I've made this a little bit of a longer chapter so that more can be covered/introduced. Think of it like one of the hour-long special episodes of Pokémon. Reviews are greatly appreciated as they give me your thoughts on the story and I really appreciate your feedback, I also mention some reviews at the end of a chapter and sometimes reveal information regarding the story.

Chapter 5

As the morning sun peaked through the curtains of Ash's room, Ash and Pikachu were fast asleep, snoring loudly. The Pokémon Centre was quiet this early in the morning, so quiet in fact that a door opening and closing could be heard a few seconds later. Just then there was a light knock on Ash's door before it opened and an arm emerged to flick the light switch.

"Good morning sleepy head" Dawn said to Ash in a soft tone as she crouched next to his bed and looked at him.

Slowly opening his eyes, Ash looked up at Dawn, "Ah, morning Dawn. What time is it?" Ash said slowly, still waking.

"7:30AM, which means it's time we got ready before we need to meet Cilan. I'm going for a shower and then get dressed, so I'll meet you in the reception area in about 20 minutes…" Dawn said as she exited the room, but popped her head around the door, "oh, better make that 30, my hair isn't going to sort itself you know." She said as she winked at Ash before leaving.

"Guess that's Piplup's cue to have Bubble Beam at the ready, huh?" Ash said to Pikachu as he stood up from the bed. "Well, better get ready ourselves, what do you think?" he turned to Pikachu, who gave him a nod in response before jumping on his trainer's shoulder. "We should grab some breakfast too, I'm starving!" he said as Pikachu's stomach started to growl too, making him scratch his head in embarrassment while smiling.

Having slept in his jeans and t-shirt, Ash was almost ready to leave, all he needed to do was put his hoodie and hightops on. Finishing up, Ash grabbed his backpack and exited the room with Pikachu following behind. As Ash made his way to the reception area to wait for Dawn, he saw Cilan sitting at a desk. Ash noticed Cilan wasn't wearing the same clothes as the day before, he was no longer dressed in a formal style, and instead wore a white hoodie with a green under shirt, dark blue jeans and black sneakers. He also had a black backpack with many pockets on the floor next to his seat.

"Hey Cilan, you're here early. Dawn's still getting ready so we'll be waiting for quite a while until we leave" he said jokingly, which made Cilan laugh slightly.

"That's fine with me Ash. I just wanted to say again how thankful I am that you are both allowing me to join you on your journey, it's a real honour." He told Ash.

"Please, there's really no need to thank us" Ash assured him, "When it comes to travelling, the more the merrier I always say! Besides, you're a cool and smart guy, so we'll have a great time travelling together!"

After sitting around talking for around 10 minutes, Dawn finally arrived in the reception area. Seeing her, both Ash and Cilan stood up to greet her.

"Hey guys, you ready to leave? I did some research last night and noticed that Nacrene City is the next place with a gym" she told the two as she stood looking at them, also noticing Cilan's new outfit, "Hey Cilan, nice outfit." Dawn said before she headed to the front door, causing Ash and Cilan to pick up their backpacks and catch up to her.

Leaving Striaton City and arriving on Route 3, Ash, Pikachu, Dawn and Cilan took a deep breath in, smelling the fresh air feeling a warm breeze blow across their faces. After walking in silence for a little over 20 minutes, Ash decided to start a conversation with Cilan in order to find out more about him.

"So Cilan, I hope you don't mind me asking this, but is Pansage your only Pokémon, or do you have others?" Ash asked Cilan as they walked down the path.

Cilan stopped walking to look at Ash and smiled a little before taking out a Poké Ball from his hoodie pocket, "Of course I do Ash, come on out, Snivy!" he said as he held the Poké Ball away from him, which opened and formed a flash of light, releasing a Snivy.

"Cool! You've got a Snivy too, Cilan!" Ash said in amazement.

"Yeah, but she wasn't originally mine. You see, I found Snivy outside the Striaton Gym one day. I tried to look for her trainer, but I soon learned that Snivy left her trainer. After she watched me battling as a gym leader, she eventually decided she wanted me to capture her." Cilan explained. "I never used her in battle

As the group continued their way through Route 3 to Nacrene City, Cilan continued to explain the situation regarding Snivy.

In an abandoned warehouse in Nacrene City, Jessie, James and Meowth stood communicating with Giovanni back at Team Rocket Head Quarters via computer screen.

"We've arrived at Nacrene City right on schedule, sir!" Jessie, James and Meowth said.

"Very good." Giovanni said. "We already have one of our agents working at the Dreamyard and is collecting energy as we speak. Your mission however is to retrieve the Meteonite from inside the Nacrene Museum and switch it out with the fake Meteonite we've supplied you with. It is important that you wait until night fall before attempting this mission. Once you have retrieved it and made the switch, get in contact and I'll explain the next stage. That is all." Giovanni added before the screen went black.

"He's right you know, too many eyes on us during the day would raise suspicion and make the mission harder to complete, not to mention increasing the chances of us making mistakes." James mentioned.

"True." Jessie said, "We'll also have an easier time going undetected with these new black uniforms. We'll blend right into the shadows."

The trio began unpacking their equipment and started working on their plan for the the break-in to the museum they would put into action later that evening.

Once Ash, Pikachu and Dawn had finished learning about Cilan's Snivy's past, they noticed that Nacrene City was close. Pikachu's ears soon pricked up at the sound of a scream that echoed, to which he pulled on Ash's ears so that it was brought to Ash's attention that he heard something.

"Hey, what's up Pikachu? My ears aren't for pulling…" Ash said in discomfort.

"Pika Pi, Pikachu!" Pikachu shouted as he jumped from Ash's shoulder and ran off in the direction of the sound he had heard.

"Come on guys, we should go too!" Ash told the two before rushing after Pikachu

"Right!" Dawn and Cilan shouted, following Ash.

Once they had reached an open area with a cave, they saw a young boy and girl and a dog Pokémon standing in front of them, growling and a group of people wearing grey armour who were moving closer and closer to the two, getting the Pokémon more angry and causing it to growl louder, showing off its sharp teeth and locking its eyes on the group. Dawn decided to use her Pokédex.

Herdier, the Loyal Dog Pokémon, and the evolved form of Lillipup. Herdier's hard black fur softens its opponent's attacks like armor.

"It looks like Herdier could use some help! Let's go, Pikachu!" Ash shouted as he charged over to help. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?! Leave them alone now!"

"Let's see how this Pokémon we stole from a weak trainer does." One of the men muttered as he turned to look at Ash, "We do not take too kindly to a kid telling us what to do. Not that we would listen anyway, SO STAY OUT OF THIS!" he shouted as he threw a Poké Ball, releasing a small brown Pokémon.

"No time to use the Pokédex…" Ash said, "Oshawott, I choose you!" he added as he threw Oshawott's Poké Ball, releasing the Sea Otter Pokémon.

"You dare stand in our way! We will not allow a child to interfere with our plans! Patrat, use Tackle now!"

"Oshawott, dodge it and then use Water Gun!" Ash commanded.

As the battle between Oshawott and Patrat went on, the man commanded Patrat to use Bide, but little did Ash know of the consequences of attacking a Pokémon using Bide. Ash ordered attack after attack onto Patrat and thought he was going to win, but Oshawott was then hit by the blinding and powerful Bide attack that had been storing up power from the multiple attacks it took, causing Oshawott to be sent flying into a nearby tree and making him cry out in pain.

"OSHAWOTT!" Ash shouted at the top of his voice as he witnessed Oshawott in pain.

Rushing over to retrieve his injured Pokémon, Ash saw that Oshawott was starting to glow a blue colour, which covered his entire body as he started to stand. Shouting his name which echoed through the Route, Oshawott started to grow taller, his arms got longer and once the bright blue light had faded, he now had two scalchops on his hips.

"Dew Dewott!"

"Oshwott…evolved? He evolved!" Ash said as he was excited by what had happened. Ash scanned Dewott with his Pokédex to find out more about his new Pokémon.

Dewott, the Discipline Pokémon, and the evolved form of Oshawott. Through rigid training, Dewott uses the double-scalchoptechnique to accomplish its fluid swordsmanship.

"Awesome! And he's learned a new move!" Ash said, "Dewott, use Fury Cutter!" he commanded the new move.

As Dewott removed the two scalchops from his hips, they started to glow green and Dewott charged towards Patrat and instantly disappeared, but reappeared right in front of Patrat before he performed the double attack, knocking Patrat out and forcing its trainer to recall it.

"Team, retreat! We have no need to remain here." He announced, but turned to Ash again, "You have not heard the last of us. This is just the beginning." He added before he and his team threw down smoke bombs and disappeared.

"Just who were those guys anyway?" Ash said as he turned to look to Cilan and Dawn, who shrugged their shoulders.

"Forget them, Ash" Dawn told him, "Besides, you helped rescue those two over there, and Oshawott evolved. I'd say that's more important than those bunch of weirdos."

As Ash agreed, he went to check on the two kids who had been threatened by the strange men. Relieved they were alright, Ash, Pikachu, Dawn and Cilan continued their way to Nacrene City.

"I'd say we should be in Nacrene City in a little under an hour. It'll be dark soon, so we should get a room at the Pokémon Centre." Cilan mentioned as Ash and Dawn agreed it was a good plan.

"Alright, we're almost ready. In just a few hours, that Meteonite will be ours for the taking." Jessie commented as she tightened her fist, looking over the plan the trio had made.

"Careful Jessie, let's not get ahead of ourselves just yet. We should plan right down to the final detail to ensure we don't encounter any unforeseen mistakes." James said. "Meowth, you will be in charge of accessing the glass case and retrieving the Meteonite. Jessie, your job is to secure the Meteonite. Myself, I will allow you both access to the Museum and also removing the security system that's protecting the case." James added as he dished out the roles for the mission.

"Roger that!" Meowth said. "The Meteonite will soon be ours."

Yeah, I wanted to write the focus on the Meteonite into the story. I thought it gave Team Rocket a lot of development in terms of their new skills and gave them another meaning for being in the anime other than just following Ash for Pikachu. I'm also liking the jump from Ash's journey to the missions of Team Rocket. I hope you're also enjoying the story so far.

Chapter 6 is coming soon, so stay tuned!

Werewingwolfxx – That was one of the hopes I had for the Unova saga, I hoped that Ash would bring his older Pokémon for the league, and was quite disappointed when he didn't. Although, I suppose Charizard made up for it, even though it wasn't at the league. I do plan to make his team consist of his older ones as well when it comes to the league.