Chapter 3

Ash's POV

I ran round the corner. They were coming.

The officers had come after me. They supported me and gave me a head start before they reported me missing. They then came after me.

Immediately after finding Brock dead I went to find my other Pokémon. The first one I found was Pigeot. He came with me as I hoped he would. I then went to find Primape. When I found him he was training to fight in another P1 tournament. I talked with his trainer and he decided to stay. I then went to pick up Squirtle. He came and joined me. He was shocked that more of my original party did not join. After looking for Butterfree for about a month I decided to let it go. I went to the orange islands to get Lapras. He too chose to stay with his family. I had decided that going to get Haunter was next on my list. When I had got to Saffron I managed to sneak into the gym. I found Sabrina and the Haunter talking about finding me. I revealed myself and Sabrina read my mind. After that she let me go and Haunter joined my team.

I now had ten Pokémon. I was an illegal fugitive; I had decided that carrying more than six Pokémon was allowed.

After leaving the gym I had been spotted by an officer. They reported me and I had been running from them for the past hour. I had defeated countless officers and that was good training. Riolu had refused to go into his pokéball. He was following me around making sure to sense anyone coming.

"Ash, there is someone ahead."

I nodded and was about to creep round the corner when I heard a fight start. I ran round to see the officer looked in combat with three very familiar faces. They had their Yamask and Woobat out fighting a Luxio and Growlithe.

They were losing badly. They were outmatched by the trained officer. I watched a bit longer and saw Woobat be knocked out. Jessie was about to send out another Pokémon, but I thought what the hell, training is training.

"Go Gible." I yelled while tossing a pokéball.

They all turned to me. "It's the twerp." Meowth shouted. Meowth was about to attack Gible when I shouted,

"Use dig on Growlithe." The trio looked shocked and the officer clenched her teeth in anger when she saw the attack clean take out her Pokémon. The Luxio was about to attack when Gible glowed white. He started to grow in size and when the light faded there was a Gabite standing there. The officer looked worried as Gabite shook off the bite. "Finish it with earthquake." The Luxio went down too and the officer backed up before running off.

"Why did you help us?" James asked.

"Why have you been following me?" I replied with.

They looked at each other wondering if they should tell me the real reason. "The boss has told us to come and find you."

I was surprised that Giovanni would take an interest in me. "Why?" I asked.

"You are a powerful trainer and you are on the run." Jessie explained, "The best recruit that team rocket could hope for." I was about to yell at them saying I would never join team rocket. When James cut in.

"You do not have to join just have a meeting with the boss."

I thought about this weighing up the Pros and cons. I then came to a decision. I had nothing to lose and I could always fight my way out of the base. I had my best Pokémon after all.

"Lead on then." I said.

It took about a day to go to the base. I was surprised to be back in Viridian. I went into the gym. We eventually got to a lift with a key card lock. James brought out the required key card. We stepped into a lift. When we got out there was a group of guards in front of a door. They stepped forward to remove our pokéballs. I shook my head. They persisted. I still shook my head. As they came closer Riolu growled. Just as I was about to order an attack a man appeared in the doorway. "Leave him be. He could take you all out and could probably beat me. There is no need to anger him or the particularly powerful Riolu."

He stepped forward and I recognised him as Giovanni. He turned to me, "Enter."

I walked into the room warily.

He sat down in a large leather chair and gestured for me to do the same. I hesitated and then sat down. "I guess that you want to know why I want to speak to you." I nodded confirmation. "We can help each other. You are a very powerful trainer. You could become even more so if you wanted. You are however a fugitive. We could help you with a purpose."

"Even so, why would I join you? Why not another team? They might offer me more."

"There are two reasons actually, the first one is that you are my son."

I almost fell off my chair in shock. "Alakazam show my son his memory."

Memory

Ash was a baby and was looking up at his mother and another man.

"Get away from me" yelled Delia.

"No" replied the man gleefully.

"Get away from my wife." Yelled a man from out of Ash's vision.

"Go ryperior" said the husband in a familiar voice. The man ran off. The husband came into view.

"Thank you George." Said Delia.

When I saw the face of my father I could not believe it. My father was Giovanni.

"How did it happen?" I asked.

Instead of answering my father answered with his own question. "Have you ever seen team rocket do anything that actually threatened the safety of the world. Team magma tried to create a massive eruption. Team aqua tried to flood the world. Team galactic tried to destroy the world to create a new one and team plazma tried to separate all people and Pokémon." I nodded, "Have team rocket ever tried anything on that scale." I thought long and hard. I could think of nothing, "Exactly all we try to do is gain power. What no one outside of team rocket knows is that our aim is to stop other teams. We gain power and steal Pokémon yes, but only so we can take down more teams." I slowly nodded. It made sense. It was completely radical but it made sense. "Your mother knew this as she helped found it with me." I was properly shocked. My mum helped found one of the most feared teams in the Pokémon world. "Now do you see why you should join up?"

I slowly nodded, "I will join." he nodded expecting it, I then added more, "On the conditions that I will be treated no different. If I am to gain any kind of power in the group I need to earn it. I will go to an academy as a grunt. You will give me a basic Pokémon. In my spare time I will train with my other Pokémon."

My father looked surprised. He then nodded, "That should be fine." I turned to leave.

Just as I was about to walk out of the door my father called after me, "Ash, thank you."

A/N this was a fun chapter to write. I was always a huge fan of the rocket trio and this puts a new spin on team rocket as a whole while talking the 'Ash's father issue' in one swoop.

As always thanks for reading.