"So anyway, if we go back into the forest to train for a bit," Ash was saying to his pokémon as they were gathered in the Pewter City pokémon center cafeteria once more, "we can have Butterfree master Sleep Powder and learn Psybeam. This will give us a chance against Brock."
Yes, let's let Butterfree fight the giant stone snake who's immune to electricity, Pikachu nodding enthusiastically.
Better you then me, Pidgeotto also agreed.
Okay Ash, Butterfree nodded. Let's go do it!
"Giving the troops a speech Aaron?" Misty asked, leaning on the side of the booth seat opposite Ash. She had large bags under her eyes and her hair was a frazzled mess.
"Sort of," Ash said with a small laugh, rubbing the back of his head. "So, uh….."
"Yes, I had a rough night, move over you overgrown bird," Misty gently pushed Pidgeotto over so she could sit down in the booth. "Dare I ask how you dealt with yesterday's excitement?"
"Well," Aaron began, still rubbing the back of his head with one hand, "I managed to distract those Rockets for a bit-"
Misty groaned and sunk her head into her arms on the table.
"Please, please, please, tell me you're joking," Misty groaned. "Tell me that you didn't catch the attention of Team Rocket again?"
Ash gave another small nervous laugh. He didn't want to lie.
"You did, didn't you," Misty somehow managed to slump into the table even further. "Why did I bother getting up? No, wait, how did you managed to survive this long? Do you even know what self-preservation means?"
"Yes," Ash replied, offended. His caretakers had done a very good job teaching him how to survive. He didn't know why Misty seemed so angry with him. After all he had just survived two encounters with dangerous enemies with all of his pokémon intact. He knew how to preserve himself just fine, thank you very much.
"Then why, why, why, do you never bother applying it?" Misty asked in a whine. "Kyogre save me from fools."
"Well, Miss Bossypants, for your information, I was just outside when Team Rocket attacked, and I thought that the gym leader could use some help," Ash shot back. "And I only attacked when they got his onix caught in some glue."
"Did they get a good look at you?"
"Uh, I guess?" Ash shrugged. "They said they recognized me from the reports about the forest?"
"No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, nooooooo," Misty groaned, rocking her head sideways on the table while clutching at it.
"Is that a bad thing?" Ash asked. "Are they going to-"
To become a new set of hunters? Ash felt suddenly sick at the thought.
"Try and kill you?" Misty finished, picking her head off the table and looking at him. "If you run across them again, they will. But they're not going to go looking for you unless you have something they want. So if you would just not keep doing stupid things-"
Fat chance of that lady, Pikachu interjected. I've been trying to get him to quit that for weeks now.
"- and keep your head down you should be fine," Misty finished, reaching over to gently pet Pikachu's head. "Aww, are you defending your trainer? Do you not like it when people call him stupid?"
Well, that would be hypocritical of me now, wouldn't it, Pikachu said, leaning into her touch.
Ash sighed. He got no respect.
Sometime later Brock wandered into the pokémon center, just as Ash was finishing his breakfast.
"Hi Brock," Ash said, swallowing the last bite of his meal.
"Hello Aaron," Brock replied. "And- Misty? What are you doing here?"
"Getting caught up in multiple Team Rocket operations from the looks of it," Misty said, digging into her own breakfast.
"So, you're the gym trainer from Cerulean then," Brock said. "Small world, huh. Hear from any of the other gym brats lately?"
"I talked with Aya and Janine a few months back," Misty answered. "Janine's getting ready to take over the gym after Koga gets bumped into whatever new Elite structure we're going to have after the Kanto-Johto union. Aya's getting ready to support her. Other than that, I haven't talked to anyone recently."
"Hopefully she'll do better at running her gym than I ever did," Brock replied.
"Wait-"
"You two know each other?" Ash interrupted.
"Yeah, we're both gym brats," Brock said. At Aaron's uncomprehending expression, Brock continued, "We were both basically raised in our city's gyms, by members of the gym. We all hung out whenever there was a big gym function that our parents went to."
"More importantly, what was that you said earlier," Misty said. "It sounded like you were quitting the gym."
"I am," Brock said. "Effective later today."
"Brock-"Misty began, tone sympathetic, but Brock cut her off.
"I'm free, finally," Brock continued. "Turns out that bastard Flint was in the city. He had been for a while as it turns out. But you know, he didn't bother taking care of his children, or his gym, because I was willing to do all the work."
"That's…. Why didn't he approach you?" Misty hesitantly asked.
"He was 'ashamed'," Brock snorted in reply. "Which he should be. He wasn't there while Suzie and Tilly were crying at mom's funeral. He wasn't there when Salvadore started having trouble at school. He wasn't there when everyone- everyone else was missing mom and we- they just wanted him with them." Brock's fists were clenched tight. "But no, I was the only one there."
Misty didn't have anything to say to that.
"Errr….." Ash had the feeling that he was somewhere he wasn't supposed to be.
Are humans always this dramatic? Pidgeotto asked.
I don't know, Pikachu replied with a shrug. I mostly hung around televisions, not actual people.
"Sorry about that Aaron," Brock said, turning to Ash. "Just some personal drama. As I mentioned yesterday, I've been meaning to talk to you."
"Why?" Ash asked. Brock coughed once and then stood up straighter.
"Due to your actions against Team Rocket in the area known as the Viridian Forest, I have decided that you have demonstrated the skill and courage necessary for the Boulder Badge," Brock said, reaching out to hand Ash a small, steel gray hexagon, the Boulder Badge.
Yes! Pikachu pumped his forepaw in the air. We got the badge without having to fight that onix!
All that worrying was for nothing, Pidgeotto sighed.
Ahh…. I wanted to try Ash's strategy, Butterfree whined.
"Really!" Ash grinned, holding the badge cupped in his hands. His first badge! "This is awesome! But, uh, shouldn't you-"
"Test you?" Brock finished for him, relaxing his stance. "Aaron, I saw some of your battle yesterday with Team Rocket. You're definitely qualified for your first badge. Oh, and do you want your advancement as a direct deposit, check, or in cash?"
"Cash," Ash answered. He didn't have a bank account and didn't quite understand how checks worked. He'd have to keep track of cash, but he had learned how to ration all sorts of resources from his caretakes.
"I'll come back after lunch to give you the advancement," Brock said. "Congratulations."
"Thank you!" Ash replied happily.
"Congrats," Misty added.
"Bet you thought I couldn't do it!" Ash accused, holding the badge up proudly.
"Actually, it was her report that convinced me that you had earned the badge in the first place," Brock told him.
"So there!" Misty shot back, sticking out her tongue at Aaron.
Brock rolled his eyes as the two younger trainers began to bicker.
It was after lunch when Brock stopped by the pokémon center with the advancement.
"Where's Aaron," he asked of Misty, who was reading a sports magazine in the lobby.
"He just left; he got a video call from Professor Oak" Misty answered. "I don't know how long he's going to be."
"He knows Oak?"
"Evidently he got Pikachu from the professor," Misty explained. "And Oak likes to keep in touch with the trainers he gave starters to."
"Huh," Brock said, sitting down in the chair across from her.
"What are you going to do now that you've quit the gym?" Misty asked.
"Things I couldn't do before," Brock answered, leaning back in his chair. "Travel, study to become a pokémon breeder, and woo beautiful women."
"Heh," Misty snorted. "Good luck on that last one, because if I remember, you have no game. I mean, Falkner is better at wooing women than you and he's not even into girls!"
"I'm not even going to dignify that with a response," Brock huffed, crossing his arms. "Moving on, what are your plans?"
"I'm going to continue to travel and train," Misty replied with a shrug. "I just don't have a specific destination in mind yet." She paused for a moment, leaned forward, and then continued in a quieter voice. "Though, between you and me, I might travel with Aaron for a bit. Just in case Team Rocket decides that they want revenge."
"It would be out of character for them, but not by much," Brock said. "Hmm….."
"What?"
"I don't have a set destination either," Brock answered, shifting in his seat. "I wonder if he'd mind if I tagged along for a little while. Just to make sure that Team Rocket doesn't decide that now's the time to start indulging in personal reprisals."
"I don't see why he'd object," Misty shrugged. "Other than because he's very, very stupid. Oh, and he has no survival instincts. And he seems to find the most dangerous thing to do in a situation whenever he can…"
Brock raised an eyebrow at the comment as Misty began to mutter angrily, but didn't say anything. He simply picked out a magazine of his own and started reading.
They sat in silence for several more minutes before Aaron came back out.
"Oh, Brock you're here," Aaron said. The boy looked grumpy. "Good, this can be done. Professor Oak wants to ask you and Misty about something stupid."
Brock and Misty glanced at each other and shrugged. They followed Aaron back into the video call room and to the booth where the call with Oak was happening.
"Ah, Brock, Misty!" Oak smiled and waved at the two of them through the video screen. "So nice to see you two again."
"Hello Professor," Brock replied.
"Hi," Misty responded.
"Anyway, Aaron here has just been filling me in on recent news," Professor Oak continued. "It's troubling to hear about Team Rocket's recent uptick in activity."
"That's one word for it," Brock said. "I had a few others at the time."
"Painful is what I was thinking," Misty said, looking down at her side. Her wounds had mostly healed, but there were still a couple of bandages left.
"Yes, I read the reports," Oak gave a wry smile. "I can't imagine your sisters were too happy about your experience Misty."
Misty grimaced but didn't say anything.
"I wouldn't worry too much about their reaction young lady," Oak continued. "Undoubtedly they feel worse than you do about the whole incident."
"Really," Misty said in a skeptical tone, raising an eyebrow.
"I know what it's like to feel impotent, to feel like an utter failure," Oak said, frowning. "If you feel like you've let your sisters down, then I can guarantee you that your sisters feel like they've failed you."
"Sure," Misty said, crossing her arms and looking away.
"Anyway, this bring me to the reason I wanted to talk to you two," Oak continued.
"Look, you two don't need to do anything-"Aaron began, but Oak cut him off.
"Brock, can you confirm that you're quitting the gym?" Oak asked the former gym leader.
"Yes," Brock nodded. "Flint's back. He can resume his old position."
"And am I correct in guessing that you're planning on traveling?"
"Yes."
"Do you have a destination in mind?"
"No," Brock replied. "What's this about?"
"In a moment. Misty," the professor's face on the video screen turned to the water-type specialist. "From what I've heard you're also travelling. Am I once again correct in guessing that you don't have a set destination?"
"Yeah, I'm just going around, looking for new pokémon and working on training," Misty answered.
"Good. In that case I would like to ask you two-"
"Professor, you don't need to bother them-"Aaron interrupted, but Oak kept on speaking.
"-to accompany Aaron on his journey," the pokémon professor continued. "I'm worried that Team Rocket might try and target him-"
"Look, you guys really don't have to do anything," Aaron spoke up, blushing furiously. "I don't need, uh, babysitters."
"- and I would rather avoid another tragedy in Pallet Town," Oak finished, face serious. "Aaron, I know that this journey is usually the first taste of independence for young trainers, and you probably don't want to give that up, but with what you've already gone through I believe some protection is required."
"Another tragedy- Oh, the you're talking about the Ketchum murders," Brock said. At his words Aaron's face went blank.
"Yes," Professor Samuel Oak sighed. "I don't know if it's common knowledge, but the Ketchums were my friends. I'm the closest thing Pallet Town has to a gym, so it's my job to keep the town and its' people safe. But, on that night, I failed. I'd rather not fail again."
"I was actually thinking of accompanying Aaron, for a short distance at least," Brock said, looking at the boy in question. Aaron had taken a seat in a waiting chair by the wall. His face was still blank and it didn't look like he was following the conversation anymore. "Just to make sure Team Rocket didn't try anything."
"He doesn't seem to have any sense of self-preservation," Misty added, shooting a pointed glance at the boy. "Letting him go off on his own wouldn't be very responsible of us."
"Well, whatever your reasons, if you could accompany him for even a short amount of time-"
"I'll do it Professor," Brock stated. "Don't worry."
"I'll be there too," Misty added. "He'll be safe with us."
Just great, Ash complained to his pokémon as he packed up his things. Now we've got babysitters to deal with.
Huh? Butterfree asked.
Misty and that gym leader, Brock, are going to be following me, Ash clarified, waving his arms in exasperation. To make sure that I don't get into any more trouble. It's just, urgh!
What's so bad about this? Pidgeotto asked. You get to spend time with some humans as well as us. That seems like a pretty good deal to me.
But I'm going to have to pretend to be normal around them, Ash complained. I won't be able to talk to you guys as much. Or to talk to wild pokémon. It's going to be so annoying!
Maybe, Pikachu spoke up. But the extra security will be worth it.
I know- wait, you're taking their side! Ash spun around and pointed at Pikachu. You traitor!
You're an idiot, Pikachu said plainly. And in the few weeks that I've been with you, you've gotten into two life or death situations. Since, despite your idiocy, I like traveling with you, I'm invested in making sure I can do that for as long as possible. And as we've seen, I'm not quite yet awesome enough to keep you alive on my lonesome.
Oh, come on, it's not like I'll keep stumbling into danger, Ash complained. It's just some bad luck that I stumbled into the danger in the Viridian Forest- or actually it was Butterfree's story about the missing caterpies that led us into that mess.
Wait, we never found out what was taking the caterpies! Butterfree exclaimed, fluttering upward.
Uh, I'm pretty sure it was Team Rocket, Ash replied. Misty said that they were poachers. We can make sure if you'd like.
No, that sounds right, Butterfree replied settling down.
Anyway, the point is the babysitters are unnecessary! Ash continued.
If you're right, they can quit later, after everyone's seen that you won't be stumbling into more trouble, Pikachu pointed out.
You- Urgh- Okay, fine, Ash conceded. We'll put up with them for now.
"I almost thought you were going to try and slip out the back," Brock commented as Aaron met them by the pokémon center's front entrance, Pikachu on his shoulder.
"No," Ash replied sullenly. "I'm stuck with you two until you realize that nothing's going to happen and you get bored."
"Let's hope you're right," Misty commented. "Where to?"
"This way," Ash said, stepping out of the pokémon center and onto the road. He began to walk a route that would lead him out of the city, Pikachu perched on his shoulder. Brock and Misty followed him on either side.
And with that, they were off.
Sometime later, Giovanni sat in the same conference room where he had announced Operation: Stolen Fire. Sitting around the table were some of the faces from that meeting, but there were new faces mixed in as well. Amongst those new faces were Hanna, Cassidy, and a green haired man, Butch.
"Our recent operations have been a mixed bag of success and failure," Giovanni said, looking at a sheaf of papers in front of him. "Starting with mass pokémon collection in the Viridian Forest. Miss Sunflower, if you will."
The woman named Hanna, who had fought Ash in the Viridian Forest, stood up and addressed the group. "We collected approximately ninety-five percent of our quota of caterpies from the Viridian Forest. However, the executive in charge of the operation, Jio, died in the line of duty, as did six other members. I am also going to recommend disciplinary action against one Liam Radfar, for the incident covered in the report."
"To briefly summarize what happened," Hanna continued turning to face Giovanni, "Radfar blundered into an engagement with a gym trainer, who in turn ambushed his group. Jio decided, that for the sake of operational security, we needed to find and eliminate the gym trainer and any possible accomplices."
"Not the call I would have made," Ariana said, fingers steepled together, "but one I can understand."
"We encountered one possible accomplice, an unidentified trainer travelling through the forest," Hanna continued. "We attempted to subdue him, but the gym trainer from earlier interfered. We were able to track down both individuals later and engage them in battle. The un-identified trainer defeated my pokémon and I was forced to withdraw. When Jio didn't check in at camp that morning, I decided to withdraw with what remained of our forces. Later reports from Pewter City would confirm Jio's demise."
"Thank you, Miss Sunflower," Giovanni said. "Our other mass pokémon collection operations have been either only marginally successful, or have not yet started. Despite the setbacks you've encountered, your efforts have helped to further the goals of Team Rocket."
"Thank you, Mister Giovanni," Hanna said, saluting the man.
"You should take some time off before your next assignment," Giovanni continued. "Speak to me after the meeting. Next up, Butch and Cassidy have their report to give."
"Thank you, Mister Giovanni," Cassidy said, standing up while Hanna sat down.
"Thanks, Boss," Butch added, joining his teammate. "We also had a partial success. We were able to retrieve the documents from the Silph Co. branch offices in Pewter City, but were unable to complete our other objective."
"Our agent assigned to infiltrate the pokémon center in Pewter City has disappeared," Cassidy took over. "Though, our sources inside the police force have reported that a large amount of blood was found in the center's server room. We can assume that our agent is dead. Our servers never received the ping from their servers that was to signal that the hack was complete, so it looks like he was either interrupted or never had a chance to begin subverting the servers."
"Do the police have any leads that our sources have been able to ferret out?" Giovanni asked, frowning. "Has anyone claimed credit?"
"None thus far," Cassidy answered. "The gym trainer from the forest discovered the blood actually, so we thought that she might have killed him, but there weren't any signs of a battle either."
"We'll come back to this point later," Archer said. "Do you have anything else to report?"
"Jessie's team was able to successfully engage the gym leader in combat for over ten minutes," Cassidy added. "The immobilization foam explosive delivery systems-"
"The glue grenades," Butch interjected.
"Were able to temporarily restrain the gym leader's onix," Cassidy finished, rolling her eyes at her partner's comment. "Jessie's team also reports that they had an opportunity where they might have been able to defeat the gym leader, but the unidentified trainer from the Viridian Forest intervened."
"It looks like R&D's managed to justify their budget with that invention alone," Giovanni commented.
"If I may ask sir, why has R&D only focused on- support devices, I guess- recently?" Cassidy asked. "It seems like these inventions would have been useful back in the Unification Alliance days."
"During the Unification War and the time period that followed, our organization was too focused on achieving direct military might through technology," Giovanni explained. "Part of that was ideological, in that we were grasping for the status quo that predated the Great War, and part of it was an over-reaction to the then recent days of the warlords who were the precursors to the modern-day Leagues."
"I will give the various League some credit," Archer piped up. "You would almost never be able to guess that the gym leaders are the heirs to the legacy of those warlords."
"But enough history for now," Giovanni said, waving his hand. "What concerns me is the identity of whomever interfered with our operation. How did they know what we were doing? Is there a leak? Have we been infiltrated?"
"And did they do anything while they were in the server room," Ariana added. "Our plan to hack the Pokémon Storage System was meant to support Operation Mind-Leech and Operation Totality, but there are plenty of groups out there who could use it for more."
"I wonder…" Giovanni's gazed into empty space, mind miles away. Ariana and Archer shared a glance. They remembered his earlier speculation about the source of the intelligence, about the shadowy manipulator.
"We're going to need to devote resources to hunting down the leak and to try and monitor any foreign movements into Kanto and Johto," Giovanni said. "We'll need to assign squads to each port, airport, mountain pass, and get some surveillance on every smuggler's road that we know of. Ariana, I know you've got your plate full, but I need you to get the ball rolling on this. Once you've got it started, you can delegate the responsibilities."
"Yes sir," Ariana replied. "I should be able to delegate this to Operations. Katie should be able to oversee it once it's up and running."
"Good," Giovanni nodded and turned towards Archer, "Archer, I want you to put together a task force to track down the leak. People you can trust and have a psychic check them over to see if they've been compromised."
"Can do boss," Archer replied.
"We're also going to need to step up our timetable," Giovanni stated. "The League already knows that we're moving so we can disregard stealth for some of our planned operations." He turned to face one of the people from the previous meeting. "Tracking, have you located the persons of interest?"
"We've got some very solid leads," the head of Tracking reported. "We were going to wait for verification before making our move though, try to narrow down which of the individuals we're looking at are the ones we want."
"We don't have time for that anymore," Giovanni told the man. "I need you to eliminate them all soon, before they have a chance to talk. I want this done ASAP."
"Yes, sir," the head of Tracking replied. "Anything else?"
"Nothing at the moment," Giovanni answered. "Does anyone else have anything they would like to bring up?"
"Nothing major," Cassidy spoke up. "Jessie wants to try to recruit the trainer from Pewter City and the Viridian Forest. Should I stop her or let her go ahead if she runs into the kid again?"
"I leave that choice up to you," Giovanni replied. "If Operation: Stolen Fire succeeds, then it won't matter either way. Every trainer will join us or be destroyed."
AN: I'd like to thank BlackCatSpecialist92G10 for beta reading
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