Traveler

by The Straight Elf

Ash Ketchum has been determined to become the best since he was a toddler. He has his eyes set on a charmander, but a twist of fate led him to the humble Nidoran. Note: Mix between anime and the games.

9. Chapter 9: The Sevii Islands

A/N: Executive Pierce is in this chapter. I'm sure I don't really have to explain this to any of you, but it's going to be dark. Nothing too bad, but it's noticeably darker from the rest of the story aside from the other chapters featuring Pierce.

Anyways, enjoy the chapter!

Ash froze and stared at the Champion with an awed expression on his face, finally realizing why he had thought he recognized the man. He'd watched every single one of the Champion's rare battles against unlucky challengers for the past two years, awed at the sheer power his pokemon displayed and imagining himself battling the legendary trainer.

For that was what Lance was to the majority of Kanto. As the Champion he was their greatest protector, the leader against terrorists and crime syndicates like Team Rocket and their ilk. He was the greatest trainer of both Kanto and Johto, the best of the best. Lance was a heroic figure, rarely appearing on camera when not battling or when giving a report on the most recent cell of Team Rocket that had been destroyed or arrested.

He had never actually thought he would meet the Dragon Master, not anywhere outside of Indigo Plateau. Ash tried to say something to the idol of almost every trainer in the Indigo League, but the words caught in his throat and died.

Lance didn't seem to have that problem. He gave Ash a grin and held his hand out. Ash shakily shook it, doing his best to keep from looking stunned.

Ash noticed that Lance's large hand was covered with thick, calloused skin. It looked like the Champion trained himself along with his monstrously powerful pokemon.

"How's it going?" Lance asked amicably, not appearing to be the powerful force he truly was. "Sorry about messing with you yesterday, but I try not to broadcast my real identity when I'm incognito."

"Of course." Ash stammered with wild eyes, still barely believing that he was talking to Lance. Steven was a former Champion, yes, but Ash hadn't been bombarded with tales of Steven's heroism for the last seven years. Lance was much closer to home.

Lance nodded and turned to Steven, still grinning. "When are we leaving? We need to get to the Sevii Islands as soon as possible."

Steven looked thoughtful for a moment. "I say we leave the hotel as soon as possible. The boat is already waiting, so we'll be able to leave quickly. I've already showed the authorities here my authorization, so everything will be cleared out."

"Good." Lance said, nodding in satisfaction. "Those Rockets need to be stopped as soon as possible." His voice suddenly shifted into a joking manner. "You know, Steven, we could get there in just under an hour if we flew on my dragonite."

The Hoenn Champion frowned and went pale. Ash thought he almost looked queasy. "No thank you. I'd prefer for my feet to stay firmly on the ground, or at least on something solid. I remember that last time – I was sick for hours."

Lance laughed loudly and turned his attention to Ash. His face lost the wide grin and became much more serious. "How good are you at battling, Ash? Steven's told me that you'll be able to hold your own, but I'm still not comfortable bringing an eleven year old on this mission."

Ash snapped out of his daze. "I've fought Rockets before. I cleared out all of the grunts in that base in Celadon."

The Champion raised an eyebrow. "That was you? Good work."

"I already told you that. Ash was on the St. Anne as well. He'll be fine." Steven said as he leaned back in his chair. Ash noticed that Blaine was watching the interactions with keen eyes, observing every little movement and noise. "Rockets are hardly a challenge. I expect that Ash will be able to hold his own perfectly fine. He won't be a burden."

Ash felt a surge of thanks towards Steven for backing him up. He could understand why Lance would be nervous about bringing him along, but Ash knew that he would be able to keep up. He had to. Pierce needed to be served justice and Ash wanted to be one of the people that brought it to him.

Lance seemed a little more assured and slightly more confident, but still looked troubled. "I guess I can't say no. Just stay safe, Ash. Team Rocket isn't very powerful without terror on their side, but they are dangerous. I'm sure you know that better than anyone."

The trainer nodded with a frown on his face, recounting his run-ins with Team Rocket. Lance didn't need to tell him that.

Steven looked at Ash. "You should probably start packing. We'll leave the moment you're done."

Ash nodded and rushed off. He was far too anxious to get to the Islands and find Pierce to waste any time. Besides, he didn't want to hold the Champions up.

He noticed that Dazed was staring at him when he ran in. Ash smiled and nodded at her before he quickly gathered anything that he had left out. Most of it was fairly minor, consisting of things such as his extra pair of clothes that he had washed. They were dry, so he went ahead and stuffed them in the bag.

That was about it, really. Blaine had provided him with everything else he would need, so Ash never had to pull it out of his bag. Just to be sure, though, he searched the room one last time.

Dazed was looking at him oddly, so he hurriedly explained himself as he slung his pack around his shoulders and tidied up a bit.

"We're heading off to the Sevii Islands." He said as he passed her by. Her eyes widened. Apparently she recognized the name. "There are some Rockets there that we're helping to take care of."

His friend's eyes flickered a bright blue when he mentioned the Rockets, but she seemed more curious than anything else. Ash glanced over at her as he gently called out Nidorino's name. The exhausted poison-type was still asleep and didn't seem to want to get up.

He sighed and lightly poked his friend. Nidorino instantly leapt up. His horn was leaking a bead of poison and his barbs stood up on end. Nidorino's sensitive ears were standing at attention and he growled before looking at Ash.

"We're leaving, buddy. Do you mind going into the pokeball?"

Nidorino grunted and shook his head. He only paused to lightly butt his head against Ash's stomach before the trainer recalled him. A moment later Dazed disappeared in a flash of scarlet light as well.

Now that he had everything he needed Ash left the room. The three League officials were muttering and whispering to each other when Ash walked in but quieted down soon after.

"You're already done?" Steven asked in a surprised tone. "I thought you would be gone for quite a while."

Lance grinned and got out of his chair. "Not everyone is like Wallace, Steven. Most people don't have to bring four outfits and makeup everywhere they go."

Steven sighed and shook his head, although Ash could see a smile tugging at his lips. Ash thought that the Hoenn Champion seemed much more relaxed than any other time he had seen him. The Champion was always polite and pleasant, but there was always a tenseness and wariness about him that had lightened somewhat in the presence of the Indigo Champion.

"Well, let's get going." Steven said. He looked over at Blaine. "Thanks for helping us out. I'm sorry if we were a burden."

Blaine smirked. "It was no problem. It's not often that I get such prestigious guests." He swiveled and focused his eyes on Lance. "But if a certain someone wants to repay me with more than the bare minimum of funding, that would be great."

"See about actually telling trainers where your gym is and we'll talk." Lance replied easily, not batting an eyelash at Blaine's sarcasm. "Ash here is probably the only trainer that will be showing up at the Conference with the Volcano Badge."

The gym leader rolled his eyes. "I'm not about to be swarmed by a bunch of weaklings that aren't worth my time. I didn't become a Master just to crush newbie trainers that think they're half-decent."

Lance smiled. "Glad to see you haven't changed any, Blaine. Good luck with the gym."

Blaine shrugged his farewell off and left the building, leaving the two Champions and lone trainer alone. Steven looked slightly confused at Blaine's abrupt departure, but Lance seemed used to it.

"Don't worry." Lance said in an attempt to explain things to Steven. "That's downright friendly for him. If he didn't like us he'd give us a riddle."

Steven still seemed unsure, but figured it didn't matter. "Let's get going. It won't take too long to get to the town, but we need to be getting to Knot Island before sunset."

With that they left. Ash didn't feel too uncomfortable with the Champions, although he didn't think that he would be joining in their small talk anytime soon.

XX

An hour later Ash found himself on a small, fast boat in the middle of the ocean. The Champions had managed to bypass all of the customs and regulations for exiting ships with a flash of their identification, so they'd left Cinnabar barely thirty-five minutes after leaving the hotel.

An old, quiet sailor was in charge of getting them to the Sevii Islands. He wore a League uniform and refused to talk to Ash when the trainer had walked into the cabin. Ash wandered around the small ship for a while before returning to the deck. They had wonderful weather and he was determined to enjoy it.

The Champions had retreated to somewhere within the ship, so Ash was left alone. He didn't mind that much. There wasn't much he could contribute to whatever they were discussing and they would tell him later anyways.

Despite his excitement at being allowed to travel and fight with the Champions, Ash couldn't help feel a bit nervous. Aside from the obvious problem of Pierce – Ash realized that he didn't know anything about the Executive's actual abilities aside from the fact he was more than willing to kill his opponents – Ash didn't know what he would be doing.

It was clear that the Champions would be performing the riskiest operations. Ash wasn't sure if he was ready for the consequences of that anyway. He knew that, although the Champions would do their best to avert it, there was a high possibility that some of the grunts would be injured or even killed when dealing with Champion-level pokemon.

But he could help. He could at the very least make sure no one tried to attack the Champions from behind or do the things that the Champions didn't have time for. His pokemon were strong enough to do that.

He suddenly turned around. Ash could hear Lance and Steven's voices coming up behind him, although they weren't loud.

"We need to debrief you." Steven said suddenly, coming and sitting in one of the chairs that surrounded a small, shaded table. Lance took the last. "You don't need anyone to tell you that fighting Team Rocket is not a game. You've had more experience fighting them than most trainers."

Ash nodded.

"So I'll hurry on to the important things." Steven stated. "There are a few rules for you to follow. One: avoid direct danger whenever you can. I want you supporting and preventing Rockets from flanking us. The main action is too dangerous when dealing with our pokemon. Two: follow any command we give you, no matter how odd it may seem. Three: be careful."

He nodded again. All seemed like common sense. Steven continued.

"We are coming here to purge all Rocket activity in the Sevii Islands. There are a few League teams in the area already, but Pierce is considered dangerous enough and important enough to call us in. It doesn't hurt that all of us have a few bones to pick with him." Steven said with a dangerous smile. It was out of place on the normally calm man's face. "There is another member of the Indigo Elite Four taking care of the situation on Floe Island, but she's gathered some information on the Rockets."

If the Elite Four member was a she, Ash assumed that it was Lorelei. He didn't think that Agatha would be much for battling in the field anymore, although he knew that she was still a monster when it came to battling.

Lance began speaking now, his tone far more serious than it had been at the hotel. "There have been reports of four major operations. The first is on Knot Island, where a group of grunts have taken control of the town. The second is on Floe Island, where they've been interfering in the Icefall Cave and capturing Lapras. The third is on Knot Island as well, where they've been snooping around Mount Ember."

"Where's the last one?" Ash questioned after Lance didn't speak for several moments. The Champion had a frown on his face and looked troubled.

"We don't know what it is, really." He admitted, clenching his fists. "Their main base is known to be somewhere on Chronos Island, but we haven't had luck in finding it. The Rockets are just too strong there for the League forces to fight through. Even Lorelei can't battle her way through. That's what we're for."

Ash nodded, a little surprised. The Elite Four were by far the most powerful trainers in both Kanto and Johto. Even the winners of the Conference each year were oftentimes unable to defeat one of their members, although they tended to be around the same skill level. Each member of the Elite Four was practically a small army.

Lance grimaced. "Most of our forces are away from those islands as well, mopping up the Rockets that they have defeated. Not many of them can be spared for the liberation of the other islands, so, aside from a few scouts, we won't have much support. The one's that will be helping us won't be much for battling either."

He stayed quiet, letting the Champion speak. Ash had gotten over a bit of his awe at being around Lance, but he couldn't bring himself to interrupt the man.

"We're shutting down and investigating a few of their operations the day we arrive." Lance continued, slipping back into his official tone. "Knot Island will be where we land, so I'll be heading to Mount Ember to defeat the Rockets there. Steven is a bit more conspicuous than I am, so he will be heading to Chronos Island after we exit the ship."

"What am I going to be doing?" Ash asked, getting a little excited over the coming experiences. They would be dangerous, but he just wanted to fight Team Rocket.

"You'll be taking back the town on Knot Island." Lance replied. He looked pleased with Ash's objective. "It's a small town, but important. There are only a dozen Rockets holding the town, so it shouldn't be too difficult to do. When you beat them, I'm sure the townspeople will be glad to detain them. I'll be sending any League trainers I find to the town as well, so feel free to explore the island once you're done."

Ash's interest peaked at that. He knew that the Sevii Islands contained many pokemon that were found only in Johto, although the tropical climate also allowed pokemon rare in Kanto such as tangela to be somewhat common in the islands. It would be nice to see if he could add an uncommon pokemon to his team.

"How much longer until we get there?" Ash asked. He knew that the Sevii Islands weren't too far from Cinnabar, and they had left quite early. Still, he would like to know just how long he would have to complete his task.

Steven glanced at his watch. "I'd say another hour and a half. We're making good time."

Ash nodded and sank back into his chair. The Champions continued to make small talk for a while before falling silent themselves, each of the trainers thinking about the coming conflict, thinking of what they would do and how they would react to threats.

They sat in silence for a long time, but eventually Lance stood up. He shrugged his muscular shoulders and stretched.

"We should all start getting ready." He said. "Ash, get moving. You don't want to be tight in the middle of a battle. Not around Rockets, anyways. They'll be aiming for you."

Ash nodded and stood up, although he felt a little self-conscious as he began to walk around, stretching his arms and legs and loosening up. When he noticed that the Champions were doing their own exercises, he lost the slight feeling of awkwardness.

He tired of the exercises quickly and was glad when he felt the blood flowing through his body again. Lance told him to keep on walking around the ship. They were able to see the faintest outline of Knot Island and its massive, dormant volcano that rivaled Cinnabar's in size.

Ash made sure to keep on moving and took the time to let Nidorino out of his pokeball. His friend eyed the calm, glittering ocean with distrusting eyes – a sentiment that Ash could understand perfectly, even if he had gotten over some of his trepidation regarding the sea – but followed Ash around and practiced a few of his attacks.

Just as the island grew near enough to where they could make out finer details, Lance came over. "Your Nidorino looks strong for the amount of time you've been training. What other pokemon do you have?"

"A pidgeot, seadra, hypno, magmar and golduck." Ash recited, naming his friends in the order he got them in. He frowned at the mention of Golduck. He had meant to trade the water-type out for Bruiser before he left Cinnabar, but had gotten caught up in the excitement. Hopefully Bruiser would understand, although he hoped that he could find somewhere to trade his friends out in the islands.

Lance's approving nod grabbed his attention though. "A decent team, especially when you gain more experience. I'll go ahead and tell you that Kingdra are particularly impressive, although I might be just a bit biased." He laughed. "Still, that should be more than sufficient for beating the grunts."

Ash grinned in return before he realized he had a question. "How am I supposed to reach you two when I'm done? Do I just wait around for you to come back?"

"Steven will take care of that." Lance assured them. He turned his head to the island, which was getting steadily closer. Ash estimated that they had about ten minutes before landing. "He has all the communication system ready, you just need to join it." The Champion looked over at the island again with a frown. "Sorry, Ash, but I've got to go. I can't leave the ship when it lands. I'll attract too much attention with my friend."

He nodded. "Alright. Good luck."

"You too." Lance replied with a grin. He reached to one of the pokeballs on his waist and released the pokemon within. Ash's eyes widened when it took the massive, hulking form of Lance's famed dragonite.

Dragonite was a monster even for its powerful species. It stood at nearly eight feet tall, dwarfing even the Champion's large build. The dragon was covered in a thick armor of light orange scales, each about the size of Ash's hand. Its scales became lighter and more like bands on its chest and underbelly. Large, thin antennae sprouted from its large head, just a few inches above its large eyes. A small, barely noticeable horn jutted out from the top of its skull, centered between the antennae.

He noticed that, while it had become bipedal and gained limbs after its evolution from a dragonair, Dragonite still retained the basic serpentine shape. Its body was much thicker and basically formed of nothing but hard scales and powerful muscle, but the limbs seemed almost an afterthought.

Its wings were small and stream-lined, clearly meant for fast flying. They weren't as small as some illustrations made them out to be, however. The wings were just large enough to support the dragon's massive bulk and were still completely massive.

All in all, the pokemon looked incredibly powerful and nigh indestructible.

Ash realized that, considering this Dragonite was Lance's primary pokemon and the only one ever seen by the public eye, it was quite possibly the most powerful pokemon in all of Kanto and Johto. It could defeat his entire team without blinking even if they fought it all at once.

He had to admit that he was in awe of the incredibly powerful pokemon. It commanded respect and possessed an air of power and authority without doing anything at all. Ash could see why it was seen as an almost legendary pokemon. While it wasn't a force of nature like Articuno had been, it possessed an air of regal might that conveyed age, wisdom, and above all power.

Then it yawned widely, exposing large, sharp fangs, and lightly clapped Lance on the shoulder in a gesture of friendship. Lance grinned and patted his friend's hard, scaly hide before looking over at Ash.

"Ash, this is Dragonite. Dragonite, this is Ash. He's going to be helping us with Team Rocket."

Dragonite's eyes seemed to smile at him and it gave Ash a cheerful wave, unintentionally showing off its huge claws. Ash hesitantly waved back, giving Dragonite a small smile as he did so. Dragonite gave a wave to Nidorino as well, who replied with a friendly grunt.

Lance tapped it on the shoulder after they had introduced themselves and Dragonite lowered its back. The Champion easily leapt on, situating himself into a comfortable, safe area. As Dragonite tensed and prepared to fly off, Lance looked down at Ash.

"Good luck, Ash, and stay safe!" He called out an instant before Dragonite blasted off the boat at an incredible speed, its powerful legs propelling it high into the air before a few flaps of its wings, which seemed to have grown a bit while flying, took it even further. Just a few seconds later the duo was gone.

Ash groaned and pulled himself up. The powerful wind that resulted from Dragonite's wings had knocked him down. Nidorino had a similar experience. He grunted as the poison-type stood back up, clearly a bit annoyed at the experience.

"I suppose Lance has left, then?" Steven asked from behind Ash, coming up from the inner area of the ship. "He always was a show-off."

He couldn't help but grin at that. "Won't the Rockets notice a dragonite?"

Steven smiled, a bit more cheerful than usual. "They won't have time to do anything even if they do. Dragonite might look bulky, but he's quite fast. He can sense them and paralyze them with a thunder wave before they can do anything." He stated, waving Ash's concerns away. "Anyways, we're about to land, so I need to get your PokeNav number."

Ash quickly gave it to him. He had memorized the device's identification number the day he got it. It wasn't as though he had much else to do while laying in the hospital. This was the first time he had had cause to use it, though, so he had to think for a few moments.

The former Champion quickly put the number into his own PokeNav. "Good. I'll call you soon so you can put my number in. Call me if you need anything or when you're done. I don't know if Lance has told you yet, but a few Rangers and League scouts will come to assist you whenever he finds them."

"Thanks." Ash replied. "What do I do with the Rockets after I'm done with them? Lance said the islanders would probably help and that the League trainers would detain them, but I'm not sure if I want to just leave them."

"They'll be fine. You have a hypno, right?" Steven asked. When Ash nodded the Champion continued. "Just have it put them into a deep sleep. That way they'll be unconscious for a few hours and will be too weak to try to escape for the rest of the day."

Ash nodded his understanding. He'd planned to do that anyways, but it was nice knowing that it was supported by Steven. Dazed had much more powerful psychic abilities since evolving, so it wouldn't be too much of a drain on her to put a couple of humans to sleep.

Steven looked over at the island with narrowed eyes. The beach that they were landing at was less than a minute away.

"The town is easy to find. It's about five minutes if you follow the beach to the west." Steven informed him. "Try to keep a low profile and keep an eye out for any grunts. From what we've seen, they're in plain uniform."

"Why?" Ash asked, puzzled at the odd choice. It would just make it easier for someone such as himself to differentiate them from the islanders.

Steven frowned, the slightest flash of annoyance dashing through his eyes. "The Sevii Islands aren't officially a part of the Indigo League, so the Rockets are free to operate in the open. The people here are too independent and isolated to mount an effective resistance, and the Rockets have cut off most of the communication. The Rockets have nothing to fear from them and don't expect us to enter Knot Island yet."

He nodded, understanding it well enough. Ash didn't have much of a head for political stuff, so he was glad that Steven had left any of that out. But he understood tactics quite well. Steven's explanation made sense.

The boat suddenly slowed before coming to a stop. Steven glanced down at Ash. "We can't land on the beach." The former Champion explained. "The boat has to get out of here quickly. Good luck."

"Thanks." Ash nodded. A narrow plank fell from the side of the ship, sending up a spray of salt water when it landed. He carefully walked down the plank and onto the damp sand of the rough beach. His shoes got a little wet, but he didn't care that much. He would need new ones soon anyways.

Nidorino grunted and walked up beside him. Ash knelt down and patted his friend on the head before looking back at the ship. The plank had already been raised and the ship was already leaving. Steven gave him a nod before the ship began to speed up, quickly taking it far away from his eyes.

He turned and looked out at the beach. It was a long stretch, probably half a mile long. The sand was rough and gritty. Some of it was black, giving the crushed stone a much darker appearance. All in all it was about what he'd been expecting. No one had ever claimed the Sevii Islands were resorts.

Ash quickly released Dazed, Plume and Torrent. He needed Dazed to be ready at any moment, so he didn't want to waste any time keeping her in her pokeball. Plume could hopefully give him an exact number on the grunts and where they were located, although she would be good for protecting him from any sneaky Rockets as well. Torrent would be useful to keep any Rockets from trying to escape on a boat and would probably be able to take down any Rockets and their pokemon positioned around the shoreline.

While Infernus was more than powerful to effortlessly defeat the grunts, Ash didn't want to use him for this battle. Nidorino could do the same job just as well as Infernus, particularly when he was supported by the rest of his friends. Besides, Nidorino was much more discreet. Infernus tended to be quite loud and obvious.

Golduck had performed decently in the gym battle, but Ash didn't trust him enough to use him in something like this. He was too brash and arrogant to use stealth, so he would probably just attack anyone he saw.

Plume tried to call out her standard greeting, but Ash placed a finger to his lips.

"I'm glad to see you to." He said, assuring her that he wasn't being rude. "But we're going to fight some Rockets. I need all of you to be as quiet as you can. I want to surprise them."

His friend's eyes flashed with rage as he spoke of the hated organization, but she understood. Ash smiled at her and gave her instructions.

"I need to know how many there are. They're all in their uniforms, so they should be easy to spot. Just come back when you've found as many as you can." He told his friend. Plume cooed softly before blasting off into the air with a single beat of her powerful wings.

Ash watched her go for a moment before turning back to the rest of his team. "Torrent, could you go hang around the harbor? I don't want any of them escaping on boats. Just use twister or make a whirlpool on any boats they use. Just head to your right for a few minutes and you'll find your way there."

Torrent snorted loudly in confirmation and flailed wildly. He had appeared in shallow water, so he had to flop around a bit before he got into water deep enough to swim in. A few seconds later he was off, sinking deep into the gently rolling waves.

"Dazed, you're going to be hypnotizing the Rockets and protecting Nidorino." Ash stated. His friend nodded, just the barest hint of excitement hiding behind her glazed eyes. "Nidorino, you're going to take down any pokemon that get too close. Plume and Dazed will help you out."

Nidorino grunted and butted his head against Ash's leg. Ash smiled and knelt, although he made sure to keep everything but his shoes off the sand. He didn't want to get sand in his clothes when he was about to fight Rockets. Any distractions might be dangerous.

He calmly waited for Plume to return, giving his remaining friends random comments. Ash wasn't really focused on the present, however. Most of his thoughts were based on strategies he could use against the Rockets. They wouldn't be very powerful, but he needed to avoid fighting them in groups. At the very least he would need to pick a few off before he did anything.

About ten minutes after she flew off, Plume returned. She gracefully landed a few feet in front of Ash before puffing her chest out. Ash smiled and nodded at her before becoming serious again.

"Steven said there were about twelve grunts. Is that right?"

Plume nodded.

"Are they all in the open?" He asked. While he was sure there would probably be one or two relaxing around in one of the few buildings in the small town, most would probably be keeping tabs on the villagers.

His friend nodded again.

"Did you see any sentries away from the rest?"

Plume chirped and nodded. "Good job, Plume! Can you show me where they are? I want to thin them out before we attack."

The great bird took off again, flying in lazy circles over their heads as Ash stood up. When he was ready to move she slowly headed in a direction. Since the forest next to the beach wasn't very dense he knew he would be able to easily keep track of her.

So he set off, Nidorino and Dazed by his side. He clenched his fists as he thought of the coming battle. Team Rocket was about to pay.

XX

A few minutes later they found the first Rocket sentry. It had taken longer than expected since Plume accidently flew ahead a few times, but all in all it was a smooth journey. Ash peered out from behind a few bushes and took a good look at the grunt.

He was leaning against a short, albeit thick, tree. An ekans was coiled up next to his foot and looked to be asleep. The grunt looked to be dozing as well. Apparently he wasn't expecting any threats.

Ash grinned. That worked out well for him. He looked over at Dazed, who quickly used her hypnosis attack. The pink swirls of energy quickly landed on both the trainer and pokemon, knocking them out for several hours.

"Good job." He said to his friend as he warily walked over. Plume hadn't shrieked or attacked, so he assumed that he was mostly alone. Nidorino was warily guarding him as he knelt next to the collapsed grunt and removed the two pokeballs from the grunt's belt. Ash returned ekans and dropped both of the pokeballs into his pack. The League could have them later.

He caught sight of Plume circling above them when he looked up and followed her. There were at least two more grunts serving as sentries, so he had some work to do.

When the grunt was taken care of, Ash set off. Nidorino and Dazed plodded behind him, Nidorino warily glancing around and twitching his ears and Dazed focusing on Ash.

XX

They repeated the process two more times. Ash's pack was almost full with the pokeballs now, so he'd put them into a storage compartment. That would make it harder for the Rockets to find them later if he got captured as well, so that was a nice perk.

The Rockets that he'd knocked out were both similar to the first in their level of vigilance. One had almost woken up from their nap, but a quick hypnosis from Dazed had kept him unconscious. They wouldn't be bothering anyone for a long time.

Now they were at the town. Ash was glancing on it from a cluster of trees that were overgrown with bushes. Nobody would find him unless they were looking in earnest.

Ash wasn't sure if this even constituted a town. While it was the only settlement on Knot Island that he knew of, it only looked to house about fifty to sixty people. He had heard that the Sevii Islands had a low population, but this was pushing it. Still, it only made sense. There was no way that the Rockets could have gotten away with taking over the town with only twelve grunts otherwise.

He could see four walking around, laughing and without a care in the world. About a dozen villagers were walking around in the area he could as well, although they gave passing grunts hateful looks and a wide berth. A few of the younger ones looked as though they wanted to attack the foreigners.

Unfortunately for the villagers, the two ekans, koffing and single arbok that menacingly hovered and sat around the Rockets. kept them from trying anything. Rocket pokemon had no inhibitions regarding the attack of human and would at the very least do serious harm to anyone that attempted to attack their handlers.

Ash was glad that Team Rocket had kept with their normal pokemon. Dazed would tear them apart. Even the arbok would be unable to challenge her new power.

He waited until the long, dirty street was almost clear of the villagers before giving his friends an order. "Nidorino, hit those Rockets with ice beam. Follow it up with a thunderbolt on the pokemon. Dazed, just use hypnosis on them. Use psybeam on any that resist."

Nidorino tensed up and opened his mouth. Cold radiated from it before he launched the three blue energy beams. Some of the pokemon detected the attack, but they had no time to do anything before the icy beams of energy slammed into three of the Rockets.

The last leapt in surprise and frantically looked around, but another weak cold energy beam slammed into him as well, the weakened version of the attack sending him to the ground in an unconscious state. All of the pokemon, unsure of what to do without their handlers' commands, looked around in confusion.

Dazed quickly released her hypnosis attack though, her evolved form's strength allowing her to put all of them into a deep sleep. Only the arbok remained awake, and the hypnosis had left it tired and confused. It reared up and hissed, but a psybeam from Dazed quickly put it down.

Ash stepped forward. Plume didn't call out at him, so he assumed the area was clear. He had told her to warn him if more Rockets approached.

All of the villagers that had been wandering around the street when he began him attack ran towards him with gleeful eyes, although a growl from Nidorino and the glowing eyes of Dazed kept them back.

"Who are you?" The first, a tall teenage girl, demanded. She didn't seem angry, just confused. "Where did you come from."

Ash didn't really feel like answering her questions. There were Rockets around and he didn't want to be ambushed.

"I'm here to fight the Rockets." He said shortly. The boys standing beside her had wide grins on her faces. "So please get out of my way. I have things to do."

She frowned and didn't let him pass, even when Nidorino menacingly stepped forward. "No way. You're way too young to battle them. They've got some pretty strong pokemon. My dad's all got beat easily."

"Mine are stronger." Ash said. He might have sounded arrogant, but he didn't care. All he wanted was for her to get out of the way so that he could do the job the Champions gave them.

"Let him through, sis." The boy on her left said. He was a few years older than Ash and was extremely tan. "If he's here to help then he's got to be strong enough. Let's just get those Rockets' pokeballs and hide them."

The teenager looked at Ash disapprovingly before letting him pass. He had an annoyed look on his face as he looked around for more Rockets. They had to be showing up soon. Ash barely paid any attention to the villagers that were running around.

Then Nidorino grunted and used thunderbolt. Once the bright flash of light was gone, Ash saw a long golbat fall from the sky. It landed with a heavy thump and was clearly unconscious, but otherwise it seemed to be okay.

"Thanks." He told Nidorino before glancing around. They'd taken down half of the confirmed Rockets and those villagers hadn't been very quiet. Ash wanted to be ready.

Nidorino grunted at him before returning to his wary state. His barbs were bristling and leaking their potent venom, clearly ready to attack anything that drew near.

Suddenly a group of three Rockets turned around a corner and saw him. They shouted in surprise and released all of their pokemon. Ash counted four ekans, two zubat, and two koffing. The one that appeared to be their leader released an arbok and a weezing. He assumed that he was the leader of these grunts.

"Return your pokemon and hand them over or we'll attack!" The leader shouted, clearly thinking that their numbers would be an advantage. He didn't seem unconfident in the least. "You can't win this."

Ash smiled and glanced over at Dazed. "Psychic."

Dazed's eyes shined luminously before a huge wave of telekinetic force erupted from her body. Ash saw her stone pendulum glow a bright blue as well and swing forward in the air as she used her power.

The uncontrolled blast roared through the air, carrying dust and loose objects on the road in its wake before slamming into the group of Rockets. His enemies were sent flying backwards before they landed heavily on the ground about ten feet behind them. None of them got up.

He turned around and nodded to his friends. That was nine of them. Only three Rockets were left to find, although he would have to look around and ask the villagers if there were any more just to be sure.

This was even easier than he'd expected it to be. He'd hardly expected a challenge since most Rocket grunts were barely trained and expendable, their real power lying in numbers and simple fear. They were obviously unaware of how to battle. If they were they wouldn't have clumped themselves together like that.

Maybe there would be trouble if there was an Executive directing the operation since they were highly trained and had a strong, varied team of pokemon, but apparently Knot Island wasn't important enough.

Suddenly he heard a loud, piercing cry from Plume and looked upward. His eyes widened and he jumped back as a feral looking zubat swooped down onto his former position with bared fangs, its rage too powerful for the minor burns the sun was giving it to dissuade it.

Another followed it, this one's fangs clamping down just a few inches in front of Ash as he jumped away again. They both fluttered up into the air on their purple, membranous wings and looked as though they were about to attack him again.

He kept his eyes on the twin zubat as he began to order Nidorino to use a thunderbolt. But Plume suddenly dived down from her lofty position, flapping her wings once to cause a huge, powerful gale of wind. Both zubat were dragged down to the ground and slammed into the earth by the attack, easily knocked out despite their aggressiveness.

"Thanks!" He called out to Plume as she swept past his head and began the climb back into the sky. She gave him a loud cry of acknowledgement as she sped upwards before disappearing into the light blue air.

Ash looked around and saw that a few villagers were coming out of their homes and small buildings and looking at him curiously. They didn't seem sure of what to make of him as many looked pleased with the piles of unconscious Rockets but looked at him oddly.

Nidorino suddenly perked up. His large ears twitched suddenly and he snorted at Ash. The trainer ignored the villagers' curious stares and glanced down at his friend.

"What do you hear?" He asked quietly, not wanting any of the villagers to overhear him. Ash didn't exactly like their stares. It put him on edge.

His friend just nodded towards the water and slowly trotted towards it. Ash jogged behind him, followed by Dazed's surprisingly quick shuffle. She stopped for a moment as they passed the Rockets they had just defeated and used hypnosis on the bunch before following Ash again.

They reached the small harbor in no time. It consisted of a single large boathouse with a company's emblem prominently placed upon it, a small beach, and four vessels bobbing outside the boathouse on the slow waves. A large building that looked modern and quite out of place in the small town stood proudly on a small, sloping hill.

Ash only had eyes for the small, fast-looking boat with the Rocket symbol starting up and racing away. It only had a single occupant, but Ash was unwilling to let the grunt escape.

"Thunderbolt!" He ordered, hoping that Nidorino had trained enough to be accurate at this kind of range. Nidorino confidently stepped forward and began charging the thunderbolt up, but his services were suddenly no longer required.

The boat was suddenly blasted upward by a cyclone of water erupting beneath it. It carried the boat high up before the swirling water lost its power and collapsed into the ocean, carrying the rapidly spinning boat with it. Ash could see the grunt's confused expression before the boat landed, causing a huge amount of water to spray into the air.

Ash blinked at the sudden display. He certainly hadn't been expecting that.

A small, spiky blue head made him realize just who had helped him out. His friend bobbed up and down in the waves before diving beneath. The grunt suddenly flew out of the waves gently lapping the beach, carried by a fierce blast of water.

The grunt was completely drenched and sputtered as he looked around with wild eyes. Ash nodded to Dazed. She promptly hypnotized him, causing the confused grunt to collapse onto the sand.

"Thanks, Dazed." He said to his friend. While Dazed blinked her response, Ash shouted out to the ocean. "Good job, Torrent!"

Torrent leapt into the air once before disappearing into the ocean again. Ash was happy to let his friend enjoy the time in the sea. He'd played his role and wouldn't get a chance to be in the ocean for a long time when they returned to Kanto.

Ash watched the ocean for a few more moments before heading back to the town. There were two more grunts to find before he could relax. All Ash could be thankful for was that they weren't able to escape. Plume would easily take them down if that happened.

When he walked back onto the central road, he noticed that everyone had vanished. Ash looked down at his companions as a flash of nervousness went through him. "Get ready."

Nothing happened for nearly a minute. Ash constantly glanced around the deserted street, wondering just what had convinced the villagers to retreat. He suddenly saw a small flash of blue light before he was frozen and held up in the air.

Ash's eyes widened and he tried to escape the trap he was in. He hovered nearly five feet into the air and a light film of blue energy covered his vision. Ash couldn't even move a muscle. He was completely trapped.

Nidorino roared in fury when he realized what was happening and quickly fired a thunderbolt underneath Ash. Ash didn't hear anything yelp or scream at the attack so he assumed that it missed. Actually, he couldn't hear anything very well. Everything seemed muted.

Suddenly he was blasted through the air, the telekinesis speeding the throw greatly. Ash couldn't help but shout in surprise as he rapidly approached a very hard, very solid stone wall, but he felt a powerful yank in his navel and his organs lurch as he suddenly came to a complete stop.

Ash's eyes watered in pain as everything in his body attempted to keep moving forward, but he just breathed as deeply as he could and blinked a few times until the pain was mostly gone. He suspected that he would have a few bruises tomorrow.

He noticed that he was mere inches away from the rough stone. Ash felt a burst of adrenaline infuse him as he realized that something had psychically attacked him and thanked Dazed for somehow stopping it as he was gently lowered to the ground.

When he was able to he scrambled up and looked towards the battle, ignoring the lingering pangs that shot throughout his entire body. He saw that a lone Rocket grunt was yelling at a large arbok and average looking drowzee as they battled Nidorino and Dazed.

Nidorino was protecting Dazed from the arbok, jabbing its hard scales with his sharp horn and dodging its own lightning quick strikes. Ash noticed that his friend was dominating the snake, jabbing at sensitive spots that would weaken it in the long term and easily knocking the serpent away when its powerful jaws snapped too close.

Dazed was turned towards him, trusting Nidorino to protect her. A small, glowing barrier protect her from the drowzee that was intently staring at his friend with glowing eyes. She blinked at him when he stood up and stumbled closer. When he was fine, albeit rattled and slightly out of it, she turned towards the drowzee with furious eyes.

Ash blinked away some more of the pain and watched the battle, ignoring the Rocket as he gave his pokemon commands. His friends were far too powerful for the Rocket to overcome. Arbok was almost defeated and Dazed was about to enter the fray as well.

Dazed stared at the drowzee and waved her hand as a small, focused aura of psychic energy covered her. Drowzee was quickly enveloped in the same sort of aura and froze, completely unable to move thanks to the great power of Dazed's disable.

The psychic-type suddenly exchanged the blue aura for a light grey one as she prepared a shadow ball. Ash watched in surprise as it grew larger and larger until it seemed that Dazed could put no more power into it. Her shadow ball appeared large enough to knock out several psychic-types at once.

Just as the drowzee escaped from the disable it was struck by the ruthlessly powerful shadow ball. It squealed in surprise as it was blasted backwards by the immense blast of energy, unconscious before it hit the ground.

Dazed silently stared at Nidorino for a moment. Ash narrowed his eyes at her with confusion before he noticed Nidorino suddenly freeze. Arbok managed to strike him once, but his tough, leathery hide kept the needle-sharp fangs from penetrating and the venom was a mere annoyance.

Nidorino moved. He roared and charged the surprised arbok, jabbing his horn brutally into its stomach before tossing it to the side. The arbok squirmed and struggled for a few moments before Dazed sent a thin, weak psybeam into its side.

Ash didn't say anything, although he looked at the fallen arbok with concern. It wasn't too bad of an injury for such a fierce battle, but it wouldn't be able to battle for a week. When he looked over at his friends, however, he had to intervene.

"Nidorino, stop!" He shouted desperately, surprised and slightly fearful at his friend. Nidorino was menacingly advancing on the grunt, horn lowered and a thick bead of poison balling at the tip. His intentions were clear.

Nidorino growled at Ash and continued to advance, the aggression and rage that fuelled him in battle as a Nidorino keeping him from heeding the trainer's command. Ash scowled as Nidorino took a light jab at the grunt who just barely scrambled away from the enraged pokemon.

"Stop!" He shouted, finally reaching his angry friend. "Nidorino, back off!"

His friend suddenly stopped, allowing the grunt to escape to the wall and cower. Dazed glared at the grunt and disabled him, preventing him from doing anything else. Ash frowned at Nidorino.

"I know you want to hurt him." Ash said slowly, letting Nidorino calm down a bit more. "I hate them too. But you can't kill him! I don't want you to be a killer, even if you are protecting me."

Nidorino grunted and looked away. Ash recognized it as Nidorino being slightly ashamed, although he suspected that it was more due to the fact that he had ignored Ash's commands rather than trying to attack the grunt.

"Please." Ash continued. "Don't try to kill him. Just let Dazed knock him out."

His friend grunted softly and sat down next to Ash, his face lowered. Ash sighed and gently patted his friend on the head, forgiving him. He couldn't fault Nidorino for trying to do it, not after everything Team Rocket had done.

"Dazed, hypnosis." He said, realizing the grunt was starting to move. Dazed quickly complied and sent the grunt into a deep sleep. She continued to look around the area, although her weak physical senses limited her somewhat. Aside from her hearing and smell she didn't have much to go on. Still, Ash trusted her to protect them.

"Look, buddy, no more attempted murder, alright?" Ash asked with a small smile, trying to make the situation sound less serious. Nidorino glanced away from him but nodded. He figured that he could accept that. "Anyways, there's one more Rocket to find. Be on the lookout."

With that they set off, the issue mostly behind them. As they walked down the street, Ash realized he hadn't thanked Dazed yet.

"Thanks for saving me." He told his friend as they walked down the empty street. Dazed nodded sharply, her eyes smiling a bit. Ash made small talk for a bit longer before he noticed that Nidorino was tensing up and his ears were twitching. "Do you know where the last Rocket is –"

Ash spun around with a panicked expression when he heard some sort of battle cry coming up from behind him. He flinched and raised his arms to protect himself when he realized that the last Rocket grunt had somehow snuck up behind them. The grunt was just a few feet away and was wielding some sort of small metal club.

It was also headed directly towards Ash's head. He tried to lean backward, but the man was too close and the blow was going to land. Ash thought for sure everything was going to go black, and when he just stayed like he was he opened his eyes. The trainer never even realized that he'd closed them to begin with.

The Rocket was frozen, shut down by ethereal, raging blue energy. Ash released a shuddering breath that he'd held and stepped back, his entire body shaking as he realized how close to death he'd come.

Dazed looked furious. Her normally inscrutable expression was alit with what Ash could easily recognize as pure, unadulterated rage. The stone pendulum was vibrating and shaking from invisible surges of energy tearing through the air and Dazed's eyes were bursting with energy.

Nidorino was worse. His fangs were bared and the barbs on his back stood straight up, secreting more poison than they ever had before. He lowered his horn but seemed to think better of it. Instead he roared furiously and glowed with incredible power before sending a monstrously powerful surge of electricity into the grunt.

Ash could just watch dumbly as the grunt tried to spasm and twist and turn as the thunderbolt coursed through his body. Unfortunately for the grunt the disable still worked, trapping him in the psychic stasis. Nidorino roared again and prepared to leap at the man, but Dazed made her move first.

Her pendulum swung upwards, forcing a small rush of wind to follow it as a side effect. Dazed's blazing eyes shined even brighter for a brief moment before a surge of psychic power blasted from her body, carrying the grunt with it and slamming him into the side of a house several dozen feet away.

Although the disable had dissipated in the force of the psychic attack, the grunt was too injured and stunned to try to run. He did manage to shakily pull himself up, however. At that, Nidorino roared and charged, but even as the grunt looked in fear at the raging poison-type, a huge gale of wind slammed him into the hard stone again as a terrifying shriek sounded through the air.

As Plume dived down towards the beaten grunt with her sharp beak and razor talons, Nidorino charged with murder on his mind and Dazed slowly shuffled towards the hated Rocket, Ash snapped out of it. He shakily called out to his friends once, but the adrenaline pumping through their system and the blood pounding in their ears prevented them from hearing him.

He called out again in a slightly firmer tone. When they continued to race towards the Rocket, he found the fire that every good trainer had.

"Enough!" He shouted, not letting any of the shakiness and nervous energy that ran through his body pervade his tone. His friends slowed but did not yet stop. "All of you, STOP!"

They ground to a halt. Nidorino stopped charging just a foot away from the man, his horn lowered and the aggression and desire to destroy that was normally held back by Ash's friend fully released. Plume screeched at the Rocket as she swerved away just an instant before she would have raked his torso with her huge talons and blasted back into the sky. Dazed simply stopped and turned to Ash, her eyes still glowing but with rationality returned.

Nidorino growled at the man before turning away, lowering his head as he looked at Ash. Ash had no idea where Plume was, but imagined that she had a similar reaction. Dazed simply used hypnosis on the murderous Rocket before slowly shuffling over to Ash's side.

"Please, just calm down." Ash said tiredly. Nidorino grunted in apology and sat down in front of him, keeping his head lowered and his eyes away from Ash's. Dazed stared at him with an inscrutable expression, but Ash thought he saw a little guilt in her eyes.

"No more of that." He said, almost pleading with them. "Let's just get the villagers and throw the Rockets somewhere safe. I want to go relax somewhere around the island."

His friends nodded and still looked a little ashamed. Again, Ash thought that it was for disobeying orders, not for almost killing a man.

It didn't bother him that much, though. He'd managed to stop them and hopefully they wouldn't try anything like it again, even if he was attacked. His friends needed to get in control of their emotions, no matter how protective they were of him.

Ash sighed and walked off, his friends flanking him. He set off to find the villagers. They would be able to watch the Rockets for a while.

XX

Most of the Rockets and villagers were in that large, modern building he had seen before. Although Ash didn't spend much time with them other than telling the mayor that they needed them to watch over the Rockets. He didn't really know anything about restraining people other than using hypnosis on them, so he trusted the villagers to find a way. The League scouts and Rangers that would be coming later would be able to ensure their security anyways.

He, however, was wandering around outside the town. Ash didn't really want to stay and listen to the thanks or glares of the townspeople – apparently a few hadn't minded Team Rocket all that much, despite the fact they had essentially taken over the town and threatened the villagers daily – so he left after finding Torrent and returning the water-type.

Ash just wanted somewhere that he could be alone with his friends. He still needed to call Steven and tell him that he was done, but he didn't want to do it somewhere that it could be listened to.

Although there were plenty of good spots – one of the beaches had plenty of rocks to sit on that would keep him away from most of the sand and one field he had found had a good view of the area – he eventually settled on a small meadow. There were a few butterfree flying around, but he didn't bother them and they didn't bother him.

He and his pokemon found their spots quickly. Even Infernus was released, despite the fact that he immediately incinerated the area around him with a roar. Plume quickly blew them out, however, so little harm was done.

The only one that he felt any hesitancy about releasing was Golduck. Ash hadn't let him out since the gym battle and didn't particularly want to break that streak. He just wanted to relax and not have to deal with arrogant, obstinant pokemon.

But once the rest had settled down – Nidorino by his side, Plume in the tree he was sitting against, Dazed sitting in an isolated area with blank eyes, Torrent angrily flopping around before finally carving a tiny pool to sit in with his powerful water gun and Infernus curling up on his blackened, ash-covered section of grass – Ash released Golduck.

His newest teammate looked around haughtily before quacking in annoyance. Golduck looked at him with an annoyed expression, clearly wondering who he was supposed to be fighting.

"I didn't release you to fight." Ash said tiredly from his comfortable position. Nidorino grunted and glared up at Golduck from beside him, a little spark of electricity jumping out of his horn. "We're relaxing right now. I just wanted to congratulate you on your first gym battle. You did well against that rhydon."

Golduck rolled his eyes and ignored Ash's admittedly forced praise. He sent one last glare at the trainer and his pokemon before wandering off to the opposite side of the meadow, as far as the water-type could get without Ash returning him. Ash just sighed at the display and dug around in his pack for his PokeNav.

He saw that he had a message sent to him from an unknown number. Ash figured that it was Steven, so he saved the number and called it back.

It took a few rings and beeps before Steven picked up. He was panting and there was a lot of crashing and screaming in the background.

"Ash?" Steven asked in a guarded tone. "Is that you?"

"Yeah." Ash quickly replied before worriedly asking his own question. His hand was clenching the PokeNav tightly as he heard another massive crash. "I'm just calling to tell you that I'm done. All of the Rockets are being guarded by the villagers. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." Steven said shortly. "But I have to go. I'll see you in a few hours."

Ash nodded, even if Steven couldn't see him. "Alright, but –"

He made out another explosion in the background, much closer than the one's before it, before the call was cut off. Ash frowned and stared at the PokeNav for a moment before putting it away. There was no denying that he was worried, but he trusted Steven. You didn't get to be a Champion by being weak, after all.

That still didn't calm the worried thoughts about the former Champion as he leaned back against the hard bark of the tree, doing his best to relax. He couldn't help it – Steven was, if not quite a friend, a good person and a mentor. And, unlike Lance, Ash hadn't seen Steven in action. Ash didn't know how he'd compare to the legendary Indigo Champion.

But his frenzied thoughts slowly relaxed and disappeared into nothingness. Ash fell asleep soon after his thoughts began to slow, finally drifting into unconsciousness about ten minutes after his call to Steven. The experience of his mind slowly shutting down despite his recent experiences was almost surreal.

XX

Something poked him. It was slightly silky, but at the same time firm and almost rough in places. Ash barely recognized it as being strange and grumbled at it to go away, still tired and wanting to return to sleep.

It curiously poked him again. Ash scowled and covered his face with his hands. He figured it was Dazed poking him. She had a habit of picking up odd obsessions every now and then, discovering new curiosities and then discarding them a day later. The trainer thought that she had become newly enamored with the sensation of touch. It had happened before.

"Go away, Dazed. I'm trying to sleep." He grumbled, still very weary. Ash didn't know what had happened to make him this tired, but he knew some sleep would cure it.

He was poked again. Ash finally opened his eyes, too annoyed to let Dazed keep on poking him.

Ash wasn't looking at Dazed.

Instead of the large, yellow furred form of his friend, Ash saw a short round pokemon curiously staring at him. Its true form was obscured by countless thick, blue vines. Two curious, bright eyes peeked out from beneath the shadows created by the vines and blinked at him. Red, boot-like feet shot out from the mass of tangled vines, keeping the creature raised off the ground.

He blinked at it. It blinked in return, curiously waggling its vines around and trying to poke Ash again. Ash ignored the pokes and just stared at it.

Ash had seen this pokemon far too many times in his pokedex to not recognize it. Tangela were odd, memorable pokemon, so it was somewhat difficult to forget. Aside from that there had been a small population of the curious grass-type on an island a few miles south of Kanto. Professor Oak had teleported Ash's class to the island there once to observe them.

The trainer looked around for his pokemon. All of them were snoozing aside from Dazed. She was watching him carefully but wasn't moving to stop the tangela. Ash knew that tangela were incredibly passive and friendly, so he didn't particularly care if Dazed let it nearby, although he would have liked a warning. Dazed would protect him from anything dangerous.

Tangela curiously poked his body with its vines, still curious about Ash. The trainer quietly took a pokeball from his pack. There were several in the first storage compartment at all times, which helped since he wouldn't have to worry about differentiating the captured Rocket pokemon from the empty pokeballs.

"Hey there." Ash greeted quietly, not wanting to startle the curious pokemon. Tangela jumped up a little in happiness before wrapping one of the long, prehensile vines around Ash's hand and trying to shake it.

Ash laughed as Tangela shook his hand, helping to assist with its task. Tangela cocked its head at Ash – the only reason Ash could tell was because the large, friendly eyes were skewed at an awkward angle.

He wondered where it had picked up the human gesture of shaking hands. Ash assumed that it had observed a human doing it, or might have even had a trainer before. It didn't really matter, but it made him a little curious.

Tangela made a happy noise that Ash couldn't describe very well – it was some mix between a squeal, grunt, and chirp – and shook Ash's other hand.

"What are you doing here?" Ash asked. He didn't expect much of a reply since this was a wild tangela and the breed weren't the smartest pokemon in the first place, but he had to laugh at the odd hop the grass-type did. It was a nice change from some of his new pokemon. Most of them were moody or reserved.

Tangela didn't seem to fully understand the question, but cocked its head and made the noise again, much louder this time. Ash suddenly heard a roar and saw that Nidorino had awoken to the sight of Tangela standing over Ash. His friend quickly jumped up and prepared to charge.

"Nidorino, no!" Ash cried. Nidorino started at Ash's order and looked at him quizzically, although he never let his focus on Tangela break. "It's harmless. Tangela won't hurt us."

The grass-type made the happy noise again, although it looked ready to flee in the face of the angry Nidorino. When Nidorino didn't attack, Tangela curiously ran its vines over Nidorino's body. Nidorino jerked back, causing Tangela to look downtrodden for a brief moment before looking at Ash.

Ash, however, was thinking. Tangela was comfortable around him and his team. Tangela's species were also capable of dealing a great deal of damage in a battle thanks to the versatility and protection their vines gave to them. They also evolved into an incredibly powerful grass-type – a type in which Ash was lacking.

He didn't plan on catching Tangela without its permission, however. Battling it was a perfect possibility, but fighting such a friendly pokemon felt…wrong somehow. But he figured he could at least get an understanding of its basic abilities.

Tangela cocked its head at him when he took out his pokedex and aimed it at the pokemon. Ash had to keep the searching vines away from his pokedex while it scanned Tangela.

"Tangela, the Vine Pokemon." The cool, monotone voice stated. "It is shrouded by blue vines. They are covered in a growth of fine hair and are moving at all times. If broken, they grow back within a day.

This Tangela knows the moves: Ingrain, sleep powder, vine whip, absorb, poison powder, sludge bomb, bind, mega drain, stun spore, giga drain and leaf storm. Its ability is Chlorophyll, which allows it to move much faster in sunlight."

To be frank, Ash was stunned at the amount of moves Tangela knew. It had some incredibly powerful grass-type moves behind it, and many of its attacks would bring down other pokemon easily through a mix of sheer power and status ailments that would befall them.

He glanced at the pokedex and saw that Tangela was a male.

But he also realized that Tangela had been trained before. He'd scrolled through the list of moves that they were able to learn enough times to know they couldn't learn sludge bomb naturally. It had to have had a trainer sometime. The only way it could've learned sludge bomb was if it was given a TM.

Still, that didn't mean he didn't want to catch it. Tangela would be an awesome addition to his team. It would certainly be a nice contrast to the surly, haughty Golduck.

"Hey, do you have a trainer?" He asked slowly, hoping it would have enough time to comprehend his question. A few seconds later Tangela shook its head, although Ash could catch a note of sorrow within its wide eyes. Tangela returned to its normal self a few seconds later, almost as if the question had never happened.

"Well, do you want to come with me and my friends? I think you'll be a good addition to the team." Ash asked, still keeping his words slow and simple. Tangela blinked and thought for only a few seconds before it cheerfully nodded, causing all of its vines to sway and bounce.

Ash grinned and stood up. He noticed that Nidorino was watching with just a little bit of interest. Dazed was still observing from afar, but she seemed to smile at him before he turned his attention to Tangela. The rest of his team was asleep.

He extended his arm out once he stretched and got some of the stiffness out of his body. Tangela was shorter than him, but quickly raised a vine and shook his hand. Ash grinned, but yelped in surprise when Tangela yanked him in for a huge with its other vines.

The trainer couldn't help but laugh once he'd gotten over his surprise and returned the hug. Tangela felt rather odd. Its vines were spongy, but possessed a hardness and firmness to them that showed the power they held. In addition it was almost slippery thanks to the fine hairs on its body.

A few seconds later Tangela released Ash, beaming up at him with bright eyes. Ash smiled and showed Tangela the primed pokeball he'd pulled out previously. "Do you know what to do?"

Tangela nodded and hopped up and down in excitement. In the middle of its leap, Tangela suddenly snapped a vine out and grabbed the pokeball, taking it from Ash's hand and tapping it against itself before being sucked in.

The ball quickly clicked, showing that it had succeeded in its capture. Ash sighed when the ball suddenly disappeared. He'd forgotten that he was past the limit.

Oh well. He needed to return to the town anyways. Lance and Steven would probably be there soon since it looked to be sunset or so. Besides, he needed to make sure that the Rangers and League officials had gotten there and secured the Rockets.

XX

It was silent when he got back to town. There were plenty of people in the streets, but most looked reserved and withdrawn. They ignored him as he passed by, causing him to be a little more cautious. He thought that most would have been excited over the Rockets being defeated.

He kept Nidorino out as he walked through the streets. Ash noticed that some of the villagers had their own pokemon out as well. Most were common – rattata, raticate, sentret and furret were the ones bounding beside most villagers – while others were somewhat rarer, such as the odd tangela or kingler.

Ash assumed that the pokemon had been confiscated by Team Rocket once they arrived. They wouldn't let anybody have a pokemon. Even if it was weak, a single pokemon could be devastating if fighting for its trainer or family.

Soon enough he arrived at the large building that dominated the entrance to the town. Small concrete steps led him up the small hill to it. It seemed to be the town's Pokemon Center as well since quite a few villagers with pokemon or pokeballs were walking in and out. Ash tried to avoid them since quite a few looked furious.

The interior was warm and homey despite the impressive size. It was jam packed though, so Ash had to work his way through the thick crowd. Everyone seemed to be clamoring for their pokemon to be checked out first. Ash couldn't blame them. If Team Rocket had gotten their hands on one of his pokemon for any amount of time, he would be furious.

All in all it seemed to be an average Pokemon Center, albeit an incredibly large one. It seemed to serve quite a few more functions than healing pokemon, however. Quite a few people standing above the rest and taking orders wore suits and seemed professional. They were also serving the rest and looked to be in charge, so Ash figured that they were the leaders of Knot Island.

He managed to slip through the throngs of people and enter a room that had a sign labeled "Trading Room". Not many people were over there, so he was able to make pretty good time. A large machine dominated the interior of the room, taking up nearly a quarter of the available area. Ash assumed that it powered the trades between the Sevii Islands and the other regions.

Nobody else was in the room and it looked particularly well-maintained. The rest of the interior looked like it hadn't been well looked after, so he was somewhat surprised. Maybe the Rockets had used this area as their base. It would make sense since they would have to stay in a fortified location with easy access to more pokemon.

The trading room was brightly lit and several monitors and trading machines lined the walls. Ash walked over to one of the monitors and sat down. Nidorino curled up beside his feet in a position where he could easily watch the door. His ears were stiff and alert as Ash punched in Professor Oak's number.

While he was waiting on the Professor to pick up, Ash released Golduck. The water-type glared around at the monitors before settling his annoyed eyes on Ash.

"We aren't battling." Ash sighed. Golduck rolled his eyes and seemed to sneer at Ash. The trainer just frowned. While it might have been bad that he didn't mind letting Golduck go for a while, he couldn't help it. He just couldn't get the water-type to work with him. Even Infernus had been manageable in the beginning.

"I'm sending you away." Ash said flatly, not bothering to sugarcoat it. It wasn't permanent anyways. He just needed to get another member of his team to grow. "You did well in your gym battle, but you won't train or work with me. I'll bring you back eventually, but for now I want to train someone else."

Golduck seemed to smirk, not displeased at all by the news. He almost seemed happy. Ash sighed and looked at the monitor as it clicked on, showing Professor Oak staring at Ash from his desk.

"Ash?" Oak asked, surprise etched onto his face. Ash smiled at the Professor and nodded.

"Hey, Professor Oak."

"What are you doing in the Sevii Islands?" Oak questioned, almost angry. Realization slowly dawned on his face. "Wait, you didn't really go along with Steven, did you?"

Ash nodded. "He wanted my help."

"Why would you go?" Oak asked, voice rising as his face grew red. "He told me what you were doing. It's dangerous! Team Rocket is dangerous! You should know that better than anyone." The Professor said, his tone growing softer when he saw Ash scowl. "Please, just come back. Those two are Champions. They don't need your help."

The trainer frowned. He could see where Oak was coming from – he knew Team Rocket was dangerous! – but he knew what he was doing. He knew that Steven didn't need his help, but at least he could do something.

"I have to stay here and help." Ash said firmly. "They might not need me, but at least I'm doing something. I can take care of myself. Did you ever hear about the Rocket base in Celadon."

"Of course." Oak replied, his frown still present. "A boy managed to sneak in and –" The Professor's face paled and his hands began to shake. "Ash, what did you do?"

Ash frowned. "I did what I had to. I found a Team Rocket base and took it down."

Oak's eye twitched. "You attacked a Team Rocket base! Alone? What possessed you to do that!"

"St. Anne."

The Professor sighed and relaxed back into the chair, looking very tired all of a sudden. "I understand what a horrible experience that was for you, but you can't keep on attacking Team Rocket. They're dangerous and won't hesitate to hurt you. You know that!"

A drowning ship, a haunter grinning widely in his face, a metal club headed straight for his skull.

"I know." He muttered, scratching the back of his neck. "But I have to fight them. I'm strong enough and I'm not going to stand by while they hurt everyone. I've already beaten a group on Knot Island. That's where I am, actually."

The older man rubbed his temples. "Does your mother know?" He asked hoarsely. Ash shook his head. "Does she know about Celadon? I know that she heard about the St. Anne – she was the one who told me."

Ash's guilty expression told Professor Oak all the man he needed to know.

"Please don't tell her." Ash pleaded. "She'll just worry over it."

"She should worry over it." Oak snapped, his friendly demeanor slipping away. "You're leaping into deadly situations without thinking of her. She has a right to know these thing!"

Ash looked down. He'd forgotten how good the Professor was at making him feel guilty. He knew that he was in the wrong in this case, but he still thought it would be better for his mother to be ignorant. There was no way he would stop fighting Team Rocket but he didn't want his mother worrying over him all the time.

Oak continued after a few tense moments. "I'll make you a deal. I understand that you are a strong trainer that can handle yourself, although I don't agree with what you're doing right now. But Cinnabar is quite close to Pallet and I assumed you will be returning there."

He nodded, figuring what Professor Oak was getting at. "I was planning on coming back to Pallet anyways."

"Good." Oak nodded. "When you're done with your business in the Sevii Islands, return here and spend time with your mother. While you're here, I expect you to tell her what you've been up to."

When Ash adopted a nervous expression, Oak dropped his angry tone and comforted him. "Delia isn't a harsh woman, Ash. She won't try to keep you from going on your journey. But don't you think she deserves to know?"

"Fine." Ash allowed. He had been planning on returning to Pallet Town anyways. It wasn't as if fulfilling Oak's request would be difficult. And his mom did have a right to know what trouble he was getting into, even if he would prefer she remain ignorant to it.

The Professor smiled softly and became casual once more. "Now that that's over with, what were you calling about?"

"I just caught a Tangela." Ash replied. "Do you mind sending it over?"

Oak nodded. "Of course. Give me a few moments."

Ash sighed and patted Nidorino when Oak left. The conversation had left him a little drained. He hadn't had a serious conversation in a long time, especially not one that hit so close to home. He'd been friends with Jonathan and Amelia, but they'd never been close enough to express their deeper thoughts around each other. His pokemon were closest to him and he was always so relaxed and things were so simple that he'd never really thought that much.

He was cut from his thoughts by Professor Oak's return. Oak was carrying the plain pokeball Ash had captured Tangela with in his hand before placing it into the transfer machine.

Ash took Golduck's pokeball off of his belt and placed it into the trading machine. It glowed for a moment before switching places with Tangela's pokeball. He took his newest friend's ball off and placed it onto Golduck's former spot.

"Could you keep Golduck away from my zubat?" Ash requested, knowing that Golduck would take great pleasure in tormenting the timid bat. "Machoke can probably handle him, but Zubat isn't tough enough. Golduck is usually aggressive and doesn't like other pokemon…or people, for that matter."

The Professor smiled as he took the ball from the machine. He inspected it carefully. "He's one of those, is he? All trainers get one pokemon that they just can't work with eventually. I must admit to being curious as to how you'll work this out. Anyways, is that all?"

Ash nodded. "Thanks, Professor. It was good seeing you again."

Oak inclined his head as he stood up from his comfortable, cushioned chair. He was barely visible in the monitor. "I'm glad to see you again as well, Ash." His face grew more serious. "Be careful and remember your promise. I'll hold you to it."

The trainer nodded in return before the monitor cut off. He stared at it for a few more moments before he got out of his chair and looked down at Nidorino. His friend was lazily lying beside the chair, although his eyes were sharp and alert.

"Let's go. We need to introduce Tangela to the team before we meet up with Steven and Lance." Ash told his first partner. Nidorino grunted in response and stiffly pulled himself up. The trainer waited until Nidorino was fully ready before leaving the building.

XX

Five minutes later they were on the shores of a beach, about a quarter-mile away from the town. Ash didn't like the villagers' stares and wanted to be somewhat isolated while introducing Tangela. Aside from his desire to escape their curious eyes, he wanted Tangela to be able to meet Torrent along with the rest of his team.

When he found a nice spot on the beach Ash released his team. Dazed was the first one out and took a slightly isolated position. Plume was next and fluttered over next to Ash, the powerful winds she produced whipping up a small sandstorm that nearly knocked Ash over. It died down after a few seconds, but it left Ash spitting sand out of his mouth.

Plume cooed an apology at him and lightly nipped the back of his hat. Ash smiled and lightly stroked her crest before releasing Infernus. The powerful fire-type roared when he was released and looked around for his opponent, much like Golduck had done. But when he realized there was no foe, Infernus snorted and curled up.

Ash sighed at Infernus when the fire-type caused the sand near his tail to transform into raw, molten glass. Infernus barely noticed and curled up even tighter.

Torrent was last. He snorted a greeting at Ash when he appeared in the water and puffed out his armored chest and spines. When Ash smiled and greeted him, the water-type began swimming in backwards circles, bored.

"We have a new teammate." Ash explained to his waiting friends. "It's a Tangela. Be nice."

His friends had mixed reactions to that. Dazed seemed perfectly content with the new addition. Nidorino didn't seem to mind either, as did Plume. They were both apparently content that their positions weren't threatened thanks to their type advantage.

Infernus didn't seem particularly impressed. He stood up and roared, blasting a huge stream of flame into the sky as though to prove how much better he was than the grass-type. Ash just shook his head at the display and glanced over at Torrent. While he didn't get to spend as much time with the water-type as he'd like and couldn't read his expressions and mannerisms as well as the others, Ash could tell that Torrent didn't like the sound of the Tangela.

It wasn't too surprising. Torrent was proud of being one of the three most powerful members on the team and the only one without a weakness to another member. Nidorino had Dazed and Infernus had Torrent. A grass-type of unknown strength probably made the seadra feel defensive.

"It'll be fine." Ash said soothingly. Torrent looked at him with trusting eyes and grudgingly nodded. "Anyways, here he is."

Tangela hopped up and down when he was released, excitedly glancing between each member of the team. He ran up to Ash first, though, quickly shaking his hand before running over to Plume.

The great bird gazed down at him interestedly but squawked and tried to fly away when Tangela unexpectedly tried to hug her with his vines. Tangela quickly withdrew them when she struggled and instead tapped her on the head with one of the extended vines. Plume didn't seem too offended by the display, but turned her head away from Tangela and proceeded to push her ruffled feathers back down.

Nidorino warned Tangela off from hugging him with a low growl, but accepted one of the grass-type's probing vines that curiously ran over his head. After a few moments Tangela made his odd, happy noise and moved onto Infernus.

Ash knew Infernus was planning something the moment the devious fire-type's eyes seemed to glint happily. Infernus was a good member of the team, but he was still a magmar. They had a mischievous streak that could never be completely defused, although, as shown in Infernus' case, it could be minimized.

He called out a warning to his newest friend, but Tangela didn't hear it before curiously touching Infernus with several of his vines. Tangela made a distressed gurgling noise when Infernus suddenly increased his body temperature by a huge degree and quickly withdrew his scorched vines before running over to Dazed.

"Infernus, no more of that." Ash said sternly. Infernus rumbled in agreement but didn't seem to upset. He figured that the fire-type had known this would be a one-time trick. He looked over at Tangela, who was hiding behind the impassive hypno. "Tangela, it's all right. He won't do it again."

Tangela shot Infernus an uncharacteristically dark glare – Ash could see the wide, friendly eyes narrow and darken in the midst of the wriggling vines – before poking Dazed. He didn't do much more before running over to the water's edge where Torrent waited.

Torrent didn't seem very happy about the grass-type prodding him, but didn't do anything to dissuade Tangela either. That gave Ash some hope for an eventual friendship between the two. He shot Torrent a grateful smile in response, causing Torrent to swell up in pride as he soaked in the attention.

"There are a few others, but they aren't here right now." Ash told Tangela. The grass-type had waddled over to Ash after meeting Torrent and looked up at him with attentive eyes. "So, are you good at battling?"

Tangela bobbed his head up and down. Ash grinned. While he would have to test his newest friend out before using him, at least Tangela had a battling background. His wide move pool hinted at such.

"Well then, let's get started." The trainer said with a grin. Tangela bobbed up and down, clearly excited at getting a chance to show off his skills. Ash was glad – he'd be testing all of Tangela's limits.

XX

An hour later Ash was both pleased and worried.

He was pleased because Tangela was better than he could have hoped. Tangela had proved to be a wily opponent, a far cry from his normal dullness. The grass-type was quite skilled at using his vines to wrap an opponent into submission and poison, paralyze or drain his opponent. Ash hadn't let his newest friend show off the fullest extent of his power, but he knew enough to realize that Tangela was powerful.

Nidorino had sparred with Tangela, although he didn't use his poison. Tangela was able to effectively immobilize him thanks to the dexterous vines and the writhing shell of vines provided a strong barrier against Nidorino's horn. It wouldn't be as effective in a real fight thanks to Nidorino's poison and added strength, but Ash knew that Tangela could handle himself in a fight.

But, despite his happiness over Tangela's abilities, Ash was worried that Steven or Lance hadn't called him yet. He had expected to be called a while ago. It was beginning to get late and –

His PokeNav rang. Ash quickly took it off of his belt and flipped it open. Steven was the one calling.

"Hey, Steven." Ash said into the device. Steven's image came up. He looked tired and dirty, although the odd suit he always wore looked almost pristine. Ash assumed that it was made out of a very durable material.

"Hey." Steven replied tiredly. "Where are you? I just got back to Knot Island. I'm waiting in the Center. Lance should be getting back soon."

Ash held back a sigh of relief. "I'm training with my pokemon. I'll be right there. Where are you in the Center?"

"A Ranger will show you to my room." Steven told him. Ash saw the former Champion's screen shake a bit before Steven reappeared, now sitting in a large, cushioned chair. "Ah, Lance just arrived. We'll see you soon. Goodbye."

Ash gave his own farewell before the screen blackened. He folded up the PokeNav and placed it on his belt. After that he looked out at his friends. Most were either wandering around the beach or standing near each other. Dazed was huddled together with Nidorino and Tangela while Plume casually circled above them. Infernus and Torrent were in their own little areas, happy in their solitude.

He called out a warning before returning all of them except for Nidorino. All of his friends aside from the poison-type and Infernus were quite tired from the day's excitement and their mock battle against Tangela. Infernus wasn't the best choice to walk through a forest, so Nidorino was his best choice.

Nidorino grunted as he plodded over to Ash. Ash made sure he was ready before heading towards the town. He was incredibly excited – he wanted to hear just what the Champions had gotten up to during the day.

XX

"And the hero returns!" Lance said with a grin. The Indigo Champion was carelessly sprawled across a sofa, clearly exhausted but in high spirits. Ash grinned and nodded his thanks towards the Ranger that had brought him here. His guide gave a nod in return before returning to the base level.

"The Head Ranger here gave me the report." Lance continued, still speaking quite loudly. On anyone else it would have been a shout. On Lance it just sounded right, befitting his position. "The villagers said you did quite well against Team Rocket. No fainted or injured pokemon. I have to admit, you did much better than I'd expected."

Ash looked down at the praise. "They weren't very good."

Steven finally spoke up. He looked much worse than he had over the video phone. His silvery hair was matted with sweat and grime and he bored several scrapes and cuts on his arms. The only untouched part of him was his suit, and even that looked like slightly crumpled.

"How are you? I heard some…disturbing accounts about the grunts." The former Champion said, sounding genuinely worried.

The trainer froze, a large metal club flashing through his memory as well as the retribution his pokemon had given.

"I'm fine." He said stonily, not wanting to talk about it. "My pokemon handled it."

"They did a good job too!" Lance said, lazily raising his head so he could look at Ash. "The one that got thrown into the house won't be doing much for a while. He'll be fine, though." He said hastily when he saw the glare Steven sent him. "Just a little banged up, is all."

Ash relaxed a bit, letting some of the tension fall from his body. He was fine. He just needed to calm down and forget the worst parts of the battle.

"What did you do while I was here?" He questioned as he slid into a small chair.

Lance smiled widely, turning his mouth upwards. It possessed more wildness and ferocity than happiness. "I destroyed three Rocket camps at the base of Mt. Ember. They haven't told us what they were doing there yet, but one of the Rangers has an alakazam that's working on them. All we know right now is that they were trying to dig something up. All of their operations on Knot Island have been shut down."

Ash grinned back. It was just what the Rockets deserved, although he was admittedly curious over what they could have been doing. Were they trying to make the volcano erupt somehow?

But he was pulled from his thoughts by Steven. The Master was far less exultant than Lance was. His demeanor was grim and tired, showing that he'd been through a lot that day.

"I went to Chronos Island." He revealed. His voice was completely smooth. No traces of emotion flickered through it. "I met up with Lorelei and a few League forces and searched the forest for Team Rocket."

Ash waited patiently as the man paused. Steven would tell him when he was ready.

"We found at least thirty wandering through the woods, patrolling and searching for League forces." He said, eyes distant. "When we found them, they regretted it. Metagross took down most of their pokemon, but a few of us were hit by some of their attacks."

Steven motioned at his bruised, beat-up appearance. "I got off easy. A weezing exploded near me, but I was only caught by the edge of the explosion. Metagross protected me from the worst of it, but a few of the League forces weren't so lucky. We have about eight of them in the hospital right now. They were teleported back to Kanto for medical care."

He had a lump in his throat as Steven recounted his experiences, wondering why the friendly man was telling him this. Was he just trying to ensure that Ash knew how dangerous Team Rocket were? Because Ash knew. Pierce had ordered his muk to kill him, after all.

"But we found their base." Steven smiled, a bit of the grimness fading. "They didn't know we did, but I have the location. Tomorrow we'll be storming it. Pierce is trapped."

Ash grinned widely. He couldn't wait to go into it. "What will we be doing?"

Steven gave him a thoughtful frown. "The League will be spread throughout the forest in order to keep any of the Rockets from escaping. Lance and I will be storming the warehouse. You will be watching over the warehouse in order to make sure no Rockets have the chance to be caught by the League."

He nodded. While it wasn't the most action-packed role, Ash figured that he'd had enough excitement for a while. Helping would be enough and he'd be doing an important job. "Do you know how many there are?"

"No." Lance replied, finally sitting up. He had a frown on his face. "We have estimates that place more than eighty of them inside their warehouse, but nothing concrete. All that we really know is that there a lot of them and that Pierce is inside."

Ash leaned back in his chair with a grin. Pierce was going to pay. But he pushed the satisfaction away. He wanted to know everything about what they would be doing. "So, how are we getting there."

"It's a choice between teleportation or flying on my dragonite." Lance said with a smirk towards Steven. The former Hoenn Champion was clamping down on the arms of his chair at the mention of flying. "The Ranger with the alakazam has an abra we can use. It's probably the better choice anyways. We'll be in before they know it and Steven won't be sick for the first half-hour of the battle."

Steven scowled but didn't react in any other way than standing. "I need to get cleaned up." He announced. The former Champion glanced at Ash. "You should get to bed – you have the room to the right of this one. I'm sure you're exhausted from the battle today. You'll need your energy tomorrow."

Ash nodded his understanding and left the Champions. Steven was certainly right about him being tired and he definitely needed to get a shower. He was dirty and smelled like dried sweat. Definitely not a good combination.

He found the room Steven had told him about quickly. It was unlocked, but a card key sat on the small wooden table by the door. Ash took it and locked the room before continuing into the room.

It was small but comfortable. Aside from a few tropical decorations, it was an ordinary Pokemon Center room. Before he went into the bathroom to get cleaned up, Ash released Dazed and Nidorino. Tangela probably wouldn't like the artificial surroundings very much.

After both of his friends found themselves a comfortable area, Ash went to the bathroom to get cleaned up. It was going to be a long day tomorrow.

XX

About three o'clock the next day, the group had assembled in a small field outside the city. It looked to have been burned by some sort of fire attack, so Ash figured one of the fire-types that lived around Mt. Ember might have come to the area.

He had woken up extremely late this morning, but greatly enjoyed it. Ash normally woke up early on his journey, so the luxury was appreciated. After that he got ready and made all of his preparations for the battle. All of his pokemon were made aware of what they were going into. Most of them seemed anxious to take the fight to the Rockets, although Tangela surprised him with his vehemence.

All in all, Ash was ready for this. He was glad to have a part in preventing the spread of Team Rocket, no matter how minor that part might have been. It was enough for him.

"Abra wants to know if she can look in your mind to get the location." The Ranger told Steven. "We can get to it if you show us a map or a picture, but this is much faster and more precise."

"Of course." Steven said with a nod. He didn't seem bothered by a psychic intrusion.

Abra yawned and looked into Steven's eyes for a moment. The man went slack but remained standing. He stayed like that for a while, long enough for Ash to glance at him in concern.

"He's fine." The Ranger assured Ash. "Abra's just young, is all. She's not used to getting information from peoples' minds yet. My Alakazam is experienced enough to have gotten it and teleported you to it by now."

"Can she talk to you?" Ash asked curiously. He'd heard of psychic-types that could use telepathy, but he was never sure if they were just myths. If not he couldn't understand why Dazed wouldn't speak to him.

The Ranger looked surprised. "Of course. It takes a fair bit of specialized training, but psychic-types like the abra family or the ralts family are capable of using it. Most psychic-types that hang around humans long enough can as well, although it's an off and on kind of thing. Some just aren't capable of it."

"I don't think your hypno can speak, Ash." Lance interjected. He was leaning against a tree and patiently waiting for Steven to be revived. "Not yet, anyways. From what Sabrina's told me they have difficult communing with non-psychics. They're more focused on physical manifestations anyways. Hypnosis and telekinesis and whatnot."

"Oh." Ash said with a frown. He'd never come across an entry in the pokedex that had claimed hypno could speak, but he had hoped after hearing about the abra.

Abra suddenly tore her eyes away from Steven, allowing the former Champion to slump to the ground. He waved away any attempts to help and clambered back up to his feet. Steven blinked a few times and brushed his silvery hair out of his eyes before looking at Lance and Ash.

"I'm ready if you two are."

The Ranger grinned. "Alright, Abra. You know what to do."

Ash suddenly saw a flash of light before suddenly appearing in a completely different area. He blinked in surprise before looking around. Steven and Lance were right next to him and Abra was behind them. She vanished in a small flash of light an instant later.

So that was teleportation. Ash had expected it to be unpleasant, but in reality it didn't even feel like he'd moved. It was just that he'd been warped through space, not that he'd been thrown hurtling through some alternate dimension that made him spin and feel sick.

"Surprised, huh?" Lance grinned, swinging his arms around to warm them up. "Teleportation's a pretty easy way to travel. You blink and you're somewhere a hundred miles away."

Ash smiled and nodded but looked at Steven. The slight man had a frown on his face as he looked past the forest's edge.

He followed Steven's gaze and blinked in surprise. Once the forest diminished and died, a small meadow began. In the center of the meadow was a huge building, easily a hundred feet tall. It was obviously the Rocket base, although it wouldn't be so obvious to an unknowing observer. There was no logo emblazoned upon the side or any other indicator other than the fact that Ash knew where they were going.

Roughly twenty people working in pairs patrolled the perimeter. They had arbok and weezing out, polluting the air with their noxious fumes. One had a massive, savage Houndoom beside him. It snarled and breathed small blasts of flame towards any of the Rockets that drew near.

"Steven, call Lorelei." Lance ordered, eyes focused on the Rockets. "Tell her to be on standby. I'll take these Rockets out, but if any try to run away I want her to be ready."

Steven took out a small black device and began typing in something. Ash watched curiously, but Steven glanced over at him. "Ash, wait by the door when the Rockets are defeated. Lance and I will enter the building. You just wait for any stragglers fleeing the scene."

Ash nodded in understanding and looked at Lance. The Champion had a removed a pokeball from his belt and tapped the button, releasing a long, serpentine pokemon that was around fifteen feet long. It had dark, glossy eyes and a small horn on its forehead. Small feathery wings adorned the sides of its head and it was covered in sapphire scales everywhere but its belly, which was a bright blue. Small blue orbs hung under its neck and on its tail.

He immediately felt a calming aura engulf him, although the slight anxiety he was feeling nullified most of its effect. Ash stared in awe at the massive Dragonair.

"Hey, Saph." Lance said softly to his pokemon, gently tickling its chin as it lunged at him and licked the side of his face. "Use thunder wave on the Rockets and their pokemon."

Saph gave a low, happy call in reply and turned towards the patrolling Rockets. Thanks to their dense coverage, none of the criminals had seen the group.

It stared at the Rockets before releasing a blue stream of electricity from its horn. The stream arced towards the Rocket with the Houndoom before splitting off and slamming into all of the visible Rockets and their pokemon, overloading their nervous systems and paralyzing them. A second thunder wave knocked all of them out.

Ash started when they were unconscious, but a restraining hand from Steven kept him from leaving the cover. Steven shook his head at Ash and nodded to the Rockets.

He moved back and watched carefully as another three pairs of Rockets ran out from the other side of the warehouse, apparently alerted to the fall of their comrades somehow. One of them pulled out a small handheld device to presumably call for help, but Saph fired off another thunder wave that knocked them out.

Lance pointed to two small cameras by the large, heavy doors blocking the entrance. An instant later Saph fired a thunder wave at the cameras, overloading them and frying their circuits.

With that the Champions ran out from their cover towards the large, steel doors that blocked the entrance. Saph picked Ash up and quickly darted after them, easily catching up with the Champion's head start and dropped Ash next to them before she was returned by Lance.

Steven tried to open the doors with the button, but a small keypad above it suddenly beeped and gave them a message. "Only authorized personnel are allowed within this building. Please enter the two passwords given to you by your superiors."

Lance scowled. "Passwords? Really? Well, that doesn't matter. I have my own."

The Champion quickly released his hulking Dragonite. It was quiet and had determined eyes as it waited for Lance's instructions.

Steven released the familiar form of Metagross as well. Both moved back about ten feet and were quickly followed by Ash.

"Stay behind us while we do this." Steven said calmly. "Metal Claw!"

Metagross gave a cold, mechanical roar that sent chills down Ash's spine. It sounded like grinding metal. The huge steel-type then raised an "arm" that glowed a bright, metallic silver before slamming it down on the thick steel doors. They crumpled like paper, torn down with barely any effort.

Ash heard shouts and screams coming from inside the warehouse as Metagross tore the doors down and telekinetically picked them up before hurling them into the warehouse. Dragonite gave a roar of its own before bursting into the warehouse after Metagross, a hyper beam already charging in its mouth.

"Get back to the forest line!" Steven shouted as he ran towards the building. He turned his head to look at Ash before vanishing into the ravaged entrance. "Stay safe!"

He quickly followed the command, releasing his pokemon except for Torrent and Infernus when he got to the safe zone. Infernus would just attract too much attention. Ash would release him in a battle, but until then he was relying on stealth.

From the gaping hole torn into the side of the building, he could see bright flashes of light and small explosions. Shouts and screams continued to echo out, but he never heard anything that might be from the Champions or their extraordinarily powerful pokemon.

Plume was circling in the sky, high up enough so that she wouldn't be easily seen but low enough to where she could interfere and attack if needed. Nidorino was crouched next to his side, horn lowered and ready to charge or launch a thunderbolt.

Tangela had an interesting strategy: he crouched in front of Ash, serving as camouflage in front of the shrubs and bushes. It wouldn't stand up to a critical glance, but in the heat of battle it would work well enough.

Dazed was hidden at an angle. Despite her skin color she seemed to disappear in the forest, probably manipulating the air or the surroundings minds with her abilities. He could only see her because he knew her so well. Her eyes were focused on the gash in the steel and her pendulum was up and waiting, already trembling with energy.

He waited for several minutes. The blasts that raged throughout the warehouse and caused the massive steel building to shudder and quake gradually slowed before almost disappearing. Ash figured that Steven and Lance had taken down most of the opposition.

While he would have doubted the viability of the assault had it been any other two trainers, Ash had complete confidence in the Champions. He'd seen both of them battle on television before and it was simply awe-inspiring. Even when they hadn't been using their full strength against challengers they had proven to be on an entirely different level than the Elite Four. They were worth a hundred trainers each.

But one last explosion tore through the building, blasting an even larger hole in the wall on a different side of the warehouse. Ash managed to spy several shapes sprinting out of the improvised exit before he whistled to Plume. When he gave her the signal she dived towards the Rockets with a fierce shriek.

They didn't have any pokemon, so the criminals were helpless to resist Plume as she flapped her powerful wings and sent a huge gale of wind into the Rockets. The three uniformed men shouted in surprise as they were sent to the ground with crushing force. Plume sent another gust into their collapsed forms for good measure before tearing back up into the air with a single flap of her wings.

Ash grinned at his friend before snapping his head back to the original entrance. He saw a slight, hazy form slipping out of it from the corner of his eye.

He squinted and prepared to give Nidorino an order. But then he looked at the haughty, aristocratic face of the fleeing man and froze.

Pierce was running away from the warehouse and hadn't even noticed him.

For a moment Ash couldn't think. He could just feel the icy waters of the roaring ocean pulling him deeper, the putrid stench of the muk enveloping him and burning him with its toxic, acidic body. He shuddered before snapping his eyes open and scowling. It was time for Pierce to be the weak one.

"Disable! Thunderbolt!" He roared, anger taking over. Pierce was alerted to him now and released three pokemon before any of Ash's friends could do anything.

A monstrous, feral-looking umbreon leapt in front of Dazed's vision, its dark-typing allowing it to absorb the disable with no ill effect. It snarled and bared long, needle-like fangs. The yellow rings that adorned its body glowed brightly and its red eyes gleamed with savagery and maliciousness.

The next pokemon was a dark purple, round, bipedal shadow. It hovered just a bit above the ground with its legs pointed downward. Its bloody, scarlet eyes seemed to grow darker when it spied Ash and the other pokemon and shadows coalesced around its floating form. The gengar grinned broadly, a wide row of razor-sharp fangs suddenly appearing in its face.

The last was one that Ash had intimate experience with. His face paled and he stumbled backwards as the gigantic muk appeared. It poisoned the ground around it, not exercising the least bit of control to prevent such horrific damage to the earth. Its blank eyes looked off into space, not caring about its surroundings in the least.

Muk easily absorbed the thunderbolt, the electricity doing little to its thick, oozing form.

"I don't care who this is – kill them." Pierce said calmly, no fear or anxiety about the destruction of his warehouse showing. "Golbat, get me out of here."

A golbat suddenly swooped down and landed near his feet in a slavish manner. Pierce didn't even spare Ash a glance before climbing on. Golbat quickly took off, dodging Nidorino's automatic thunderbolt.

Ash grit his teeth in frustration when Pierce began to lift off, but he grinned in satisfaction when Plume suddenly swooped into the flying bat, raking its sides with her large, sharp talons and slamming it to the ground with a blast of air.

Pierce kicked his golbat in disgust when he got up and eyed Plume in annoyance. "I don't know who you are, but I suggest that you leave. I will not hesitate to kill you and your pokemon."

The trainer stepped out of the trees and shadows, looking the man he feared the most straight in the eye. "I'm not going to let you go. Not after what you've done."

Ash scowled at the Executive and twisted his hat around. He would need the additional visibility.

Pierce stared at him oddly for a moment as he strode over to a safe area behind his pokemon, apparently fine from his crash other than a bit of dirt and dust on his clothing.

A slight glimpse of recognition worked its way into the man's cold, dispassionate eyes. They glinted in an amused sort of interest. "Ah, yes. The boy. Where are your friends? I was hoping to wring the other boy's neck personally." He sighed in faux sympathy. "It would have been a much kinder fate than allowing muk to eat you."

Ash clenched his fists, not willing to let Pierce goad him anymore. "Psychic!"

Dazed reacted quickly to the order, suddenly appearing in the tree line and blasting a huge wave of telekinetic force at the opposing pokemon. Umbreon snarled and jumped in the way of the blast that would have hit Pierce. The psychic energy was easily absorbed by the ferocious dark-type and what remained only clipped Pierce and sent him stumbling. Muk was caught by a great deal of the blast, however, and groaned in pain as it was sent flying into the side of the warehouse. Gengar grinned before disappearing, suddenly popping out in Pierce's shadow.

Pierce snarled at him, the icy composure that Ash had come to associate with the man breaking. He was acting like he had back when Jonathan had insulted him in the heart of Mt. Moon.

"Kill them!" He roared, cold eyes growing hot and hateful. "Umbreon, tear out that runt's throat!"

Umbreon's rings glowed a bright, sickly yellow as it bared its long fangs at Ash. He glared back and met its hateful scarlet eyes with his own brown. The canine snapped its jaws once before charging towards Ash, small shadows collecting around it.

It gave a furious snarl as it neared Ash, poisonous sweat leaking out of its body. Umbreon opened its jaws and suddenly leapt at Ash with deadly grace, only to be met with an angry Nidorino's ice beam mid leap. The feral dark-type yelped as it was slammed into the side of a tree by the ice beam before snarling and getting back up.

Ash's mind kicked into overdrive as he formulated strategies. He wasn't about to let Pierce or his deadly pokemon escape.

The first thing he did was to back away from the fight. He didn't want to be caught by any attacks. Pierce's pokemon would be aiming to kill, and his own would be fighting seriously. An accidental hit could seriously injure him.

The second was to match his pokemon to their best opponent. Nidorino was already entangled in a fierce battle with the Umbreon, jabbing his horn in an attempt to hold the dark-type away from Ash and Dazed. Ash didn't want to interfere in that battle. It was much too fierce and even a moment's distraction for Nidorino could give the quick, ruthless Umbreon an opening to go for the kill.

Dazed was still focusing on Muk, firing her psybeam at it with pinpoint accuracy. Ash was content to let her continue taking potshots at Muk, but he cried out for her to watch out when he saw a large, purplish shadow stalk towards her from the woods.

The psychic snapped around and raised a barrier just a moment before Gengar would have struck with its large, razor claws. Dazed's eyes glowed a bright blue as she engaged Gengar, keeping the shifting, agile ghost away from her.

"Tangela, sludge bomb on Umbreon." Ash ordered, speaking clearly so that the slower-witted Tangela would understand him. Tangela gave him an odd sort of chirp in response and turned towards Umbreon. His newest friend's vines suddenly withdrew a bit from around his hidden face as a glob of brown, noxious sludge was shot from inside the vines.

Ash grinned as the reeking, poisonous sludge slammed into Umbreon, giving it a dangerous dose of poison and sending it crashing to the ground. Nidorino didn't waste any time in taking the advantage, firing an ice beam into the fallen dark-type before charging towards it with his horn lowered.

He looked away as Nidorino slammed into Umbreon with incredible force. Ash tried to ignore the pitiful yelp that emerged from the snarling muzzle of the dark-type and focused on the rest of the battle.

Dazed and Gengar were still sparring with one another, each firing fast, precise attacks at the other in order to test their defenses. Gengar was on the run, but seemed to be effortlessly dodging her psybeams by phasing through trees and melting down into shadows in order to disappear. But he wasn't able to make a move in return, so Ash felt comfortable leaving her alone for now.

Muk, on the other hand, was a real problem. It was slowly making his way over to them with a wide, melting mouth open. A trail of highly toxic sludge was left in its wake, bubbling and releasing the smell of trash into the air.

Ash couldn't help but gag as the scent finally reached him. He'd thought the stench was bad in Mt. Moon. In the warm, tropical environment of the Sevii Islands the rotting smell of trash and decomposition was horribly amplified.

He made sure to breathe in through his mouth after that, although the sensation of actually tasting the Muk's scent was quite possibly even more disgusting. It at least let him focus on the battle, even though his eyes watered slightly from the putrid odor.

Muk slowly grew nearer, forcing Ash to make a move. Tangela was hardly the best choice Ash had to battle the large, powerful poison-type, but he just didn't have time to release Infernus.

"Stun spore, then use sleep powder." Ash ordered as he backpedalled from the approaching behemoth. Tangela kept by him at a safe distance, shaking his body and releasing a cloud of gold-orange powder from beneath his vines at Muk. Muk slowed down as the spores touched its large, toxic body, but the orange spores were melted by the sheer acidity of its body. The sleep powder met a similar fate.

Ash grimaced as he ran out of options. Dazed would be the ideal choice to help him, but a cursory glance towards her revealed that she was still locked in a fierce battle with Gengar, although she seemed to have the edge now. A psybeam appeared to have hit Gengar, disrupting its abilities and hurting it badly. It was moving slower now, although it seemed much more aggressive.

Plume couldn't do anything against the amorphous blob of toxins. She just didn't have the power to knock it back or do anything to it. Even touching it would cause her to be severely poisoned, so a distraction attempt was out.

"Stun spore." He ordered again. Tangela loyally followed his order and shook his body, releasing more of the orange spores. They settled on Muk, slowing the monster and giving Ash enough time to release his saving grace.

Infernus roared in fury when he was released, realizing the danger that they were in. He didn't bother wasting the flames that erupted with his roar into the sky, instead directing the stream into Muk. The noxious poison-type bubbled and gurgled in pain under the intense heat, but continued advancing even as its toxic body slowly evaporated into the atmosphere.

"Flamethrower!" Ash ordered calmly, not letting the panic go to his head. "Follow with fire punch."

That was all he could get out before Tangela suddenly grabbed him with two long, blue vines. Ash squirmed in surprise as his newest friend placed a vine in front of his mouth and nostrils as the poisonous gas released from Muk's body slowly advanced towards Ash.

It drew near and Ash stopped struggling, realizing what Tangela was trying to do. Infernus blasted Muk with a flamethrower, his robust constitution allowing him to ignore the worst effects of the poison. Temporarily, anyways.

As the toxic fumes grew closer, Plume dived down from high in the sky and flapped her wings. She shrieked her success when the majority of the gas was blown into the forest, far from the fierce battle raging in the corner of the meadow.

Infernus continued his long blast of flame on Muk as he advanced, holding none of his power back and preparing to end the fight. Ash realized that Infernus had the situation handled and glanced over to Dazed.

Dazed was on the defensive now. Gengar was flitting from shadow to shadow, visible only thanks to its distinctive coloration, scarlet eyes and wide, bloodthirsty grin. It hurled shadow balls at Dazed at an awe-inspiring rate, the dark, ghostly orbs of energy quickly shattering whatever psychic shields she set up in order to avoid the blasts.

"Do you know if you can hold onto Gengar with your vines?" Ash asked Tangela. The grass-type looked confused by the question for a few moments before happily nodding. "Could you catch it from here? Dazed just needs a few moments to take it down. Try to take some of its energy with absorb."

Tangela happily bounced up and down before releasing two of its vines. They grew to an incredible length before snapping towards Gengar with unnatural speed. Ash couldn't even see them blur as they caught the bloodthirsty ghost and restrained it, wrapping around its small limbs and binding them together.

Gengar released a hiss that was audible from where Ash was standing before beginning his struggle. It tried to melt into an incorporeal shadow, but Tangela's long vines suddenly tightened and began to glow a bright green. Ash recognized it as the absorb he'd ordered.

The ghost briefly fell limp as a massive surge of energy was sucked away by Tangela's probing vines, but when Dazed's eyes flashed a bright blue and a high-powered psychic blasted into it, Gengar frantically tried to tear away from the trap it found itself in, but it could do nothing before the psychic tore through its shadowy body and knocked it unconscious.

Ash gently patted Tangela on the head for his work and thanked him before he turned to Dazed. "Make sure Pierce doesn't get away!"

Dazed nodded and shuffled towards Pierce with her pendulum gently swaying, seductively attracting attention to itself and the calming psychic energy it released. The Executive seemed nervous for the first time since he'd met the criminal and had a hand tapping at one last pokeball around his waist. Ash was satisfied that Pierce wouldn't escape in the confusion and looked towards Infernus and Muk.

Infernus still hadn't let up on the flamethrower. Muk seemed to have lost half of his mass in the form of toxic gas, but Plume dove down from the clouds every now and then to blow it away before it could hurt any of them.

Finally, the fire-type let go of the flamethrower and rushed towards Muk with a burning fist. Muk squelched as the fist impacted it and reared up. Ash frowned in concern when he realized that Infernus' fire punch had gotten stuck in Muk's thick, gelatinous body, leaving Infernus completely helpless to any other attacks.

Muk reared up as high as it could despite its reduced size and mass and surged towards Infernus. Infernus was nearly covered by the large body of Muk before punching it again and forcing it off. Unfortunately that left his other hand stuck in Muk's body.

Ash prepared to order Dazed to finish the fight and let Infernus go free, but Infernus had other ideas. He roared and spat a huge blast of flame in Muk's face, forcing the poison-type to shrink back. It still kept Infernus' hands securely imprisoned in its sludgy body and pulled the fire-type down with it.

Muk oozed onto Infernus when the fire-type fell, enveloping and smothering Ash's friend.

"Infernus!" Ash cried as he saw his friend disappear under the still-huge body of Muk. He started forward, but a restraining vine from Tangela kept him from running over to his friend. The trainer snarled in anger and looked towards Dazed. "Psy—"

Muk began to bubble. It opened its mouth in pain and concern before looking down with its beady black eyes, the only things on its body that weren't toxic or sludge. A familiar, burning hand suddenly plunged up through its back, tearing a hole in its thick body.

A second one followed. Both slowly burned brighter and more intense until Ash could feel their incredible heat. He had to turn his head after just a few moments. It felt as though he were sitting right next to a bonfire.

Muk's body bubbled more and more, but it wasn't until both arms shot up through its body, ablaze with bright white and orange flame, that Muk exploded. What mass hadn't been lost in the form of gas was shot throughout the entire meadow in small chunks of moving, wriggling sludge.

Ash looked in both awe and horror as Infernus pulled himself up from the remnants of Muk, still covered in the toxic sludge and looking tired for the first time that Ash could remember. He stamped his foot and caused lava to burst up around him before he let loose a proud, victorious roar. A huge stream of flame crackled into the sky, burning some of the sludge on Infernus' head.

Infernus suddenly flared up, melting off the rest of Muk before proudly accepting Ash's congratulations. Ash grinned at his friend and praised him for the battle.

If Infernus had caused any pokemon other than that Muk to explode, Ash would have been horrified. It was a cruel, horrible death for even the worst of creatures. But in a muk's case, such an attack wasn't lethal. The explosion was painful, true, and greatly weakened the muk for a long time to come, but muk were interesting creatures. They were alive in an odd way alien to most living organisms. By being destroyed, they separated into many grimer.

Most of the grimer were small and practically defenseless, but it was more than possible for them to come together and form into a new, larger grimer or even a full muk. But it would be a completely different organism than the one that had been destroyed. Fission like that destroyed the original's identity, giving birth to many new organisms.

So, while Infernus had killed the Muk that haunted Ash's dreams, he had just given birth to many new organisms. They would have to be captured soon to prevent any ecological damage from occurring thanks to the inexperienced grimer, but Ash thought it was the best fate that could have happened. Whatever damage and torments Team Rocket had wrought upon Muk for it to become so aggressive and hateful would be gone forever, left in the past for the new population of grimer.

Ash focused his attention on Pierce. The man was blank-eyed and calm, but it didn't seem like he was really hypnotized. He had seen people hypnotized by a hypno before in Mt. Moon and in the form of the Rockets that had taken over Knot Island, but Pierce wasn't perfectly calm. The Executive had too much nervous energy about him.

He narrowed his eyes and glanced at Dazed. She looked perfectly fine, so what could –

A vine suddenly pushed him to the ground. Ash yelped in surprise and looked over up at Tangela from his fallen position. The grass-type stood in front of him bravely, a bloody, furious Umbreon captured in his vines. Umbreon snapped his jaws on one of the vines holding him, cutting the vine off, but Tangela barely seemed to notice.

The dark-type tried to lunge at Ash from inside the web of vines Tangela had bound it in, but the wriggling vines simply grew tighter and immobilized it. Umbreon continued to glow brightly and snarl and spit poisonous saliva and sweat at Ash, but the trainer was completely safe.

Ash quickly pulled himself back and stumbled away from the twisting and snarling Umbreon, staring at the bloody creature in horror. Umbreon was clearly injured – Ash could see that its side was stained a dark red and one of its long, narrow ears looked torn – but it didn't seem injured enough for that much blood.

His mind was instantly alit with fears of what the feral monster might have done to Nidorino. Ash felt immeasurable guilt swell up in him when he realized that he hadn't checked on his first friend after the first phase of fight, knowing that he might have consigned his friend to a horrible fate.

He clenched his fists and glanced at Umbreon with hateful eyes before glancing at Pierce. The Executive was no longer feigning hypnosis. Pierce had a small smirk on his face, matching the cold persona that Ash had grown familiar with far better than the psychotic, murderous look he'd worn during the beginning of the fight.

"Knock it out." He said tightly, not letting any of his fear or horror into his voice. Ash couldn't let Pierce know that he'd gotten to him. Tangela gurgled in reply and quickly sucked out all of Umbreon's energy, leaving the feral canine limp in his vines. The grass-type casually tossed the unconscious Umbreon aside, letting the dark-type fall to the ground heavily.

Ash gritted his teeth as he looked around for Nidorino. He couldn't see him in the immediate area, so he whistled for Plume. His friend swooped down from her lofty position and circled around the air about twenty feet above him.

"Find Nidorino and make sure he's safe." Ash called up to her, making his voice just quiet enough so that Pierce wouldn't be able to hear very well. Plume shrieked her understanding before taking off in search of their endangered comrade.

He glanced over at Tangela again. The grass-type was attentively watching him with a cocked head. "Use stun spore on Umbreon and come with me." Ash looked over at Infernus. "Come with me. We need to make sure Pierce doesn't get away."

Infernus tensed up at the name and something, fear, perhaps, no matter how alien the emotion was on Infernus, shot through his eyes. Ash frowned at that, but Infernus loyally walked ahead of him as he neared the frozen Executive.

"Don't try anything." Ash warned. Pierce just stared directly ahead, feigning hypnosis again. "Or I'll have Da—"

Pierce moved fast, so fast that Ash had no time to react. He plucked his last pokeball off of his belt and released whatever tormented monster slumbered within. Dazed tried to move, but whatever was in that pokeball was powerful enough to break her psybeam before she even used it.

Ash yelped in surprise when a metagross burst into the meadow, taking a good portion of the available space up with its incredible bulk. It gave the same cold, mechanical roar that Steven's Metagross had released before rearing up and slamming its front two legs onto the ground.

A massive earthquake ripped through the ground, leaving deep gouges and fissures in the earth. Ash was pulled away by Tangela just a moment before the deadly attack would have hit him. He nodded his thanks at the grass-type before focusing on the powerful pokemon that had taken over the field.

He didn't know much about metagross aside from the fact that they were amongst the most powerful pokemon in the world, native to Hoenn, around the same level of intelligence as an alakazam, and nigh invulnerable to physical attacks. Ash wasn't sure if he could take this monster of a pokemon down by himself. The Champions would be his saving grace if he wasn't strong enough.

But he wouldn't let Pierce walk over him. He would put up a fight, even if Metagross was probably strong enough to take on his entire team.

"Infernus, flamethrower!" Ash cried. Infernus pulled himself up from where he'd been knocked over and roared before following the command. A huge blast of flame burst from his mouth, streaming onto Metagross.

"Light screen." Pierce sneered. He looked over at Ash with a smirk. "You should run while you can! My dear cousin is still occupied in the warehouse and won't be able to save you this time."

Ash frowned in confusion. Cousin?

But he didn't have time to ponder it. The flamethrower had been nullified by Metagross' light screen, which appeared in the form of a bright, golden cube that simply absorbed the flames. Infernus was already rearing his head back to try again, but Ash stopped him with a shout.

"Fire spin. Blind Metagross." He commanded, stepping back from the battle. If Ash's next strategy worked right then it wouldn't be a good idea to stay around the battlers.

Infernus released a twister of orange flame at Metagross, heating the air up by an incredible degree. It didn't break upon the light screen as flamethrower had. Instead it encircled Metagross and swirled around it, completely blinding the steel-type and weakening it thanks to the intensity of the flames.

"Fire punch!" Ash ordered. He turned towards Tangela as Infernus' camouflage took effect, allowing the powerful fire-type to disappear into the roaring inferno and strike from anywhere. "Metagross is going to snuff out the fire spin. Can you hold it down when that happens?"

Tangela bounced up and down as he nodded. Ash grinned and patted him on the head. "Thanks."

Ash couldn't see anything beyond the swirling column of fire that engulfed Metagross other than a few glimpses of blue-gray steel, but a metallic roar showed him that Metagross must have been hit by the fire punch.

An instant later the light screen exploded outwards, carrying the flames with it. Most of the flames died before they could reach Ash, but a few white-hot cinders managed to survive. One hit Ash on the arm, causing the boy to hiss in pain and clutch at the small burn. He did his best to ignore the pain and focused on the fight.

Metagross was hurt by the fire spin and fire punch. It looked a bit less confident than it did before the battle began, but it still looked as though it could easily take on Ash's team.

"Beam spread." Pierce commanded in a casual manner before Ash's pokemon could counterattack. He was standing straight and tall, apparently uncaring of how the battle went. Ash wondered why he hadn't run yet, but figured that the Executive fully understood that there was no way he could escape without something that could teleport or fly. The Executive was probably just trying to take Ash down with him.

Ash didn't have to tell his pokemon to dodge whatever Metagross was about to do. He and his pokemon all leapt behind some sort of cover, mostly large, thick trees. He spotted Tangela using its vines to pull him up into the branches of a tree. A moment later, just as a huge sphere of pulsating white and gold energy formed in front of Metagross, Tangela yanked him up as well.

He recognized it as the beginning of a hyper beam, although Metagross seemed to be using its psychic abilities to hold the ball of hot energy in place as it grew and grew until it was much more powerful than it would be normally.

Metagross didn't seem to care that its targets had hidden. The hyper beam was suddenly released at full strength, but not in the way Ash had expected. Instead of a single large, powerful beam, the hyper beam was released as a hundred smaller ones. Each carried incredible power behind it, the focused energy capable of cutting through trees and stones as though they were paper.

The forest was left in ruins. A single one of the tiny hyper beams cut cleanly through an entire trunk and possessed enough power to carve through several trees before fizzling out. Everywhere around them the trees were collapsing and smoking from the immense heat and energy of the hyper beam. Ash's own tree wasn't fortunate enough to escape, but Tangela pulled him down as the grass-type left the tree. He managed to spy Infernus nursing a wound to the shoulder in the midst of the chaos, but he thought that Infernus would be fine. His friend had taken worse than a hyper beam.

While it had done some damage – the modified hyper beam had reduced the forest to fallen timber and had caused several dozen neat, molten holes in the side of the steel warehouse as well as the damage to Infernus – the hyper beam left Metagross completely exhausted. Pierce seemed to be fruitlessly searching for their bodies amongst the fallen trees and smoke, but he wouldn't be finding anything.

The deadly attack had made Ash's next strategy much easier. Metagross would be helpless as it recovered from the incredible strain the hyper beam placed upon its body, so Ash was going to take full advantage of it.

"Shadow ball, flamethrower, smokescreen, leaf storm!" Ash cried out breathlessly, speaking as fast as he could. His friends needed as much time as they could get.

A forgotten player in the battle suddenly made her presence known. Dazed blasted her powerful shadow ball into Metagross' side from her hidden position in the forest. Its energies disoriented the psychic-type and caused immense pain for Metagross, adding an additional effect upon the exhaustion the hyper beam brought upon it.

Infernus refused to let his injured shoulder hold him back and released the most powerful flamethrower Ash had ever seen from him, pouring all of his remaining power and fury into it. The massive cone of white flame washed over Metagross, the sheer power of the blast not inhibited in any form.

Before the flamethrower had even finished, Tangela shook his body and released dozens of green, glowing leaves surround him, carried by a cyclone. They shuddered for a moment before the cyclone carried the razor-sharp leaves towards Metagross at an incredible speed.

While such an attack wouldn't ordinarily do much damage to Metagross, the flamethrower had served to soften and melt some of Metagross' nigh invulnerable body. It would quickly harden again, but the leaf storm had been fired soon enough so that it did some real damage.

Infernus staggered towards Metagross with a feeble roar before he spewed out a huge cloud of black, oily smoke. Ash was at enough of an angle to where he could still see Metagross, although the right half of its huge body was still obscured from his vision.

From what he could see, the barrage of attacks had done quite a bit to the titan. Metagross looked to be in terrible pain from the shadow ball and flamethrower and slowly staggered upwards, having finally recovered from the hyper beam.

There was no worry in Pierce's voice as he gave a string of commands to Metagross. He seemed almost bored. "Evasive Attack Combination."

Metagross screeched in return, the high-pitched sound grating on Ash's ears. Ash blinked as he suddenly realized that there were four Metagross staring his friends down, each blurry and indistinct. A light blue aura of psychic energy covered each of them and they rushed towards the exhausted magmar at a terrifying speed that a gigantic steel monster should never reach.

None of them had time to react before the four Metagross rushed in on Infernus. Ash didn't even have time to blink before Metagross reached his friend. All he could make out was a raised arm that shined a brilliant white before coming down on Infernus' body, golden star-shaped particles blasting into the air as the huge metal claw crushed Infernus, sending the fire-type slamming into the ground with horrible force..

Ash blinked before a horrible rage overcame him. Infernus was crumpled on the ground, hot blood steaming and pooling from the large wound the attack had given him onto the ground. From what he could see the attack hadn't done any serious damage, but it had knocked Infernus unconscious and had hurt his friend. The severity of the wound mattered little to Ash when rage pounded through his head and his vision pulsed red.

"Shadow ball!" He roared to Dazed. "Tangela, hold it down!"

"Hyper beam." Pierce said lazily. He was haughtily standing up with a smirk on his face, amused at Ash's anger. "Full power. Kill the runt. You can take the shadow ball." The Executive seemed annoyed at some unspoken signal, however. "Yes, I'm sure! Just kill him!"

Metagross roared in reply and stared directly at Ash with its cold red eyes. He thought he could see a hint of remorse in its eyes before it prepared the attack. Ash blinked in fear as a sphere of churning red and gold energy formed in front of its face, the steel-type too fast for him to react in the least. Even Tangela was unable to pull him out of the way before the lethal hyper beam flashed towards him.

But a perfectly aimed ball of shadowy energy collided with the hyper beam midway through its journey, stopping the attack in its tracks. As the attacks met, a huge explosion occurred, hurling Ash and Tangela several feet back from the sheer force behind the blast.

Ash groaned and sat up, his ears ringing. He blinked sluggishly and looked at the exhausted Metagross. The strain of firing so many hyper beams in such a short amount of time weighed heavily upon the steel-type and it was helpless to resist as another shadow ball hurled by Dazed slammed into it, knocking the immense beast to the ground.

His perception was skewed, but he thought he saw relief in Metagross' eyes before it was thrown back by another shadow ball. It tried to pull itself back up, but it was a half-hearted effort. Dazed ruthlessly hurled more and more shadow balls at the incredibly powerful and resilient pokemon, preventing it from carrying out any of the commands Pierce was calmly giving it.

Ash began to pull himself up as Metagross was hit by one last shadow ball, this one finishing the immensely powerful steel-type off. It crashed to the ground unconscious, causing the ground to tremble.

He was assisted by two helpful vines that supported him as he stumbled towards Infernus. Ash was barely aware of his own injuries, although he still knew of them.

From what he could feel he would be badly bruised the next day. His mouth tasted like dirt and grime and his face felt like it had a heavy covering of ash on it. Ash didn't care, though. He just collapsed next to Infernus, examining his friend's wound with furious eyes.

"Dazed, use psybeam on Pierce!" He shouted. It wouldn't kill the Executive that had done this and so many other horrible things, but it would make him feel just a fraction of the pain his victims did.

Ash saw Pierce cry out in pain, real emotion and hurt on his face for the first time Ash had ever seen. Pierce slumped to the ground as Dazed sent another, weaker psybeam at him for good measure, the weak psychic attack blasting him onto his back.

He barely cared anymore. Ash just lightly touched Infernus for the first time, ignoring the hot pain coursing through his hands from Infernus' uncontrolled body heat. The trainer took most of his hand off when it grew too intense even for him but kept on staring at his friend's injury.

Infernus was hurt. He had a large gash on the center of his chest where the powerful attack Metagross had used impacted and blood was dribbling from the wound. A neat hole was burned into his shoulder, not going all the way through but coming close. Ash blinked and stared at both wounds in horror for a few moments before his sense returned to him.

Ash fumbled for Infernus' pokeball to return the injured pokemon. But even as he set his finger on the button that would return his friend to stasis, Infernus awoke slightly and blinked at Ash, reaching up for the trainer before collapsing again. He was returned a second later, out of his pain for a while.

He warily stood up, sending a glare at Pierce – who Dazed had disabled while Ash examined Infernus – before leaning on one of the few trees still standing after Metagross' devastating attack. The trainer gratefully accepted Tangela's support and let the grass-type prop him up.

He knew just how much this battle had cost him. Infernus was badly hurt, Dazed had come close to being eviscerated by Gengar, and Nidorino was still somewhere, probably hurt and possibly…no. That couldn't have happened. Nidorino was more than strong enough to take on that Umbreon. His friend was too tough to be…that.

Ash was suddenly aware of a gentle presence that prodded at his mind. He opened the eyes that he had unconsciously closed and stared at the bright blue form of Saph. The dragonair gently cooed at him and floated towards him before wrapping him up in its comforting coils.

Tangela hopped up and down and tried to hug Ash through the dragon's coils. Ash smiled at both of them but it slipped away when he looked at the familiar, limping form of Lance.

The Champion had a frown on his face as he surveyed the devastation, but his entire body tightened with anger when he saw Pierce. "Dragonite, get Steven. We found him."

Lance didn't waste time on the Executive once Dragonite had taken off. He walked over to Ash with a remorseful expression on his face.

"Are you okay?" The Champion asked worriedly. He put a hand on Ash's shoulder and kneeled in front of him. "What did Pierce do to you?"

"I'm fine." Ash replied stonily, still a little dazed from the explosion. "My pokemon, though…"

The Champion frowned and stood up. He released an immense pokemon, although it was smaller than dragonite. Ash looked at it through hazy eyes, noting that its stone was grey and rocky, but it had wings and looked like some sort of small dragon.

"Ash, what pokemon are you missing?"

Ash blinked before responding. "Nidorino got separated from me during the fight." Ash said guiltily. "My pidgeot is looking for him right now."

Lance nodded and glanced at the large stone beast. "Aerodactyl, go look for his Nidorino. Help his pidgeot bring it back safely."

Aerodactyl gave a low, rumbling growl before taking off, his large wings somehow supporting its massive weight. Ash watched it fly off, realizing that he'd seen that kind of pokemon before in a news article. It was one of the ancient, extinct pokemon that had been successfully cloned.

Those ancient pokemon were still incredibly rare, but they had been given immune systems that allowed them to survive in this new world. He never thought he'd see one in person, although he supposed it would make sense for the Champion to have access to such a rare pokemon.

"Listen, everything's going to be fine." Lance said soothingly. "Nidorino are tough. Yours is particularly powerful from what I've seen."

Ash nodded, still numb. His ears were ringing and everything Lance said seemed just a bit fuzzy and indistinct. But he could understand it well enough, even if it was hard to concentrate on what the Champion was saying.

Lance suddenly turned his head and called out to a newcomer. Ash followed his gaze and made out the furious form of Steven, his gigantic Metagross that positively dwarfed Pierce's floating behind him with a matching expression.

Steven stormed over to Ash, the angry expression fading into that of a worried one. "What happened?"

"Pierce's Metagross fired a hyper beam. Dazed intercepted it with a shadow ball. I got his by the explosion." Ash said, stumbling over his words a bit. Steven's face darkened at the mention of Pierce's Metagross but he was too concerned about Ash to do anything other than nod at the fallen man. Metagross quickly floated over to the Executive and stood on top of him.

"Lance, he needs to get to a Pokemon Center. Can Saph take him?"

The Indigo Champion nodded and looked at Saph. "You heard Steven. The Pokemon Center on this island can take care of him and his pokemon.

Saph crooned at Lance in understanding and uncoiled from around Ash, although it made sure that Tangela could keep him standing before doing so. Ash pulled himself up tiredly before looking at Lance with a curious expression.

"What about Nidorino?" Ash asked worriedly. "I need to get him and Plume."

"I'll take care of them." Steven said. "Just give me their pokeballs and I'll make sure they're safe."

Lance decided to interject. "I have several full restores on me at the moment." He explained. "Nidorino will be fine, I promise."

Ash wasn't happy about it, but he trusted the Champions. He took Plume and Nidorino's pokeballs off of his belt and handed them to Steven. The Master carefully took them and placed them on several additional slots on his belt.

"They're in good hands." Lance assured him as Ash returned Tangela and Dazed and climbed onto the waiting dragonair's back. Saph's small wings suddenly grew several sizes and the dragon-type began levitating in preparation to fly. Her scales were smooth but it was easy to securely hang onto her.

Lance walked over and spoke one last time to Ash before the young trainer was taken away. "You did great." He said approvingly. "Not many people could have taken down Pierce. I'm glad we brought you along."

Ash grinned at the praise before Saph took off, levitating just a bit higher before beginning to fly in earnest. She was careful and did nothing that might knock Ash off or even make him uncomfortable.

They quickly gained altitude. Ash's stomach lurched when he looked down, but after a few movements he calmed down. Saph's soothing aura helped him to lose some of the fear he felt at being up so high, enabling him to look down at the vast forest of Chronos Island without feeling any fainter than he already was.

He spotted several groups of people dressed in League uniforms rushing towards the Rocket warehouse as they passed over the forest. They were only flitting glances and he was too high up to make out any details, but he was just glad that they were there. At least there were enough of them to make sure none of the Rockets escaped.

Ash wasn't sure how long they spent flying, but after a while they began their descent. Saph was travelling at an incredible speed if the massive expanse of forest behind them was anything to go by, but she somehow kept the air from buffeting Ash. In fact, the winds seemed almost nonexistent. Perhaps she was manipulating the weather.

Saph carefully and quickly guided them down into the small town on Chronos Island. It was much larger than the one on Knot Island, but was still positively tiny compared to any of the great cities or towns of Kanto. Ash thought it was possibly the size of Viridian City, probably quite a bit smaller.

But that didn't matter. Saph knew exactly where to go. She gently landed right in front of a Pokemon Center. A Nurse Joy and several other workers were waiting in front of it. Nurse Joy quickly helpled him off of Saph, keeping him steady.

"Thanks." He directed towards Nurse Joy and Saph. The large dragon-type crooned her response at him before taking off again, probably heading back to the warehouse. She vanished in just a few seconds, no longer restricted by Ash's safety.

"Sam, take his pokemon." Nurse Joy ordered in a no-nonsense tone. A boy a few years older than Ash quickly removed the pokeballs from his waist. "You, what pokemon of yours are injured? The Champion was rather urgent."

Ash answered quickly, a sudden bout of clarity striking him in order to help his friends. "My magmar has a hole in his shoulder and got his by a meteor mash from a metagross. I don't think any of my other pokemon are hurt too badly."

Nurse Joy gave a sigh of relief and gently pulled him into the Pokemon Center. She guided the injured trainer through several hallways before reaching a room. He was put into a small bed before Nurse Joy began to rapidly do a bunch of things that Ash couldn't follow.

"This might hurt a bit." She warned. Ash didn't have a chance to see what she was doing before a sharp pain spiked in his hand. He winced but didn't try to get away from the needle she'd stabbed him with. A few moments later his vision faded and dimmed before cutting to black.

XX

Ash awoke an indeterminate amount of time later. He was sore all over, but his ears were completely fine. They weren't pounding with pain or ringing anymore, which was a great step up from the last time he'd been conscious.

He looked around curiously. Ash remembered being pulled into a Pokemon Center before being given the anesthetic, and this room definitely gave credence to that memory. It was just an average Pokemon Center room, albeit one with emergency medical equipment thrown up.

When he tried to move his hand, he felt a sharp pain. Ash hissed and immediately let himself fall back down. He looked at his left hand and saw that it had a needle stuck into it, feeding some sort of liquid into his body.

Ash frowned, but didn't try to get back up. Whatever was getting pumped into him was there for a reason. Besides, he was sore all over. Even the slightest motion sent pangs of pain throughout his body.

So he waited, worried about the fate of his friends. Infernus would probably be fine, but there were all kinds of things that could go wrong when an attack that powerful hit. He just couldn't get that niggling worry out of his head.

It was Nidorino that he was really worried about. He at least knew what happened to Infernus. Nidorino had been pulled away before he got into the real fight with the savage Umbreon. Ash had no idea how bad his injuries were, but they had to have been bad enough to leave some of the blood that matted Umbreon's fur. What really struck Ash about the danger Nidorino was in was that Umbreon had gotten away from him. Nidorino was far too stubborn and protective to let the dangerous dark-type anywhere near Ash.

But Ash still held onto his hope. Like Lance had said, Nidorino was tough. He would pull through.

He was suddenly pulled from his thoughts as the light wooden door was carefully opened. Two figures that he instantly recognized as the Champions stepped through. Their expressions were both hard, but they lightened up when they saw that Ash was awake.

"And the hero's awake!" Lance said loudly. He was grinning maniacally. "Damn good job, Ash! Like I said before, I'm glad we brought you. Pierce is now secured behind bars. He won't be getting broken out anytime soon!"

Ash gave the boisterous Champion a small grin. It made his face feel sore, but it was worth it. He was glad to have earned his hero's approval. But Steven was different. The former Champion obviously thought that Lance's praise was more than enough and looked at Ash with a critical expression, obviously worried.

"How are you feeling?" Steven asked. He looked completely fine, untouched from the storming of the warehouse. The former Champion walked over to Ash and handed him a water bottle. "You've been kept hydrated for the last three hours." He explained. "But I know from experience that it doesn't help with your throat."

Ash nodded his thanks towards him before taking small sips of water. He knew that if he tried to take huge gulps that he would end up regretting it later. When he finally had enough to sooth the slight burn in his throat Ash replied to the patiently waiting Steven.

"I'm fine." Ash said. It wasn't a complete lie. He was sore and bruised, but that was to be expected. He could easily get over that. What mattered right now was his pokemon. "Did you find Nidorino? How's my magmar?"

Lance took over. "Calm down there, Ash. We found Nidorino. He was hurt, but he'll be fine. Your magmar is already healed. It took four doses of full restores, but all the damage was healed."

Ash sighed in relief. "How badly was Nidorino hurt?" He asked worriedly. Even if his friend would be fine, he wanted to know what Nidorino had been put through.

Steven frowned, a shadow flashing over his face. "He was savaged by Pierce's Umbreon. It looked like he dealt just as much back, but Nidorino was knocked out. He had a few broken bones and some bad bites. They're working on him now."

The trainer crashed back down to the bed. He suspected that Steven wasn't going into the worst details in order to avoid upsetting him, but what he'd been given was enough. Ash scowled and looked at the ceiling before asking some more questions.

"What injuries do I have?"

"Nothing major." Steven said calmly, but a flash of restrained anger burned through his face as he described the injuries. "A few lacerations and gashes on your arms and chest. You had a few minor burns and severe bruising on the front of your body. Everything but the bruising has been fixed. You're going to be sensitive and a bit weak for the next few days, but aside from that you'll be fine."

Ash sighed in relief, but froze after that. He'd had a lot of work done. Just how long had he been unconscious. When he voiced those thoughts, Steven smiled.

"Just five hours."

The trainer looked at the former Champion quizzically, unable to believe that. He didn't even feel any cuts or stitches, let alone gauze or anything else for the burns.

Steven seemed to understand his confused expression. "You only had minor injuries. Nurse Joy just had to stitch you up and put some modified potion on your cuts. About an hour later it had healed enough for the stitches to dissolve. She just used a modified burn heal for everything else. Unorthodox, but it works. Your bruising was the only thing she couldn't fix."

Ash nodded. He didn't have any more questions relating to his pokemon's injuries or his own. But he still had a few things to ask about the battle itself. "How did your battle go?"

Lance suddenly made his presence known again, dominating the room with his loud, powerful voice. "It was child's play!" He boomed, no longer serious as he had been during the operation. "A few more Rockets than we'd expected, but it was child's play for Dragonite and Metagross!"

The bedridden trainer cocked his head. "But you were expecting about eighty grunts."

"Exactly!" Lance laughed, the same maniacal grin on his face. His cape lightly flapped from the small breeze coming through an open window as he continued grinning. It seemed that their victory had made him quite excited. "They were almost boring to fight. Most of them just tried to run after we defeated their pokemon. Those grunts weren't even good distractions for Pierce."

Ash scowled at the mention of Pierce. The Executive might be behind bars now, but Ash would hate him with a burning passion for the rest of his life. Pierce had ended and ruined too many lives for him to just vanish out of Ash's memory.

"The Rockets have been sent back to Indigo Plateau." Steven said calmly. "They are awaiting trials at the moment. Their pokemon are being rehabilitated."

"What's happening with Pierce?" Ash asked. The grunts were just a minor problem in comparison to the man that had destroyed the St. Anne and left thousands to die. "And his pokemon, for that matter."

Steven frowned thoughtfully and leaned back in the chair he had taken. His hands were clasped together as he spoke. "Pierce is actually being sent back to Hoenn. He's too valuable for the Rockets to not attempt a rescue attempt and they don't have enough of a presence in Hoenn to try one."

"Back?" Ash questioned.

"He came from Hoenn." Steven admitted, his eyes glinting with anger at the thought of Pierce. "That's why we have first dibs on him. He's one of ours, and we're taking him back."

Ash frowned. He could understand their reasons for taking him back to Hoenn, but he wanted Pierce to pay for his atrocities in Kanto. The people of Kanto were the ones he had terrorized. Still, justice was justice. They were all united against Team Rocket, after all.

They were silent for a while until Lance spoke up. He had a slight smile on his face. "By the way, don't think you aren't getting rewarded for your work. You kept one of the worst criminals in Kanto from escaping and played a vital role in battling Team Rocket."

He leaned forward curiously. Ash was never averse to an award.

"I just added forty thousand dollars to your trainer card." Lance said, grinning wider at Ash's stunned expression. That was twice as much money as he'd made in his entire career so far, and he'd battled more trainers in a few months than most did in a year. "That about a tenth of the money we've recovered so far at the warehouse, so I thought it would only be fair to give you it."

"Thanks!" Ash said in a daze, stunned at the reward. Lance just smirked.

"Did you think that's all? Steven and I both have something for you as well."

Ash managed to pull himself up, curious as to what the Champions might have gotten him. Lance suddenly snickered. "We aren't giving it to you yet. You'll get it when we arrive at Cinnabar Island."

"When are we leaving?" He asked in a disappointed tone, annoyed at Lance for stringing him along.

"Tomorrow." Steven replied as he suddenly stood up. "You'll be ready to travel by noon and Nidorino will be stable enough to put into a pokeball."

While he was annoyed that he wouldn't be getting whatever it was the Champions were giving him right now, Ash was more focused on the fact that Nidorino would be healed by tomorrow. From the injuries Steven had described he'd expected Nidorino to stay in the Pokemon Center for at least two days.

Ash suddenly felt tired. It had been lingering with him the entire time he'd been talking, but the excitement had made it come to the forefront of his mind. He collapsed back onto the bed.

"It looks like your painkillers are taking effect again." Steven said quietly. "We'll leave you to your rest now."

Lance gave him a grin and another bout of praise before leaving, cape trailing in his wake. Steven followed him moments later.

Before the former Hoenn Champion left, however, he glanced back at Ash. "You did better than I could have imagined. As Lance said, not many trainers could have taken down Pierce with only their pokemon. Keep on going, Ash. You're going somewhere."

With that Steven left Ash. Ash struggled to keep awake, but he couldn't fight the exhaustion for very long. Soon he fell into unconsciousness, getting some well-deserved rest.

XX

Well, there's chapter nine. Thanks for reading, everybody, and make sure to review!

But before I end this, I have one last thing to say. I'm going to be having a tournament in the story sometime soon, and I need some trainers for it. If you want to, send me a PM with your trainer and their pokemon or leave it in a review if you're leaving one.

Here are the rules: No legendaries. Any legendaries are going to be instantly disqualified. I'd hope that all of you can come up with something more creative than a pseudo-legendary or shinies, but those aren't instantly disqualified. I need a list of all of the pokemon's moves, a basic personality and appearance for the trainer.

Anyways, thanks for reading!