A/N: Well, here's chapter two. Just so you all know, updates may be slow, due to my lack of internet at my new apartment. But hopefully I can go to my kinda-girlfriend's place frequently enough to update as much as possible, so there's that to look forward to.

One thing though; This will be an evolving fic! What that means is that Ash finally is going to go around and evolve ALL of his Pokemon! And yes, that also means Pikachu will eventually evolve. Deal with it.

Disclaimer: I want to own Pokemon Black and White. But I can't afford it. But the rights to Pokemon? Don't own those. I own copies of Red, Blue, Yellow, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, Emerald, Diamond, Pearl, Platinum, SoulSilver, and Colosseum, though.

Chapter Two: Enter James and Botch! ("It's Butch you idiot!)

Butch groaned as he looked at his traveling companion. Some might wonder as to why this might be; sure, while people DID tend to get his name wrong frequently, at least Cassidy had the decency to get his name right some of the time. Although he was quite sure she only got his name wrong to annoy him.

But no, this wasn't the case. No, he and Cassidy had been separated. The Boss had decided that he wanted to try putting somebody competent (Butch/Cassidy) with somebody…less so. Like Jessie and James.

He had been half hoping to be paired up with Jessie. At least they had been partners before, even if only for a short time. And she got his name right far more often than most people.

But it was not meant to be. Instead, he was currently stuck with James, much to his displeasure. Sure, Cassidy probably wasn't having a better time with Jessie; both of them were 'leader' material, and also rather hated each other.

To be honest, he didn't really hate James. He found him annoying, yes. But hate him? Butch didn't really think he hated anyone, honestly. Except for one of those brats.

Speaking of which, one said brat sighed as she walked out to greet them in front of the Cerulean Gym.

"What, no flashy entrances? No explosions, team mottos, nothing?" Misty asked.

"No, not this time. We've discovered that we can't really work together too well." Butch answered, gesturing to James and a feline Pokemon who had been paired up with them as well.

The fourth Cerulean Sister's eyes widened slightly. "They separated you two from Cassidy and Jessie?"

James nodded morosely. "Yep. Now it's me, Meowth, and Botch."

"IT'S BUTCH, YOU IDIOT!"

"Right right, whatever you say Butcher."

"Grrr…!"

Before Butch could do anymore, Misty had already thrown a red and white ball towards them.

"Okay, before my headache grows worse…Starmie! Use Hydro Pump to knock them flying!"

A purple star-shaped Pokemon appeared in a flash of white light. Aiming one of its many legs at the two hapless villains, a huge blast of water gushed out. The trio struggled briefly, before they felt their legs leave the ground.

"Dang it! James, why didn't you do anything?"

"This is hardly my fault, Biff. You could've just as easily done something."

"I was caught off guard! If Cassidy was here, she would've been able to stop that!"

"…Hey, you didn't say anything about me getting your name wrong."

"…WHAT? YOU MEAN YOU GET IT WRONG ON PURPOSE! WHY YOU-!"

Before Butch could finish what was sure to be the vulgar ending of his sentence, the three disappeared in a bright star with an accompanying 'DING!'. Misty groaned as she watched the odd trio vanish.

"Maybe you guys should get a job change…it would probably do you a lot of good."

Shaking her head, she recalled Starmie and went back inside the Gym. She had another battle to prepare for…

Elsewhere, Jessie and Cassidy, who had been arguing rather loudly, stiffened.

"Do you get the weird feeling that James and Butch got sent flying?" Cassidy asked, obviously unnerved.

Jessie nodded. "And Meowth, too. Come to think of it, do you hear a faint screaming?"

"Hey! Hurry it up, you two! We have a job to do!" Came the loud voice of their final teammate, Domino.

"Fine…" Both Team Rocket females muttered. If they had bothered to look up, they would've indeed seen their companions flying by.

"Hey! I see Jessie and Cassidy, Bob!"

"IT'S BUTCH YOU-Wait, Cassidy?"

"Meowth! I see them! Jessie!"

Unfortunately for the three of them, they could not control their flight patterns, and before long they were out of sight yet again.

Jessie and Cassidy both sneezed.

Ash smiled as he watched a familiar figure approach the docks. It was the day that he, Gary and May would set out for Orre. And their final member was approaching.

If you asked Gary, you would think that Ash had been told Christmas was coming early. Or that he had won the lottery. Or even that he had the chance to capture every legendary Pokemon that was currently known to man. The smile on his face was contagious. He must be really glad to see May again after all this time.

Gary knew better, though. Even if Ash wasn't consciously aware of it, it was rather obvious that he liked May more than as a friend. But Ash was rather dense in that area. Gary doubted that Ash would ever pick up on it or do anything about it.

'Oh well,' Gary thought as he watched Ash wave happily towards his soon-to-be-traveling-companion, 'He'll find out sooner or later. I just hope he doesn't screw anything up like he normally does…'

They quickly boarded the boat after some quick hellos, and after a short while, they were on their way.

May smiled slightly as she watched her Glaceon play with Pikachu; it was nice to see her Pokemon having fun again. Ever since her journey with Drew, she hadn't been quite the same. Well, emotionally and perhaps mentally, anyway; she was as beautiful as ever. She still had a hard time smiling, though. Her eyes strayed to Ash as he talked to Gary, obviously trying to pick up some information about Orre.

She knew she could trust Ash; even though her new inner voice was warning her that he would try to pull what Drew did, she banished the thought every time it came up. Ash was better than that. He hadn't tried anything at all when they traveled together in Hoenn, and he didn't seem too interested in the whole dating thing. He had so many things to do, after all, what with his Pokemon adventures and all. He probably wouldn't like to be tied down just yet, especially with his traveling.

Her thoughts were interrupted by said young man as he sat down next to her.

"Hey."

"Hi Ash," She replied, smiling slightly.

"We're going to be there soon. I guess there aren't too many wild Pokemon in Orre, so it'll be mostly battling Trainers and whatnot. And I guess the Contests here are fairly new, so you should have no problem wiping the floor with any competition." Ash said, smiling.

May felt butterflies in her stomach. Yes, Ash was nothing like Drew. Ash may not be full of compliments like Drew was, but he treated her like a human being, and wasn't afraid to argue with her if he thought she was wrong. Not to mention that he had saved her life several times, even putting his own at risk. Yes…she could trust him.

Screams assaulted everyone's ears. Gary, May and Ash all noticed that three bodies were quickly flying towards them, and dove out of the way just in time.

The dust settled. Everybody gathered around the pile that the formerly airborne bodies had formed. Three sets of eyes widened in recognition.

James, Butch and Meowth all groaned as they sat up, clutching their heads. Ash sighed, and squatted down next to them.

"Blasting off as usual, Team Rocket?"

Meowth groaned at the voice. "Shut your Meowth, twoip. We've had a rough day."

Butch glared at the trio, and James sighed.

"Get blasted off by one twerp, fall next to three of them. This is not our day…"

May raised an eyebrow.

"Which 'twerp' are you referring to? And what happened to your female counterparts?"

James and Butch glanced at each other, then sighed as they began to tell their story.

An hour later, Ash gave them a look of almost pity.

"So, your boss wasn't satisfied with your work, and decided to put you two and Meowth in a team, with Jessie, Cassidy and that one Team Rocket member that tried to capture Mewtwo and all of the clone Pokemon?"

"That's the gist of it. By the way, that tomboy twerp says hi." James said.

"Misty? You guys were blasted off by her?" Gary asked.

Three heads nodded. Ash sighed.

"Well, you three landed on a boat to Orre. I don't know what you guys plan to do, but please don't bring any trouble to this region. They already had it bad enough with Cipher and all."

The Team Rocket trio grimaced.

"We aren't stupid. If Cipher got taken down twice-and by a mere kid the second time!-what makes you think that the three of us are going to try anything? We aren't nearly as successful as they were. We wouldn't stand a chance." Butch said, his two companions nodding in agreement.

"So what are you going to do?" Gary asked.

"Well, I suppose I could go visit one of my summer homes…I'm sure I could stay there awhile."

Five sets of eyes trained themselves on James. He blinked. "What?"

Ash stared. "How many 'summer homes' do you have?"

James looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, we have several scattered around in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh. We have one in Orre, and we even are going to build one in Unova."

"Unova?" Gary asked.

"Yeah. You guys haven't heard of it?"

"Obviously not," Butch growled. "Why don't you use your vast amount of money to help Team Rocket? You would be so much more successful!"

James shook his head, and Ash flinched.

"If I did, I'd have to marry someone who I don't like…Jessebelle."

"Who's that?" May asked.

"His fiancée. She looks just like Jessie, although she's a lot worse than she is. Trust me, you never want to meet her." Ash said.

"You've met her?" Gary asked.

"Twice, actually. I feel sorry for James, to tell the truth. His parents are dead-set on him marrying her, and that's why he ran away and joined Team Rocket."

Butch blinked. "Wow, I never knew you had that kind of back-story, James."

James shrugged. "You never asked."

Just then, a voice was heard from overhead.

"We are now arriving at Gateon Port…Please make sure you have all of your luggage and Pokemon. Have a nice day!"

The group looked at each other.

"Where's yer place at, anyway?" Meowth asked.

James frowned. "I think it's in Phenac City, a beautiful oasis in the otherwise harsh desert climate."

"Phenac City, huh…that's where the first Gym is at." Gary said.

"In dat case, why don't we all travel together?" Meowth said. Seeing their suspicious looks, he quickly waved them down. "You guys are going dere anyway, right? It'll be safer if we go wit ya. For all o' us." He said.

"…He has a point. Besides, James should know the way around here, anyway. Better we go with him and make it there than get lost and die in the desert." Ash said. Gary looked surprised at his unexpected insight; when did Ash get this smart?

Everyone else had similar looks, but decided against commenting on it.

One of the crew members interrupted any further conversation when he ushered them off the ship.

"Wow. It's rather busy around here, isn't it?" Ash asked as they walked towards the Pokemon Center.

"Well it IS a port town, Ash. Of course it's gonna be busy." Gary responded, looking around the area.

"Ah, Gateon Port…it's been awhile. Not much has changed." James said wistfully.

"…Y'know James, one of these days yer gonna sit down an' tell us just how many places you've been." Meowth said.

"You don't think that we're going to get arrested, do you? I don't know if they've heard of Team Rocket here…" Butch said, obviously concerned.

"Well as long as you guys don't do anything stupid, you should be fine." Ash said as they walked into the Pokemon Center. However, he met resistance as he walked straight into something.

"Whoa!"

"Oof!"

Ash stumbled back, and a young girl fell flat on her rear from her impact with Ash.

"Ow! Jovi hurt herself." The young girl said. She looked up. "Sorry, Jovi wasn't looking where she was going."

"No, I should've been more aware of my surroundings. Sorry," Ash said.

"Oh! Jovi knows you! You were in the Sinnoh finals! Ash…Ketchup!" Jovi exclaimed.

Everyone face faulted.

"Now you know how I feel," Butch muttered.

"At least she got part of your name right." Gary said.

"Heh heh, she's so cute." May cooed.

"Huh? Did Jovi say something wrong?" The girl presumably called Jovi asked.

"It's Ketchum, not Ketchup." Ash said.

"Oh! Jovi is sorry!" Jovi said, obviously horrified at her mistake.

"It's not that big of a deal," Ash shrugged.

"Speak for yourself." Butch scowled.

"What do you mean, Biff?" James asked innocently.

"You're lucky there's a kid there." Butch snarled, glaring at his fellow Rocket member.

"Oh no! Jovi needs to get home, otherwise Mother and Big Brother will get angry with Jovi again! It was nice seeing you!" Jovi said, hurrying off.

As soon as she was out of sight, Butch launched himself at James. "THE NAME IS BUTCH YOU INCOMPETENT-!"

Ash, Gary, May, Pikachu and Meowth all sighed before pulling the two apart.

"C'mon guys, not here. You're gonna get us kicked out." Gary said, putting his fingers to the bridge of his nose.

"Is there a problem?" Came a voice. They all turned. A woman in a nurse outfit had approached them.

"Huh. I was expecting a Nurse Joy." Ash said.

The woman laughed. "Yeah, I get that a lot from tourists who have traveled here from the other regions. My name is Samantha. I'm Gateon Port's 'Nurse Joy'. Nice to meet you." She said, bowing her head slightly.

"I'm Ash."

"Gary."

"May."

"James."

"Butch."

"Pika!"

"Meowth!" Meowth quickly got down on all fours. He didn't want any weirdoes trying to experiment on him like they had before due to his unique ability to speak the human language and walk around on two legs.

"Well, you appear to be a bit of a motley crew. Do you need beds for the night?"

"Yes please. We also need a map of the region. James here has been here before, but it'd be nice to have something that is a bit more recent to rely on." Gary said.

"Sure thing. Just come here for a moment."

Gary went off with Samantha. Ash turned to May and engaged her in a conversation about Contests. Butch just stood there, arms folded.

James wandered around the small building, reminiscing. Until he repeated Ash's actions from earlier.

"Ah!"

"Hey!"

James hit the floor. The person he walked into turned around.

James quickly spoke. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention-"

"No, it's fine. It was an accident. You okay?" The stranger held out his hand, which James took gladly.

"Thanks." They both turned away before both freezing. Slowly, they turned around.

James' eyes widened, and the man's squinted eyes shot open in shock.

"You're-!"

A/N: Hmm. Wonder who the squinty-eyed man is? …Actually it should be obvious.

Until next time.

~The Doc

Next time: An old friend appears! Ash gets into his first Orre battle! Butch's name is continually gotten wrong! And who's this guy with the motorcycle?