mean time though, might as well rest up, it's been a while since we slept in the woods"

"You know, I haven't done some training for a while" Ash said. "I think I'm gonna let everyone out"

"Sure that sounds great" Iris said.

"Alright, I could use some help cooking" Cilan said.

Ash, and the gang let out their pokemon, to do some training, playing, walking, talking, basically whatever.

"This is gonna be one heck of a night" Ash said.

In the city, hidden in an alleyway…

"Come on, get those potions in wraps" A rocket member said.

"Yes sir, but why do we need all these potions?" Another member asked.

"This mission isn't gonna go easy, we need all the help we can get" The first Rocket said.

Hiding in plain sight, Looker was spying on them, he was assigned to investigate both Team Rocket, and Team Plasma's antics, master of disguise, giver of boxed lunches, he was perfect for the job.

"Hurry it up already" Rocket A said. "Don't want Missile getting angry"

"Yeah, yeah I'm moving, we got until tomorrow to get these materials packed up anyway, don't fuss about it" said Rocket B.

Back to the forest…

Iris, Rufflet, Deino, and Axew had gone to bed, Excadrill and Crustle were building sandcastles, Pikachu, Whirlipede, and Pansage were training with Ash and Cilan, Servine and Emolga had gone for a walk, Krokorok was roaming the forest alone, and Oshawott had settled near a pond.

The pond was calming, Oshawott sat on the shore alone, staring at his own reflection.

'Ever since I hatched from my egg, I've always wanted to travel, to see sights, to be loved' Oshawott said, talking to his reflection. 'You know why? Yeah lots of people don't, they just all assume I'm an attention hog, and a nuisance to society' *sigh* 'Being stuck at the lab, stank'

*flashback*

Professor Junioer's lab 3 years ago…

'Come on I wanna play!' A baby Oshawott said, jumping up and down.

I would always try to get Juniper's attention, but she always too busy, I had no memories of my mother, at least Juniper allowed me to watch the TV.

'Whoa!' Baby Oshawott said, watching a pokemon battle.

My favorite things to watch were battles, and romance movies, they both had the one thing I wanted in life, praise and love.

*snores* 'Yeah, go Oshawott win the league, go save princess Lilligant' Little Oshawott said in his sleep.

I craved these things, I dreamt up fantasies of conquering the Unova league, and saving princesses from evil Hydreigons.

'Come on pick me please!' Oshawott begged.

I was yearning, nay screaming for adventure, filled with glory, and love.

"I think I'll choose Tepig"

'Why!?' Oshawott said, tumbling over.

*flashback end*

'But no one, not a single person ever seems to take me seriously!" Oshawott said, suddenly angry, throwing his scalchop in the lake, it sunk to the lakebed pathetically. 'Maybe they're right, maybe I am just a failure'

In a bush nearby…

Krokorok had heard everything, and suddenly had a pit in his stomach.

'Did Oshawott have to go through all that? Dang, I kinda feel bad for him' Krokorok said, mostly to himself.

Krokorok was originally the leader of a gang of Sandiles, he was the oldest and most experienced, he always received praise and admiration, he was almost always in the limelight, he never knew what it was like to be the runt, let alone ignored, neglected.

Krokorok tried to leave the bush he was in, but made some noise, Oshawott noticed, and turned towards it, no scalchop to defend himself with. 'Who's there?' He asked, Krokorok stayed silent, and Oshawott forgot about the sound, and dove into the lake to retrieve his scalchop.

'I gotta think about this' Krokorok said, before going back into the thick of the forest.

Over to the Rocket Trio…

Jessie, James, Meowth, Yamask, and Woobat were all hanging out in sandwich store.

"Mmm, nothing like a good sandwich in the middle of the night" Meowth said, chomping down on a sandwich.

"Don't you think we should get ready for the attack to tomorrow night?" James said.

"Probably not, all we gotta do is follow Missile's orders, probably hold some things, or check some files" Jessie said, eating another sandwich.

'Ah, I don't feel like doing anything other than sleeping anyway' Yamask said.

'Heh heh, this attack will outta be fun, I just can't wait to watch those Team Plasma folk to scream!' Woobat said, excitedly.

'I swear, you can be crazy sometimes' Yamask said, sweatdropping.

'Just me being me!' Woobat said like a maniac.

Now with Derik…

"Finally some time to myself, I been awake for three days straight" Derik released all his pokemon. "Go wander the city, come back before morning" His pokemon left, and Derik closed his eyes.

*flashback*

*ringalingading* "Wake up!" A voice said, a loud bell accompanying it.

A very young Derik had woken up, and began to crawl out of his bed, just one of the dozens of orphans in the room, he was not in the best of circumstances, he was very hungry, weak, and frail, others would often pick on him, he didn't have friends, not a single one.

"So hungry" Derik said to himself. "Gotta visit that donut shop"

He would often wander the streets looking for food, some folks would help him, but there was also a hole in his heart that no amount of food could, friendless, homeless, and foodless, it couldn't get any worse.

"I don't want this, I don't like this, I hate this" Derik would say, almost nothing appeased him, nothing would fill that hole in his heart.

He was pretty desperate for nine long years, he survived alone, he stumbled alone, he suffered alone, he had no chances, no one gave him any chances, until that fateful day, when he was just ten years old, that would change everything.

*flashback end*

Now with Derik's pokemon…

In another alleyway, that's gonna become a theme isn't it…

'Digging through the trash again now are we?' Gothitelle asked a foul smelling Eelektross.

'Yeah, so what? There's some good stuff in here' Eelektross responded, only to gobble up some more trash, gluttonous and not well mannered, but still loyal in his own way.

*sigh* 'I've got better things to do' Gothitelle said, before teleporting away, always the no nonsense type, along with psychic, intelligent and witty, but cold.

Somewhere on a roof…

Druddigon was looking at the stars. 'What is a star? What's the point to all this?' Druddigon asked, he was not the brightest around, and had many questions about the world, life, and why he doing anything, he was always curious, and some helped, but others mocked him instead.

Somewhere in yet another alleyway, taking up some serious brain power coming up with these…

'Eat Fire Blast!' Volcarona said, blasting a trash can into oblivion.

'Be quiet, it's late out, but that doesn't mean we should make excessive noise' Bisharp said, coming out of the shadows.

'Ha! So what? What are they gonna do against me?' Volcarona asked.

'If you make too much noise, then Team Plasma will be alerted to our presence, and the whole mission could be aborted' Bisharp said, sternly.

'Not gonna stop me' Volcarona said, blasting another trashcan, hot headed and stubborn with a fiery passion, destruction always follows.

'Don't botch this, again' Bisharp said, the most level headed by far, stern and cold, but not mean, the absolute leader.

Near a river, the same river as before, but in Mistralton city…

*sigh* Mienshao was leaning on a bridge, looking into the water. 'Why did we have to go down this path? What went wrong? I mean I already know what did, but was there something I could do? Something I could say? Anything at all?' Optimistic and kind, but stuck in an unfortunate position, just like so many before her, not many could relate, being there, but not having much influence. 'What if there is a way?' Mienshao looking longingly at the ripples in the water.

Back to Oshawott…

He had just gotten back from the bottom of the lake, he created ripples as he leapt out of the water.

'Man I am hungry, there's gotta be berries around somewhere' Oshawott said to himself, he searched through the bushes for a berry, Oran, Sitrus, whatever as long as it was food, eventually he found a few Pecha berries, and gobbled them up.

'Hey' A certain sunglasses wearing crocodile said.

'What do you want?' Oshawott asked, his face shifting into a frown.

'Look I, I'm, I'

'You're what? Struggling to speak' Oshawott said, getting increasingly angrier.

'I'm, s- so-' Man apologizing is hard 'I'm s- sorry, for everything okay, I'm sorry that I mocked you, that I blamed you, that I broke our truce okay' Krokorok said, reluctantly, but he still said it.

'Oh okay, I didn't think you had it in you, but okay'

There was a moment of silence, for once in his life Krokorok hadn't a single clue what to say.

'Alright, I accept you're apology, but I don't forgive you' Oshawott said, before turning away, and eating his berries.

Krokorok was about to retaliate but instead, he just left, sweating profusely, that was awkward.

Now with Servine and Emolga…

'You know I heard humans sometimes make pictures with stars' Servine said.

'Really? I didn't know that' Emolga responded.

'Yeah, they call them constellations, personally though I don't think they look anything like what they say' Servine said.

'Well those stars looks like they make a Basculin' Emolga said, pointing to the sky, there were about a dozen stars which roughly drew a picture of one.

'That one looks like a Cubchoo' Servine said, pointing to another set of stars.

'Hey that one looks like your tail' Emolga then said rather loudly.

'Really? It looks more like your tail' Servine said, to which Emolga turned to look at hers.

'I guess that means we've got twin tails instead of pig tails' Emolga said, she and Servine chuckled.

'Can I tell you something?' Servine said, a tone shift in her voice was as clear as day.

'Sure what is it?' Emolga asked.

'I had another trainer before Ash' Servine said, sorrow filling her voice. 'He wasn't the best, and I ran away'

'Gosh, what for?'

'I don't wanna say' Servine said.

'It's fine, say what you're comfortable with' Emolga reassured, although she herself really wanted to know.

'His name was Derik, I first met him when he got his starter, me'

'And then?'

'Well, me and him got along pretty good, he treated me well, and we did lots of things, we made new friends, defeated all eight gyms, and won some tournaments, but then something changed, I didn't notice at the time, but he seemed to get, obsessed' Servine said, before abruptly going silent.

'That sounds terrible, is that why you ran away?'

'Yeah, I took my own ball ran as far as I could, and smashed it, I was free, but I couldn't shake a feeling off, a feeling of regret, Derik was nice once, I don't know, did I make the right decision? Did I do the right thing? Should I have stayed?' Servine said, looking longingly at Emolga for an answer.

Finding herself in an uncomfortable situation, Emolga said, 'Well, I mean, you gotta do what's best for you, you know?'

'But it just feels wrong, I just left him in the dust, I feel dirty, is it wrong for a pokemon to abandon it's trainer? It's wrong for a trainer to abandon their pokemon, so why should it be any different here?' Servine asked, practically shouting, her body was shaking, and her eyes started to water up.

'Hey, it's okay, he did meet some other pokemon, right?' Emolga said, helping her friend, usually it was the other way around.

'I guess you're right' *sigh* 'I just hope he's all right, Derik wherever you are, I hope you're doing okay'

Now with Team Rocket…

"Alright grunts" Missile said, talking into a reciever. "The attack's gonna start in exactly 24 hours from now, to you nitwits who can't do math that's at 12:00A.M. tomorrow, do not be late"

Missile was on top of the tallest building, overlooking the city, even there the Plasma base was completely concealed, however with the correct coordinates, he could pinpoint exactly where it was.

"Welp, let's do this" Missile said, before jumping off, he turned on his jetpack to use low power, and camouflaged himself as the night sky.

Soaring through the air, he headed towards the Plasma base, using night vision goggles he saw that the place was pretty busy and pretty big, grunts were swarming the outside with nothing but a couple pokeballs and a flashlight, a lot of terrain was renovated which was odd since Team Plasma's goal is to supposedly liberate pokemon, in the center was a huge facility with a dome roof.

Connected to the main building were three smaller dome headed buildings probably storage, there was a tall tower of sorts taller than the main building, wonder what that's about, surrounding the main area was a four meter tall wall, it had barbed wire across the top, and there was only one heavily guarded entrance, outside the area were two helipads, a runway, some pokemon centers, and several sleeping quarters.

Hmm that big center building must hold this facility's database, it's got by far the most guards, and protections, those smaller buildings probably have something good in them, maybe I could swoop in and take a few things, what's up with that tower though? It looks to be for communication, maybe energy, but it doesn't have any antennas, or electrical components, whatever probably best to check it anyway.

Missile headed back, without a single Plasma grunt ever knowing he was there, this mission was gonna go great.

Now with Team Plasma inside the Mistralton base…

"Colress" N said, from behind him.

"Yes master N?" Colress said turning away from the mainframe.

"Every grunt is here aren't they?" N asked.

"Why but of course, as master Ghetsis ordered" Colress responded.

"Good, ever since Missile destroyed that outpost this base has been in jeopardy, at any moment a Rocket attack could come, we must be ready, where will you be at?" N asked.

"Why I'll be in the tower protecting my work, project MC has been going so well, it be a shame for it to end in failure at the hands of Team Rocket" Colress said.

"Alright, stay safe, stay on guard, we can not let them succeed" N said.

Back to Ash and the gang, the very next day…

*yawn* "Man that was the best I've slept in ages" Ash said.

"Yeah that was pretty good" Iris said, stretching.

"Well, let's all eat breakfast, and then head back to Mistralton, if we hurry we should make it just after midnight" Cilan said.

Ash and the gang ate breakfast, and all of their pokemon were out and about.

'Every time I eat this food, I just jump up with joy' Whirlipede said, enjoying her pokefood.

'Yeah it's pretty good' Crustle said, plopping one in his mouth. 'Don't you think Krokorok?'

'Huh? Oh yeah I guess' He responded, still thinking about his encounter with Oshawott last night.

'You gonna eat that?' Rufflet asked.

'No you can have it' Krokorok said, he gazed at Oshawott, who was happily eating alongside Excadrill.

'Thanks!' Rufflet said, snatching Krokorok's bowl.

'Thanks for listening last night Emolga, I really appreciated it' Servine said.

'Oh it's not that bad' It's incredibly uncomfortable 'I'm always happy to listen' Emolga said, gulping down her bowl.

'You're a great friend you know' Servine said. Maybe even something more

The gang finished up breakfast and headed back to Mistralton, it took them all day, and by the time they got back it was already midnight.

"Huh? What's all that ruckus?" Ash said, hearing something off.

Suddenly a Plasma grunt ran screaming. "Team Rocket attack! Rocket attack!" He ran off and Ash and the gang were confused.

"What was that?" Cilan asked.

"We should go investigate" Iris said.

"You're right, come on!" Ash said, they headed towards where the grunt was running away from, only to find a massive facility being attacked by Team Rocket.

"Oh no! What's going on here!?" Ash asked, shocked.

"Well, well, well, looks like we meet again" A familiar voice said, it was Missile, he had some grunts around him too.

"Missile, I should have known this was the work of you" Ash said.

"And I should have known that you'd stick your nose into places you don't belong" Missile responded.

"What are you doing here anyway?" Iris asked profusely.

"Frankly that's none of your business, grunts, seize them" Missile ordered.

The grunts surrounded the gang, and there was no way out.

"What did we get ourselves into?" Cilan said, before putting his hands into the air.

"This is gonna be fun" Missile said, walking into the commotion of the attack.