Someone asked me why Ash was able to find a Shinx on Route 1 and the answer to that is I'm using the updated Pokémon encounter list from HGSS and LGPE. I was actually debating between having him catch either Shinx or Pineco. Ultimately, Pineco and Bulbasaur felt too much of the same type and Shinx plays a crucial role in the below chapter that Pineco wouldn't be able to fulfill.

I won't be having Ash catch a lot of Pokémon either, at most he will catch 10 to 12, just to have some team variety during the League. I'm still thinking about whether or not to implement the level mechanic in the story, just to give the readers a sense of the strengths of both Ash's and his opponent's Pokémon.


Undisclosed Location

It was a dark room where two people were gathered around the table in the middle of the room. There were tools and materials lying around the room and small bags were neatly arranged in the corner.

The woman asked the man a question she had been repeating for the past hour "Buth, how much longer will it take Boss to call us? I'm getting bored."

"Once again my name is Butch, woman" he yelled in a frustrated tone. "And instead of waiting for Boss to call, spend your time checking whether the items were properly assembled. If even one of them fails, then the Boss will have both our hides."

Just as they were going to get into another one of their endless arguments, suddenly the pager on the table buzzed. Butch picked it and started reading the message aloud "Commence Operation, the main target is the Viridian Pokémon Center."

On hearing the message, both started to hurriedly gather the small items into a single bag and started moving out.


Pokémon Center after Midnight

Ash was coming back from the washroom when suddenly the power went out. He ignored it, as he supposed that it was just a black out. He was just about to go to sleep when suddenly he heard a scream coming from near the lobby. He decided to check it out, in case there was some nefarious activity taking place.

He took out Shinx's pokeball and released her, and silently ordered her to dazzle her fur. It was an innate ability in the Shinx line that allowed them to flee from stronger foes by stunning them with a bright flash of light. It was eventually replicated by the Sliph Co as the move Flash and was then put on the company's HM line as an essential TM for all trainers to use in dark caves.

He started walking slowly to the front of the pokémon center, determined to check out the cause of the noise. Normally, he wouldn't bother but he was still on edge by Officer Jenny's warning about Team Rocket sightings. Though he admitted to himself that it would be rather pointless for Team Rocket to strike at a barren Pokémon Center. They would be far better off foolishly trying their luck at the Viridian Gym.

He had just reached the front desk and suddenly, he heard another muffled sound, but he couldn't see anyone, so he started to look around for the source of the sound. He found it and recoiled in shock. Nurse Joy was gagged and restrained through duct tape.

He let out Bulbasaur and ordered to him to keep an eye for Team Rocket members and started working on getting Nurse Joy free. He first ripped out the gag in her mouth and asked her to explain what was going on.

"Ash, there's two Team Rocket members in the building, and they are trying to steal trainer's pokemon. You have to call the police" she ordered.

"What? Why would Team Rocket try to steal pokémon from an empty Pokémon Center? It doesn't make sense" a befuddled Ash asked.

"I don't have time to explain it to you. Call the police Ash, right now"

"Yes yes, I'm calling the police right now" he apologized while using the phone to call the emergency police hotline. He waited for a second and then realized that the line was dead. He knew that Team Rocket must have cut or jammed the line somehow.

"Shit, Team Rocket shut down all communications in the building, I guess. What should we do?" he asked while finally removing the last of the duct tape restraining her.

"Listen Ash, you need to go and call the police somehow. I'll try to stop them somehow" she pleaded.

"Absolutely not, you go and call the police while I try to stop them. I'm the one with pokémon to help me" he ordered. She looked like she was going to argue but the look on Ash's face made it clear that he wasn't going to budge, and she made to leave the center.

Ash started to walk towards the pokémon storage, while thinking of a way how to stop Team Rocket, he knew that he only needed to delay them enough for the police to arrive. He suspected that Team Rocket was probably gathering the pokéballs in one place to make it easier to carry them.

He quietly whispered the plan to Shinx who nodded her head to show that she understood. Thankfully, there were only two members otherwise, dealing with them would have been almost impossible for him. He picked a heavy ornament that was kept near the entrance to the storage room and held it tightly. He whispered Shinx to go stand inside the room near the entrance and cause a small noise.

Suddenly from inside came a man's voice "Hey, what is that small cat Pokémon doing here?". Shinx executed her part of the plan on hearing that voice and Ash heard a bright flash coming from inside the room and he rushed inside to hit and incapacitate one of the Team Rocket members by knocking them out.

The light was so bright that he had to shield his eyes and could only see a silhouette of the person in the front of him. He rushed towards them to hit them hard on the head, intent of knocking them out or at the very least disorienting them. Thankfully, just as Shinx's flash died down did the green haired man notice that Ash was in front of him and by then it was too late for him to react. He let a surprised gasp just as Ash hit him hard on the head and he passed out from the blow.

Ash turned towards the now visible blonde woman who was being restrained by Saur in his veins. Although, Saur had successfully managed to wrap his vines around other, he wouldn't be able to restrain her for much longer because of his inexperience and the difference in strength between them.

He rushed towards her and tried to knock her the same way he did the other member, but she managed to get free of the vines and catch the ornament just as it was about to hit her on the head.

They wrestled for a bit, trying to take control of the ornament but after a few seconds, they decided to let go of it thinking that the struggled was pointless. She threw out a pokéball before he was able to stop her, and the light materialized to form a ferocious looking Raticate.

He ordered both his pokémon to come stand in front of him and started thinking of some kind of strategy to try and stall Raticate for as long as possible. "Shinx keep using Leer on it and Saur keep growling at it and both you try to evade its attack" he said, trying to appear brave.

"Knock out these two weakling pokémon Raticate, keep using Tackle until they're finished" the still unnamed woman ordered in an arrogant tone. Raticate started using Tackle on both of Ash's pokémon. Both Shinx and Saur were able to dodge a couple of Tackles but unfortunately their inexperience in battling meant that they were both knocked out soon.

Seeing his pokémon get knocked out created a pit of dread in his stomach but he decided to if he could somehow stall by getting her to talk about her plan. But unfortunately for him, she saw what he was doing and ordered Raticate to knock him out using Tackle.

He raised his arms to try and defend himself, but he was too slow as he saw Raticate fly at him and suddenly, everything went black as he passed out.


Unknown Location

Ash felt a throbbing pain in his head as he woke up and opened his eyes to see the bright rays of sunlight. He rubbed his eyes to slowly open them and figure out where he was. By the looks of his room, he was in some kind of a human hospital. He was just about to try and get up from the bed when Officer Jenny walked in.

"Hello hero, finally awake huh. Took your sweet time waking up, didn't you?" she said in a teasing tone. As Ash took in her words, he yelped with realization "We beat them then, didn't we?"

"Yes, thanks to you and Nurse Joy, we were able to quickly arrive at the Center just as the Team Rocket members were getting away. We were able to easily overpower them and apprehend them. Giovanni was so impressed by your heroics that he called you and Nurse Joy heroes of the city and on hearing that you were a Pokémon Trainer, he wanted to gift you a Pokémon."

Ash was over the moon on hearing that and his spirits lifted even more she produced a pokéball from her pocket and put it in front of him.

"While Giovanni wanted to meet with you personally to congratulate and thank you personally, he has hands full with his new responsibilities. He assured me that, though this Pokémon has a lot of potential and evolves into a very strong pokémon, it's still a baby so you'll have to spend a lot of time training it."

"What new responsibilities? Also, can you tell what this pokémon is?" asked Ash.

She didn't respond but went out and came back with a couple of newspapers in her hand and handed them to him to read.

The Times of Kanto

Since the foiled heist in Viridian, there has been a wave of terror griping Kanto. Team Rocket, whose nefarious plot to steal pokémon from hundreds of trainers was spoiled by the Viridian Police, has a lot of people concerned about the capabilities and aims of the secretive terrorist organization. In response to the accusations that Team Rocket was privy to secret information that additional pokémon were being stored at the Viridian Pokémon Center, due to a malfunction at the Pewter Pokémon Center, has eroded trust in the government significantly.

Pokémon Champion Lance responding to this criticism has unveiled a new set of measures to root out and destroy the organization. Some of measures include setting up a new Task Force with far reaching power and authority to prevent any further attacks and promising that the full force of the Kanto government was being deployed to the cities to help protect the citizens. The Viridian Gym Leader, Giovanni, who has had a sudden increase in popularity among Kanto citizens who appreciate his heavy-handed response to the Viridian attack, will be tasked with leading the Force.

All the other papers such as The Indigo Post, PNN and IBC had similar stories praising Giovanni and noting that the erosion of trust in the Kanto government had prompted Lance to announce a new security policy. While Ash was still bothered by how strong Team Rocket had become, to launch such a brazen act, he was comforted by the fact that one of the strongest and cleanest gym leaders in Kanto was leading the Task Force to destroy the organization.


Ok, so this chapter took longer than expected to finish but it was essential to set up the story arcs. Giovanni's control over an organization with virtually no oversight for now, will have consequences and they will be explored in depth. Anyway, comment and try to guess what the mystery pokémon will be. One hint is that it will certainly be a ground type.

Hopefully, the next chapter will be out on Sunday or Monday. I'm not sure what the best time to release new chapter is. The statistics show that most of my readers are in the US so I'm thinking around 5 pm pacific time but I'm not sure yet.