AN: A BIT LATE THAN EXPECTED. APOLOGIES.

Earth-678B

Route 01

"Iron tail." Ash commands. Pikachu was immediately on the side of his opponent who happens to be Beedrill. Flying bug or not, Pikachu got some amazing leverage as he swings his tail.

Beedrill is a good flying Pokemon. But not good enough for a successful dodge. Like a shuriken in the wind Pikachu came spinning and landing a powerful iron tail which send the poor bud so far into a tree and immediately got knocked out. The move was strong enough to cause a shockwave. With that said, the Beedrill trainer just stood there stunned and slowly looks at his fainted bug.

The trainer is a ten year old and he fell in his knees with a dreadful look. "That's barely five seconds. And the match is already over?" The boy mumbled.

Ash stood there facing the boy and he walks towards the rock where he left his bag.

"H...hey hold on." The boy called.

Ash looks at him and waited for the boy to speak.

"Um..umm..you sure you didn't use any cheap tactics, right?" The boy nervously asked.

Ash knew that reaction very well and chuckled. "One of these days you'll run into some trouble considering you were so confident while challenging me. One day you'll mess things up and get into some serious trouble. Then I'm sure you won't live long enough to question whether it's cheating or not." Ash said. He usually isn't the type to give advises. But it wasn't an advice either.

The boy gulped and recalled his Beedrill. "It's not like I'm that weak all the time. Today was a bad day." He came up with an excuse.

"It doesn't matter whether your day is bright or dull. Your opponent won't care about you. It's all about the battle, and that's that." Ash said equipping his backpack and Pikachu ran up his shoulder.

The boy sighed and was silent for a bit until something caught his attention. Ash saw his eyes widen. "Is that a Masterball on your neck?" The boy wondered.

The Masterball is connected to the necklace Ash is wearing and he just shrugged. "It might be." He said walking past the boy.

"Umm... your going to Viridian city, mr?" The asked once again.

"That's the plan anyway." Ash said not looking back.

"Then be careful okay." The boy said gaining Ash's attention.

"Why's that?"

The boy hesitated but decided to speak eventually. "The city's in terrible lockdown for the last three days. Aside from the Pokemon centre, every other place is shut down." The boy explained.

"Lockdown, huh? What happened?" Ash questioned.

"Theft. Don't know who's behind it all. But officers are petrolling the area. Without your ID, you can't get in there as well. I don't have one so I was going back home." The boy said.

Ash just nodded. "I'll be just fine." Ash said more to himself. "Bye." Ash simply said and walked towards the direction of Viridian city.

"Bye, mister." He heard the boy say.

That was a news. Lockdown isn't that rare. Theft is all around and day by day he's keep running into new things. But there's a smile on his face.

"It's one of those times, Pikachu." Ash said.

"Pika?"

"Officer jenny may have some work for us. Easy money just waiting to be handed over." He said excited about all the bounty he's gonna collect.

"And you know your part, right?"

"Pikachu." Pikachu nodded.

"Good."

(FEW HOURS LATER)

Outskirts of Viridian City.

"Are you sure, this is the right place?" Penny wondered observing the warehouse that is connected to a big pond.

The black haired girl nods her head. "I saw some guys the other day. Safe to say we're in the right spot."

Penny sighed. "Do we actually need to? I mean, the whole city is in lockdown. Do you remember the last time we got caught?" Penny showed her sceptical opinion.

The black haired girl blushed for some reason and Penny noticed that. "I can't believe you, Irene. Ketchum did you things doesn't he? That asshole is always ruining our plans and you're just getting attached to him. Unbelievable." Penny said irritated.

Irene blushed even more. "L.. let's not talk of him. W..we should focus at the task at hand." Irene dodges the conversation of the menace of a bounty hunter.

"It's not like that freak just randomly shows up everywhere. Just remember this, don't spread those thighs the second he shows up." Penny warned.

"We're far pallet town, okay." Irene reasoned. "Either way he just gets things he wants anyway." She spoke under her breath.

"Come again?" Penny said not hearing her partner.

Irene tensed up and stuttered. "N..nothing."

Penny sighed. "Yeah, whatever you say. Just what's the plan exactly?"

Irene nods. "I've checked the back entrance. It's completely open and there's a lot of those guys around. So I've decided to get in through a rusty hole on the other side. There's a higher chance of getting cuts from the corroding metal, but that's our only logical entrance. I'm pretty sure that side of the warehouse is unstable, which is why there won't be anyone there." Irene explained her plan.

(She has yellow eyes and pale skin. Her silky black hair is tied up in two ponytails and she wore a same black catsuit a Penny, with a red cross on the chest. Her body was curvy just like Penny's, but she's shorter than her hotheaded friend. Irene is only around Penny's shoulder level.)

"Pretty good plan. At least Ketchum didn't fuck all your brains out completely." Penny said.

Irene blushed again. "Stop with that, Penny. You're now being mean."

Penny scoffed. "At least I'm not making shit up. He told me that exact same thing." She said. "On top of all that he took away the Masterball. I was sure there was some Pokemon in there. Easy money, just gone." Penny complained.

Irene shook her head. "We can talk about it later. Now let's get in there. We shouldn't delay it any further." Irene said.

"Yeah. Sure. Lead the way, madam." Penny sarcastically teased.

"Stop being, mean. Jeez." Irene said and walked towards the destination, which is only few metres away.

Penny followed her companion and they'll soon infiltrate this old junky warehouse.

Eventually, both girls reached the destroyed metal wall. As Irene said, it was rusty. It might be also sharp enough to cut them. That's some free infection waiting to be happening.

"Be careful okay. I'm going in first." Irene instructs.

"Sure." Penny still didn't gave up the teasing tone and Irene just ignored it.

Irene slowly crawls in being extra careful not to cut herself. Penny almost got a cut but she managed.

Irene put a finger on her lips, saying to stay silent. Penny just rolled her eyes and awkwardly gave her a thumbs up.

Irene nods and she slowly turns to the left, leading both of them on to a dimly lit pathway. Wet loose concrete was crunching under their foot, so they had to move extra slowly to avoid detection.

"Containment 04, locked and secure, sir." They've heard a distant voice of a male reporting.

"Good. In next 48 hours, our transportation is arriving. I want all hands on duty." Another voice barked orders.

"Seems like there's more going on than we thought." Penny whispered.

"With these people, we can't tell what they're up to. But I'm sure the thing we're looking for is gonna be in the store room. It was a whole crate." Irene explained.

"What's with the containment 04, anyway? What is it?" Penny wondered.

"I doubt it's anything good. Let's just not wait around to find out." Irene suggested.

Penny just followed her partner, and eventually they are behind a wall peeking out to find a door. "Warehouses have in this city have similar interior design. I'm pretty sure, that's the room we're looking for." Irene said.

"Let's go then." Penny said almost leaving the cover, but Irene immediately stopped her.

"Wait."

"What?" Penny said confused.

"We don't know if anyone is around. Let's try to do it slowly." Irene said.

They've waited for some minutes and there's no sound of anyone nearby. Penny looks at her partner who nodded.

Both girls slowly came out of the cover and moved closer to the door. Gladly there's no one in sight. Penny was the one who tried to open the door. It wasn't locked, but due to it being rusty metal door, it made a creaking noise.

"Hey, open it slowly." Irene said again.

"What it looks like I'm doing?" Penny scoffed and gently pushed the door little by little. It took her few more minutes until the door is open. It made sounds but they were sure it wasn't loud.

"This place is strange. There's no surveillance camera's around." Irene noticed the lack of security.

Penny shrugged. "Those guys were talking about leaving. Maybe it's just a temporary hideout or something." Penny guessed. Both of the girls entered the store room and immediately noticed the heavy amount of supplies. Crates of things was around and they almost drools seeing that.

"Is this heaven?" Penny asked more to herself and eyes the items that could be sold for some huge amount of money.

Irene sighed and looks at the one particular crate they were looking for. "There. That's it. We can't carry the whole thing." She said walking closer.

The crate was big enough for them to ditch the idea of carrying it out whole. "Who needs a box. Fill your suit with those stones. We're running from here." Penny said opening the crate, revealing the content inside. The evolution stones. Thunder stone, fire stone and many more stones.

"Wow. It's better than expected." Irene said.

Penny just picked two stones and pushed it in her small bag on the belt. Irene did the same.

Six stones collected and they were distracted for a second and then they heard the door creak open.

"What the?" Came a surprised male voice.

Both girls immediately looks at the person who showed up and they saw a guy on his thirties standing there with eyes wide open in surprise. His black outfit is labelled by the red 'R' and he wore a cap as well. The team rocket grunt just noticed them.

"Who are you?" The guy said out loud.

"Fuck. Guess we're getting out the hard way." Penny clicks her tongue and immediately threw her Pokeball straight at the man's face. In mid-air her Sandshrew came out of the Pokeball and used it's head to smash on to the guy's face sending him flying. The team rocket guy immediately got knocked out.

"HEY, WHO'S THERE." They heard another sound as few footsteps came closer to the storeroom.

"We got the thing. So let's go." Penny said out loud and Irene nods.

She also threw her Pokeball and a Butterfree came out. "Stun spore." She ordered just in time when other two team rocket grunts shows up. Both guys ran into the stun spore.

"Use rollout, Sandshrew." Penny ordered her ground rodent who took out the grunts who were effected by stun spore.

"Let's go. I think we really kicked the Beedrill' nest." Irene said running out of the room followed by Butterfree, Penny and Sandshrew.

The exit was supposed to be the same hole they've crawled through. That's the only possible exit. Both girls and their Pokemon ran as fast as they could.

"Houndoom, Stop those trespassers." Came the voice of the same guy who was ordering the other grunts before.

The dark type Pokemon suddenly halts in front of them blocking their way.

Houndoom growled at them and scaring Butterfree and Sandshrew a little. "Fuck. Why do we always get caught?" Penny growled in annoyance.

"They've still haven't captured us. I'll assist you." Irene immediately decided and Penny nodded.

"Use gust." Irene ordered.

"Use dig." Penny followed suite.

The plan was simple. To distract the dark type with the power of wind and sneak up with the dig.

That's exactly what happened. The gust hit the hound and it wasn't as effected by it, but Sandshrew was already on its side using dig.

"Rollout." Penny ordered just as Sandshrew come out of the ground next to the dark type Pokemon. The ground rodent turns into a ball and spins midway and the move rollout successfully connected with it's jaw. Houndoom got send straight into the metal wall and the impact was brutal.

"Capture them." Houndoom' owner barks order at other team rocket grunts.

There were a seven other people. This particular group of team rocket was small in number. Probably others have already left.

Five of those seven others released their Pokemon, and three of them was Houndours and the remaining two were Zubats. Immediately the five Pokemon cornered them. One of Zubats using confuse ray on Sandshrew.

With Sandshrew confused, both Penny and Irene was left with only Butterfree. But Butterfree cannot take out them all.

"Restrain them." The group leader commands and the Houndoom from earlier circled them and the last bit of space they have to escape is now gone.

"All the fucking time. Dammit." Penny cursed.

Irene sighed. "Sorry." She apologized.

"Don't worry. It happens all the time." Penny said.

With no option left, both girls stand down.

The team leader looks at their catsuit and was confused when seeing red cross on their chest.

"Team Red Cross? Operating in Kanto? That's odd." The man said.

"We're everywhere. Unlike you we try to cover most of the the places." Penny said.

The man chuckled. "Either way, hand over whatever you took or else my Pokemon will torch you to ashes." The man said.

Penny's eyes twitched in annoyance. "Why is every goddamn people I run into, says the exact same thing." Hand over, is the two words she's really familiar with. It's always Ash. But now some random team rocket guy saying the same thing.

"Huh?" The guy said confused.

"Didn't told you anything. I'm just cursing myself." Penny shouts irritated.

"Man, she's crazy." One of the grunts muttered.

"Wanna know, how crazy? I'll pickle your tiny dicks and shove it down your throats." She yelled glaring daggers at them.

The guy had his mouth agape hearing that.

"Hey hey. You're still alive because of you being a part of another organisation. But don't take it as our weakness, bitch." The leader shouts.

"Now, tell me. Why in earth-" he was asking questions only cut off when something happened.

"Take out the Houndoom. Use hydro pump." A female voice echoes in the warehouse and the next second a huge amount of water came with extreme pressure that works like a cannon, which immediately connects with houndoom.

Everyone got startled by the sudden attack.

Houndoom got caught in the attack and the hydro pump was enough to knock out the dark type Pokemon.

"WHAT THE HELL?" The man shouts and everyone looks to the side and saw what Pokemon used the hydro pump.

A Golduck stood there now looking at the out cold dark hound.

Behind the majestic water type Pokemon, stood a girl with orange hair, yellow tank top and black shorts with red suspenders.

The girl stood there hands crossed and she got a pissed off look.

"At last. I get to kick your asses." She said sounding scary, and they didn't know how to react.

"Now, who is this? Is she with you?" The leader asked both Irene and Penny.

"Why ask us. That girl is talking to you, dimwit." Penny snapped back.

"I'M FROM CERULEAN CITY, YOU TEAM ROCKET SCOUNDREL." The orange haired girl shouts and as if that's a clue, her Golduck used hydro pump on the remaining five Pokemon. The hydro pump took out the five Pokemon, as well as it's owners except for the team leader.

The guy fell back tried to crawl away. "I.. I don't get it. What's your problem?" The guy asked.

"Still don't get it, do you? I'm Cerulean City gym leader. The person who's responsible for taking care of the water type Pokemon that you stole." She explained getting closer. "And I'm really shocked. Not only the water Pokemon, you got other ones captured too. FOR FIVE DAYS. FIVE GODDAMN DAYS I'VE BEEN SEARCHING FOR YOU." She roared in anger scaring the man. Penny and Irene just stood there unable react, according to the situation. In the span of ten minutes so much happened. This is one of the confusing and complicated thing they've ran into.

"And you two." The girl said looking at both girls. "I know that Red cross. I've seen some people running around flashing that label. But I've never seen you." She said. "You're thieves too." The orange haired girl said.

They can't believe how much of a bad mood she's in. She sounded so scary. They really doubt that it's just her normal behaviour. Because they can see the pure hatred when she looks at the guy.

"Knock him out." She ordered. Golduck used psychic and slams the guys head into the wall behind knocking him out cold almost immediately. With that alone, Irene and Penny knew, this girl isn't fucking around.

"Y.. you're the gym leader, Misty. Right? I've heard a lot about you." Irene was the one to say it.

"I'm sure you did. Now I want you to recall your Pokemon. And you should better listen to me. I'm still in a bad mood. You better don't try me." Misty ordered.

Penny was about to say something when Irene stops her and motioned her to do as Misty says. Penny was hesitant, but both of them recalled their Pokemon back.

"Keep an eye on them. If either of them tries anything, just knock them out." Misty ordered.

Golduck nods.

Misty then looks around and there were many Pokemon inside the cage. "Sick bastards. Why do they have to do the one thing I despise the most. ASSHOLES." Misty was literary fuming.

Penny and Irene gulped nervously. They've never met anyone like Misty before. The temper tantrum she's throwing is genuinely scary. She didn't even let those guys say a thing. She's so hardcore.

Few minutes later, Misty stood next to the water and a huge metal cage was in there and it has something written on it. "Containment 04." Misty reads the inscription.

She sighed. The Pokemon she was searching for us in there.

She looks around all the innocent Pokemon in cages with some coller on their necks, which likely retraining them from using any moves.

Misty walks back to other two girls and glares at them. "Do you have anything to do with this whole thing?"

"N..no." Irene stuttered genuinely feeling nervous around this hothead.

Penny scoffs. "Don't compare us with them. And second of all, it's not like they were clearly trying to capture us as well." Penny replied.

Misty glared at her and Penny just looks away, annoyed.

However they heard footsteps behind Misty and when seeing the person, Penny and Irene had their eyes widened.

"Ketchum?" Penny said in disbelief. He's literally, everywhere.

Ash just chuckled hearing her and he looks around at the captured Pokemon in cage.

"What a surprise. Was looking for someone. Didn't expect you to be involved as well." He said slowly walking side to side and looks at Misty, who surprisingly felt shivers down her spine when he looks at her.

"New friend of yours, huh?" He said.

"WHO ARE YOU?" Misty yells at the newcomer.

Ash smirks. "Let's talk when it's settled." He said and Pikachu was ready to attack.

Irene immediately realised why he's trying to attack them. "Hey, you got the whole thing wrong. It's not how it looks like." She said.

(AN HOUR AGO)

Viridian City.

"You can enter." The checkout confirms his ID and allowed his the permission to enter the city.

Ash looks around as he walked. As that boy said. The city's in complete lockdown.

The first destination was closer and he walks into the officer Jenny's office.

She looks up and sighed when seeing him. "Ash." She called.

But she's not the only one there. Nurse Joy was there as well. Nurse Joy got a gloomy expression and Jenny looks at the sad woman.

"You know how things are, right? We're trying. Our Pokemon haven't got a lead yet. We're trying." Jenny said politely.

"I'm just worried about Chancey. She's never been away from me before." Nurse Joy said sadly.

Jenny nods. But then she looks at Ash and got idea. "You're looking for a bounty, Ash?" She asked.

"That's the reason I'm here. Why else would I be In here other than to see you 'properly'." He said with smirk.

"Oh, come on. It's not time to flirt. How about this? You head to the outskirts and search for Chansey. Iur Pokemon can't cover all the places at once. And here." Jenny said tossing him a white nurse hat. "It got Chancey' scent. Your payment will be ready by the time you come back." Jenny said casually.

Ash just accepted the job, just like that. "To the outskirts, she'll we?" He said his trademark line and Pikachu agreed.