"Keep movement close and as a group, no telling how many of his lackies this 'leader' has brought here." Giovanni said.
"If what your lackies said is true, then this is his crowning moment and we have no time to lose." Lance said.
"Ash, you have the Rainbow Wing with you, correct?" Giovanni double checked.
"Right here." Ash said, opening his jacket to show his seven badges and then the rainbow wing in the eighth spot.
"Good, make sure you hold onto it, if he succeeds in going through time, we'll need both our wings to succeed." Giovanni said.
"Then why not combine them now just in case?" Ash asked.
"Because if we did, and our assumptions of him finding the other GS Ball are incorrect, we'd be walking the key right to him." Koga pointed out.
"So then we shouldn't bring both wings with us, but then if he has it and uses his, we'll need both wings so we should keep them, but then if we don'tâ". Ash said, trying to make sense of this puzzle.
"He's certainly like his father, isn't he." Giovanni said looking next to Lance.
"Most certainly. Wait until you see him in a proper battle." Lance commented.
"Wait, my, my dadâ you two knew my dad, how do you to know my dad?" Ash questioned.
"We were old running buddies, back when we were your age." Giovanni responded.
"Not a chance. My dad and Lance, are areâ". Ash said unsure what to say.
"Everyone has a past Twerp." Butch reminded. Even our boss has done things he'd rather not admit."
"Good or bad?" Ash asked.
"That depends on which point of view you have." Cassidy remarks. "Hold on, something's coming?"
The group stopped, noticing a sound of groups of footsteps rushing towards them.
"Looks like we've been found." Giovanni said, "You two know what to do."
"Right." Cassidy said, pushing Ash back with Lance and Koga. "You keep going, we will keep them all distracted."
"Wait, this is not a good idea." Ash said. "We can't seriously be leaving them."
"Bigger picture Ash." Lance said. "We need to stop the Masked Man, and the only way that's happening is if we keep moving, so they're doing their part."
"Relax, we've got this. These goons have nothing on what we've got in store." Butch said, grabbing one of his Pokeballs.
"Come on Ash, we need to keep moving." Koga said, pulling Ash along as they followed Lance and Giovanni.
"Alright Butchy, let's do our part." Cassidy said, grabbing a Pokeball. "Granbull let's go!"
"Hitmontop come on out!" Butch said.
As the two Pokemon came out, a large group of Masked Team Rocket members rushed towards the two Team Rocket members.
"Face it you two are outmatched and outnumbered." One Masked Team Rocket member declared.
"See there's the thing you knockoffs will never understand about us, we defy the odds all the time." Cassidy said. "Granbull use Swagger!"
"Hitmontop use Swagger!" Butch called out.
"What?! What did you do to us?!" The Masked Team Rocket member yelled angrily.
"We told you, you've got nothing on us." Butch said. "Our Pokemon didn't just enrage and confuse your Pokemon. We enraged and confused you too."
"What, that's not possible to happen!" The Grunt argued. "What are all of you doing just standing there. Get in gear!"
"Get out of our way! You're no higher than the rest of us!" Another barked back.
"Hey, who said you can talk to me like that!" The first argued, launching at his teammate.
"I'll be honest, I had no idea that would work." Butch admitted.
"Suggestion is a mighty powerful tool apparently." Cassidy admitted, as the lights flickered and a yellow blur sped past in the moment of darkness.
Back with Ash, Lance, Giovanni, and Koga
"I can't believe this. We agreed to a truce, and you just left them!" Ash said, stopping in his tracks.
"Ash, this is a truce, but we all have parts to play." Koga said. "Even if we don't know what it is at the time."
"You're one to talk about parts to play. It wasn't that long ago you played another." Giovanni countered.
"Now hold on the rest of us left and you know exactly why!" Koga argued.
"Wait, are you saying, you and Giovanni, you worked together?" Ash asked.
"Hardly, it was more of we worked with him. Myself and a few others." Koga said.
"But, you're a gym leader! A member of the Pokemon League!" Ash argued.
"We all are. We saw the damage we were causing and left Team Rocket behind, Lance was grateful enough to give us jobs to change our lives around." Koga said.
"You were afraid of what we were accomplishing, the four of you leaving set my plans back years!" Giovanni snapped.
"Is that why my dad left?" Ash asked. "Because of what you were trying to accomplish, was he one of them?"
"Please, he left years before then, not long after he became champion, and Lance was his second in command." Giovanni said.
"My dad was champion!" Ash exclaimed.
"He never told you. I took over when he started spending more time at home, I figured you would have known all this." Lance said.
"No, he left when I was four." Ash admitted.
"Seven years ago." Giovanni commented. "Both of your events line up, seems one thing in your life going right wasn't caused by me."
"You caused my dad to leave!" Ash said in shock. "What next are you going to tell me Cassidy is actually my rich aunt?!"
"Ash, we don't need to discuss all of this right now, we've all made mistakes, when I defeated your father, it was meant to be a simple match at first, but then he stepped away, and we never spoke again." Lance said.
"But now I find out the two of you used to work with Giovanni, and even more recently Koga, and three other gym leaders who I might have fought and even learned things from worked with him. Isn't he supposed to be the bad guy?!" Ash argued.
"Ashton, enough." Giovanni said calmly. "What you're saying, it's all true, but the truth of it is that at a time they agreed with my plans. We've already been over that good and bad are relative speaking."
"But you are the bad guys!" Ash argued.
"Says who?" Giovanni asked. "In my eyes Lance is on the bad side of things. He uses propaganda to give the idea that what I am trying to achieve needs to be stopped at any cost."
"You're trying to rule the world!" Lance argued.
"I'm trying to finish what I started!" Giovanni argued.
"ENOUGH!" Koga interfered. "We can argue the semantics of right and wrong all day, but right now we have someone we all agree to be on the wrong side of things right now."
"Shut up." Ash said.
"Now is not the time!" Koga argued.
"No shut up, listen." Ash said, as the base shook.
"Ash, look out!" Koga said, pushing Ash out of the way as crystals shot up, encasing him in them.
"What's going on?" Ash asked.
"He's getting close." Giovanni said. "We need to keep moving."
"Nice try, but the three of you aren't going any further." Karen said, walking up with a saunter. "Houndoom use Flamethrower!"
"Allow me." Giovanni said. "Beedrill use Poison Sting!"
Beedrill flew out of a Pokeball, sending a flurry of needles that pierced through the flames, striking down the Houndoom.
"Now stop her with Twin Needle." Giovanni commanded.
Beedrill launched a set of stingers out, pinning Karen to the wall of the base.
"That wasâ." Ash said in amazement of the singular move taking out such a stronger Pokemon.
"Like I said, we were friends back in the day, thick as thieves and the greatest of rivals. Three champions in our own right." Giovanni said.
"The leader, the wanderer, and the dreamer." Lance said. "I won't lie that I am the one pushing for Giovanni's stopping, however there needs to be protocols in place to stop what he tries to do. Last time I allowed him to go unchecked, he created a creature of untamable Power." Lance said.
"Mewtwo." Ash realized.
"Yes, and since then I've been working to try and fix my problem." Giovanni said. "And seeing as you refuse to assist me, and my trusted admins and scientist that helped making this have sided with you, I've needed to find other ways of containing my creation."
"Look as good as this is, the crystals are growingâ again. We need to keep going." Ash reminded.
"Right, we agreed to a truce. Let's keep that to topics as well until we're done here." Lance said, following Ash into the base.
"I agree that is for the best." Giovanni said, following the duo.