Flinky: I don't really care for the enthusiastic greeting this time. Three weeks since the last chapter. School, writer's block, sports, I've gave all my reasons already. Honestly, I can no longer do weekly updates on a school week. Maybe during Winter Break (if the story lasts that long, it's far over halfway done) I can do it, but for now, Once every 2-4 weeks is the best I can manage. Sorry.

Red: On a more positive note, reviews!

Flinky: Yep. Only one from DisneyWriter. I have a lot of plans for how Team Plasma will shape out as the story continues.

Red: Now, finally, a chapter from my perspective.

Flinky: Yep. Have fun.


Red's Pokémon (On Hand):

Ignite (Charmeleon)
Moves: Flamethrower, Metal Claw, Dig, Smokescreen

Omni (Mew)
Moves: Every one except Judgement

Blade (Scyther)
Moves: X-Scizor, Wing Attack, Bug Buzz (egg move), Slash

Storm (Pidgeotto)
Moves: Wing Attack, Gust, Quick Attack, Steel Wing

Shadow (Zoroark)
Moves: Night Daze, Foul Play, Night Slash, Furry Swipes

Blacklight (Umbreon)
Moves: Shadow Ball, Psychic, Bite, Assurance


"So, Fuchsia next, right?" Blue asked.

"Yep," Michael responded. "We should get there tomorrow morning if we keep at this pace."

"Just wondering Michael, do you have any flying types?" I asked.

"No, why?"

"Well, if we all have a Pokémon we can mount, traveling to the cities will go a lot faster. I know Leaf can have Ditto transform, Blue has Fearow, and I have Ignite. That just leaves you."

"Well, I can keep my eyes out."

"You know," Leaf said. "We haven't come across a Shadow for a while."

"I have a feeling they caught on after I started stealing half of their teams.," Michael replied.

"Yea, that makes sense."

We were walking for a little while when Blue broke the silence.

"Okay, sorry, but I gotta know. Red, are you and Leaf officially a thing? I saw you at the lake before Celadon, but..."

Leaf and I looked at each other.

"Yep," we both said at the same time. I looked a lot more confident than I was though. All I know about romance is from a couple fanfictions I've read. Not much to go on.

After a little while, a Dodrio appeared. I was about to send out Ignite when Michael said something.

"Let me catch it."

I stepped back as Michael released his Manectric.

"Okay Manectric. Thunderbolt!"

Manectric shot the yellow beam at Dodrio, doing heavy damage.

"Go, Pokéball!"

He chucked the ball, shrinking Dodrio. It wobbled once...twice...three times… clicked.

"Alright! It's been a while since I last caught a Pokémon."

"True," I said. "A big thing though is that Dodrio can be rode. Once it's friendly enough to you, we can cut down on travel times from city to city."

"Okay then."

Nothing happened for a couple hours. Then we came across a motorcycle locked on an iron bar.

"Red, do you know what this logo on the back mean?" Michael asked, pointing at a picture of what looked like a purple Pokéball symbol.

"Not a clue."

"This is Team Snagem. They're a gang who was rampant before the Rocket takeover. I didn't know they still existed."

"Anything important about them?" I asked.

"They used to have access to Snag Machines before Wes destroyed their hideout."

"Great…"

We were about to walk away when a man came up with a red leather jacket and black t-shirt, along with a mustache and purple gloves.

"Well, who are you?" he asked.

"Red." I said, simply. I'm torn over how to handle this situation. This is probably the owner of the motorcycle, meaning that he's a member of Team Snagem. If we get on his bad side, there will be another team trying to end us.

"Ahh, that guy from Poké Underground, correct? I've heard of you, you know. Taking on those Team Rocket bastards."

We just looked at him, then each other, awkwardly.

"I'm Gonzap, the leader of Team Snagem."

All of us (except for Michael) looked at him with a blank stare.

"It's no surprise you haven't heard of us. With Rocket in control, Aqua and Magma constantly fighting, Galactic doing who-knows-what, and Plasma's public rants, that doesn't leave much room for us in the spotlight."

"Yea, that's true."

"You know what? Maybe we could help you guys. If Team Rocket's out of the way, then we can move into Kanto and become the leading team."

You know, I'm not even going to question the logic of this guy.

"Sure, I guess. You have a phone?"

"I got a Poké Gear. Here's my number."

We exchanged numbers and left. I made sure to check everything in my bag was still there, and sure enough, it was.

"Well," Blue said. "That was… something."

"Yea," Michael agreed. "Last time I saw Team Snagem, they were transporting Pokémon to Team Cipher."

"Who's Team Cipher?" Leaf asked.

"They're Orre's main team," Michael responded.

"What do they do?" Blue asked.

"They want to make every Pokémon a shadow. Before I joined up here, I was fighting them."

"Well, okay then. What made you decide to come over here? I would imagine that it's difficult for someone here to go all the way out to Orre."

"My family was on a break here. Team Rocket wanted my mom to do something to make a Pokémon that was faster and stronger."

"What happened then?"

"Well, my mom carried through. However, despite its legendary speed and power, the Pokémon was much weaker than most, so Team Rocket considered it a failure."

I wonder… I'll ask about it later.

"What did they do about it then?"

"Well, I don't know everything. I assumed that they first wanted to kill my mom for it, but they still needed her. While we were in our hotel, my dad disappeared. We never heard from him again."

"So, Team Rocket either kidnapped or killed your father? That's a lot better than my story."

"Yea… That's how it went."

"We stayed for a while to look for him, but we didn't find him. We were about to leave when Gold approached me. I caught Eevee on the ride to the bunker, and that's how I started."

"Nice. But what about the Snag Machine?"

"I got that from Professor Krane on a mission in Orre. He gave it to me when I stopped by his lab and saw that I had Pokémon."

"Alright."

Well, that's Michael's backstory down. Only one remaining is Leaf's. I won't push it though.

"Oh, Michael," I said. "What was the Pokémon your mom worked on?"

"It was a Pikachu, I think."

Yep. Michael's mom modified my Spark. Yay.

There wasn't really much more to talk about as we set down the road. By sundown, we could see a couple buildings.

"Fuschia City. Here we come," I said, to no one in particular.

We camped out and made sure everything was ready. This was beginning to become systematic by now. Sneak in, find a way to take the tower, battle the executive, free the city. Maybe this one would be different.

"Greetings Red."

Yay. Another Psychic-invading-my-mind dream.

"Arceus, Mewtwo, or Omni?"

"Mewtwo. Has it really become that habitual by now?"

"You'd be surprised."

"No matter. I've been looking around the other regions. I am currently speaking to you in Kalos."

"That's like, France area, right?"

"That would be correct. There are two groups of people here that you may want to pay attention to."

"And who are they?"

"The first one is likely friendly. They are an unnamed group of five people about your age. They are planning on taking on Vaniville Town tomorrow morning."

"So, like us?"

"Yes. The other group is a hostile one known as Team Flare. I don't know much about them, but will start gathering information once you find a way to prevent me from getting captured."

"Yea, forgot about that."

"It is not very significant currently as of right now. Please take your time if you need to."

"Okay. Any other news?"

"Not that comes to mind."

"Alright then."

Mewtwo left my mind and I slept through the rest of the night.

Once morning hit, I was up and ready to go. Michael woke up right after me, I nudged Leaf awake, and had Omni use Ice Beam on Blue. Everyone was ready to go within the hour (even though Blue is going to hold a grudge against me for a while).

We set off for Fuchsia once more. However, the border wasn't exactly as I expected.

"Hey, who are you four kids?"

There was a man in his 20's with a shotgun around his shoulder. Thing was though, he wasn't wearing a rocket uniform. I don't know whether to lie to him or tell the truth.

"I'm Ash Smith," I made up. I'm not the best with names.

"Tracy Ray," Michael said. I think he slipped his last name, but it shouldn't make a difference.

"Gary Wallace," Blue said.

"I'm Iris Stevens," Leaf said.

"Name's Jason. You kids from Team Rocket?"

"Uhh, no."

"Then come right in."

"Wait, what?" I asked, confused.

"We drove Team Rocket outta here a year ago. They've tried to take this city back, but failed. You don't go trying to boss around a bunch of rednecks."

So, Team Rocket isn't in this city. It was a complete waste of time to come here.

"Come on Re- er, I mean Ash," Blue said. "We might as well take a break."

"You know, you four look mighty familiar. Have I seen you before?"

"I don't know," I responded.

"Oh well. You kids are free to come in."

"Okay then…"

We entered the city. It seemed like a country town. There were a couple farms, a safari-thing, and a downtown area.

As we were walking we came across a shirtless man with a beer bottle and pistol in his hand. We walked away from him as quickly as possible.

"We're, without a doubt, in redneck country. May Arceus bless our souls," i said, half-jokingly. Despite that, I'm worried that some drunk dude will shoot us.

Once we were in downtown, we looked around for a city hall, or someone who was in charge. We eventually just went into a gas station and asked the guy in charge.

"Yea, the mayor is over in the green house down by the river. If you want to ask anything about this place, he's the guy to go to."

"Alright, thanks."

We set off and looked for said river. We eventually found the river and the house and saw a wide open door.

"Hello?" I asked.

A man yelled out "Coming! Hold on a second!"

Not to long after, a man in a suit with a large yellow...thing on his head came out.

Blue whispered to me "I think that's his hair."

I ignored that and looked at the man. "Are you the mayor of Fuchsia?"I asked, bluntly.

"Yep. I'm Donald Trump. Are you kids new here?"

"Yep. I was wondering about this place, and why there's no Team Rocket."

"Oh, of course. Come on in."

We entered his house, somewhat cautiously. This is a bit too nice. Most people either are filled with awe or hate when they see us.

We sat down in some wooden chairs at a table.

"Sweet tea?" Donald offered.

"We're good," we all said. You know we've spent too much time together when all four of us can predict what each other is thinking.

"All right then. So, who are you four? I get a nagging feeling that I've seen you before."

I see no need to lie about it now.

"We're Poké Underground."

He just looked at us with a blank stare. "Never heard of you. Are you a part of Team Rocket?"

"What? No! We fight Team Rocket. We've saved four cities from their control!"

"Hmm… Doesn't ring a bell."

Look, I understand that this may sound egotistical, but how has this guy never heard of us? If you pay any attention to the news, then you'll see us! Even Team Rocket sanctioned news talks about us occasionally.

"Well, would you mind if we were to ask you about Fuschia City?" Michael said.

"Oh, no. Not at all. Go right ahead."

"Okay," I began. "Let's get straight to the point. How did you get rid of Team Rocket?"

"Ah, that was several years ago. They tried to come in and invade this city. We simply shot them."

"So, you killed the invaders?"

"Well, yea. We own guns for a reason. It's in the second amendment."

"The 10 amendments are American. We're in Japan," Leaf said, dully.

"Oh, that doesn't matter. Let's focus on the topic at hand."

I can see why this man is a politician.

"Mr. Trump, are you aware that there are four other cities without Team Rocket influence?" Blue asked.

"Huh? Other free cities?"

Alright. I'm done with this guy.

"Guys, let's go. I think we know what's required."

"Right," Michael said. "Thank you for having us Mr. Trump."

"My pleasure."

We left as soon as we could.

"I think Giovanni would give straighter answers than that guy," I commented.

"Yea. At least he's not running for president," Leaf said.

"Don't jinx it," Blue said.

"So, Red, what do we do now? This city is already free. I don't really see what else we can do."

"Yea. maybe we should head out to our next stop," I said.

"Which is?" Blue asked.

"Our biggest target yet. Saffron City."

Everyone looked at me as if I was crazy. And I probably am. Saffron is Team Rocket's second most controlled city, right behind Viridian (unless you want to count Indigo Plateau as a city). The key is though, Team Rocket won't expect us we were to take Saffron, Team Rocket loses majority control over Kanto, which is a pretty big milestone. That is also dependant on Fuchsia City and whether or not they will actually join the other cities.

"Any idea how?" Blue asked, interrupting my train of thought.

"Dunno. I'll figure out something though."

As we were preparing to leave, Blue suddenly collapsed.

"What?" i asked. I checked him, and he was unconscious, with a dart in his leg.

"Oh shit-"

I couldn't finish my sentence as several grunts ran up and surrounded us.

"Omni! Surf around us!"

Omni made a ring of high pressure water around the four of us, sweeping up the men.

However, when the attack ended, one man still stood, with a blowgun in his hand. He had a ninja sort of vibe.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"Tsk tsk tsk. I would of thought this would have been harder."

"You haven't seen nothing yet! Ignite, go!"

My Charizard appeared, ready for a fight.

"Oh please. I'm not idiotic enough to fight a child with a Mew. How about, a Snag Master Ball?"

Michael's eyes widened. "RED!" He screamed. "GET HIM OUT OF THERE!"

No time to return him… Sorry Ignite. "Omni! Hydro Cannon on Ignite!"

Omni looked at me in confusion, but obeyed. She shot the beam of water at Ignite, knocking him out. The Master Ball bounced off, harmlessly.

"You can't catch an unconscious Pokémon," I explained, returning my two Pokémon.

"You're a lot smarter than you seem. However, you couldn't even hope to beat me in a fight..."

While he was rambling, I sent out Shadow and told him to catch the man.

"Now, let us begin the-"

Shadow took him down. He took off his belt, while I dismantled his Snag Machine.

"Where did you get the machine?" I asked.

"Why would I tell-"

Shadow didn't even wait for my command. His eyes glowed blue, and the person's body went up with the same glow. After about a minute of yelling, the glow faded.

"Now do you want to tell us?" I asked.

"F-f-fine. Just, please don't make me go through that again…"

This is fairly dark, but Shadow is really good at torturing people. Like, extremely good.

"Now, who are you?" I asked.

"Koga."

"Where did you get the Snag Machine?"

"We invaded a Team Cipher HQ and took one. After taking it apart, we mass produced them."

"What about the Master Balls?"

"Those were from Silph Co."

"Where is Silph Co.?"

"Saffron City."

"Thank you for your time."

I bonked him in the head with a metal rod. He went down instantly.

"Red, why did you do that?" Leaf asked.

"Needed him unconscious. Now, if you'll excuse me…"

I went through his bag, looking for anything of use. There was one important thing in the bag. A radio, receiving transmissions from Team Rocket.

"Michael, when we get a break, can you see if there's a tracker in this? If not, we can use this to know what's going on."

"Sure."

I had Omni lift Blue, while I carried (drug) Koga to the city. We turned Koga into the police department, or as they like to call themselves, the sheriff.

It was getting late, and Blue was still unconscious, so we decided to sleep in Fuschia. While Leaf was preparing dinner, I approached Michael, who was currently taking apart the receiver.

"Hey Red. What's up?"

"Nothing much, I was just wondering something. How exactly does a Snag Machine work?"

"Well, there's a number of things. First, we have to go back to how a Pokéball works. It alters the Pokémon's DNA so it's bound to a specific ball. There is basically a code stored in the Pokémon's generics and the Pokéball. This makes is so that you can't return a pokémon to the wrong ball."

"Alright. I sorta follow you so far."

"This is where the key is. Let's say you throw a Pokéball at one of my Pokémon. Your ball will attempt to rewrite the code mine already put into it. Since these codes are heavily encrypted, it will fail."

"And what does the Snag Machine do?"

"The Snag Machine is basically the ultimate hacking device. I don't want to bore you with the details, but it uses something called quantum computing, which-"

"You literally said you don't want to bore me with the details."

"Oh, yea, right. Anyways, the Snag Machine changes the Pokéball's coding so it can catch a trainer's Pokémon."

"Alright. Is there any way to counter it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Would there be a way to render a Pokémon immune to a Snag Machine."

"I… don't know. I never really thought of it. Probably should have seen where this was coming to, but… maybe… alright, I got a couple ideas."

That is why Michael is on the team.

"Okay. I have an idea. I'll contact Bill and get to work," he said.

"Okay then… Oh, any news about the radio?"

"I can't see any trackers, but I was able to disable all signals but the radio waves. Basically, even if there is a tracker, it won't work."

"Nice."

"Do you want to hold on to it, or do you want me to?"

"I'll take it in case there's something else in it," I said.

"Alright."

I set off with the radio, heading back to where our sleeping bags were set up. Blue was playing an old game called "Pocket Animals Red." Apparently, it's about collecting fake creatures called "Animals" and using them to battle.

I settled down and slept. Tomorrow we set off for Saffron. Whoopee.


Red: Okay. A quick apology about this. Sorry if your offended by Donald Trump. I needed a redneck politician and I figured using him would be more funny than making up my own. Also Team Snagem. A bit more creative liberties there than in the rest of the story. Now, if you excuse me, I must play- err, write the next chapter.