Chapter 14: Starting the mission

"What happened to you?" Tori asked. He moved over to let a tired-looking Hop sit down. Hop tenderly sat onto the chair, not wanting to injure his leg, and sighed.

Tori and Serena had arrived at the Pokemon Center both very late at night and when they entered the room Hop had registered, they found him searching through his Rotom Phone, looking through photos of something. They didn't know he wouldn't show it to them. When they woke up, they found Hop asleep on the hotel bed with his phone over his face. Tori covered him with a blanket before leaving.

Serena sunnily said, "Good morning," Hop didn't respond instead he grabbed one of Serena's poffins and nibbled it. Serena sighed, "So you're still going to ignore me."

Hop put the half-eaten poffin onto the table, he looked at Serena and said, "I'm sorry for insulting Pokemon Showcases, that was pretty mean of me."

Tori raised an eyebrow, Hop apologizing, Tori would've never thought he'd live to see the day. He opened his mouth to joke about it but saw Hop's dead eyes and stopped talking,

Meanwhile, outside the window Korrina was pacing around, thinking of a good way to fix her image with Hop and make a good first impression with Tori. Lucario put his hands around her shoulders and stopped her.

"I've seen you pace this street for an hour," Lucario said, "Anybody seeing you would think you're a madman."

Korrina stood still leaning against the window, "I know, but I just want to think of the perfect scenario."

"Why think when you can act, you've thought for the past few days," Lucario said, he used his paw to stop Korrina, "You can't keep avoiding this."

"Just let me think a bit longer Lucario," Korrina said, she shook him off and clutched her ears.

Lucario snickered, "No really, look at the window."

Korrina's face turned bright red when she saw that Tori and Serena were looking at her confusedly, Hop had even taken out his phone to record her.

"You're thinking time is now over," Lucario said, he leaned against the wall and patted a silent Korrina on the back, "Time to turn up the charm."

(Cue intro sequence)


"I still can't get over the fact that you know both the Lumiose and Shalour City Gym leaders," Tori said to Serena in awe after she told even more of her journey around Kalos, "You must know so much battle knowledge."

Serena leaned back in her chair, "Not really, I never really listened to them when they were talking about Pokemon battling."

Hop looked at Korrina and said, "I still can't believe that the girl that constantly fell on me was a gym leader, I thought you would be more dexterous. Maybe you should stop wearing those rollerblades," Hop pointed at the white rollerblades that Korrina used instead of walking.

"I said I was sorry for tripping on you," Korrina said, her calm composure being pierced by Hop, "Could you stop talking about that." Hoping to change the conversation, Korrina asked, "So, what were you guys planning on doing today?"

"We need new clothes," Tori said.

"If that wasn't obvious enough," Hop muttered sarcastically.

Korrina hoped that they were going to do something more exciting. Sighing internally, she said in a practiced neutral tone, "Really that's great."

"See at least she can muster some enthusiasm," Serena said, she looked at Hop and Tori sternly.

Hop rolled his eyes, "Alright then, let's go. Choo Choo," He pulled on a non-existent train whistle and left the Pokemon center depressingly. Tori laughed awkwardly at his friend's behavior and ran out of the Pokemon Center to follow him.

Korrina asked, "Hop, seems annoying."

"You got that right," Serena sighed, walking out the door as well. Korrina followed behind her, thinking of ways to get Tori to like her.


"Hey, Jessie is that Serena," James asked, "Or my eyes just playing tricks on me."

Jessie looked up from her Rotom Phone. After they broke another airship the Rocket Resource management team banned them from using anything else. In response to this, the Rocket Trio went back to its roots, disguising themselves in costumes. They were walking on the street parallel to Tori, looking at every one of his actions.

"What is that twerp doing here, I thought she was still in Sinnoh," Jessie said, she sighed dramatically, "I guess my performing skills were just too good that Serena had to return so I wouldn't become the favorite of Kalos."

Meowth and James looked at each other warily. Meowth searched on Team Rocket's phone, "There was a whole news story about her return, we even read it to you."

"Really? I don't remember," Jessie said, she flipped her hair up, "Maybe I just blank out whenever I hear a twerp's name."

"Honestly I thought Serena was a pretty good person, especially when you compare her to someone like Iris," James said, "Remember that time when she insulted me so hard that I cried for days afterward."

Meowth said, "Be more specific, just saying that doesn't help narrow it down."

"Wait Tori's also there!" Jessie said, pointing at Tori who was talking with Serena, "We can just go in, smoke bomb, take Tori, leave."

"No, we can't do that!" Meowth said.

James confusedly asked, "Why, there's no witnesses. And when did we even care about witnesses, we just blaze in and capture Pikachu, I mean Tori."

"No, were you not listening to their conversations, James," Meowth said, he took a deep breath and whispered ominously, "They're going to have their shopping montage."

James said, "So what, that shouldn't stop us."

"No don't you understand," Meowth said angrily, he stopped in his steps and took a deep breath, "Every season of the Pokemon anime has a shopping montage, if we interrupt them then…" Meowth stopped talking, letting James finish his sentence.

James thought for a bit, "We'll break the canon?"

Meowth leapt up to James' head and slapped him across the forehead, "What do you think this is, Spiderman? No, then that means the shopping montage will be pushed later in the season because we interrupted it!"

"I wouldn't mind when it comes," Jessie said, "I just like seeing beautiful clothing."

Meowth replied, "Sure, but I don't want to postpone seeing this shopping montage, so let's let them get that montage over with and then we capture Tori."

"Fine," James slumped, "I guess we'll wait," He sighed and muttered something, catching the attention of Meowth.

Meowth rubbed his forehead, "If you want to capture Tori then we can go I'm just saying that…"

"No, it's not that," James said, "I was just thinking should we do our Rocket intro."

The two other members of the Rocket Trio stared at James like he was spouting nonsense. Jessie suddenly realized what he was talking about, she snapped her fingers while trying to remember the words "Oh you mean the prepare for trouble."

"Yeah yeah, and make it double," James followed. The two of them exchanged their lines for a bit before they both forgot what they were meant to say next

Meowth asked, "Why would we even want to do that? Wouldn't that just get rid of our element of surprise?"

"Yeah I know, it's just that I saw Serena," James said, "And that reminded me of it. Sorry, it was a sudden thought, I know it's a dumb idea, just forget about it."

"No, it isn't, and I won't," Jessie said firmly to James. She pleaded, "Come on Meowth, for old time's sake, just say the intro, we can just do it once."

"No, it's stupid," Meowth said.

Jessie begged, "Without you, we lose that spark."

Jessie continued to plead with Meowth until Tori's clothes-buying montage had begun. Finally, after hours of compliments, threats, and coaxing Meowth said, "Fine I'll do the dumb intro."

"Yes!" Jessie and James both shouted, and even Wobuffet came out of his Pokeball to celebrate, although he didn't know what was going on.

Meowth muttered, "I sacrificed my monologues for the element for the element of surprise for these two and now I'm sacrificing surprise to make these idiots happy," He sat down on the pavement like a moping child, "My monologues! They were sacrificed for nothing!"


"You know I still don't understand why you just bought repeats of your clothing," Hop said, looking into Tori's bag of clothes. He had only bought a few white t-shirts, and he was wearing his newly bought gray hoodie that had a Pokeball stitched on one of it's pockets of it.

Tori shot back, "Well you're always wearing that blue jacket, so it doesn't matter how diverse your clothes are, all I see is that jacket."

"Are you sure you don't want to buy anything else?" Serena asked, thinking about the harsh temperature differences in the places she travelled to, "If you're going to travel around Kalos you may need a bit more diversity in your wardrobe."

"I'll cross that bridge when I get there," Tori said.

"Do you guys want to eat something?" Korrina asked, "I know a few good places around here."

"Eh, why not," Hop said, "Might as well try some Kalosian cuisine."

Korrina asked, "You're a foreigner?"

"Yeah, Galarian, why?" Hop asked.

"Oh, I have a friend from Galar," Korrina said, "I haven't contacted her in a while though."

Serena said, "Speaking of not contacting someone, Korrina. Why haven't you replied to anything we sent to you? The past few years it just seemed like you disappeared along with Ash."

Korrina stuttered; she was hoping that she wasn't going to be asked that question. She tried to retrieve her neutral tone but being watched by three people waiting for a response made it very difficult, "I've-uh just been traveling to some very remote places."

"For two years?" Serena asked.

"Yes, definitely," Korrina replied, clutching onto that lie "I just wanted a vacation, a long vacation."

Serena looked at her suspiciously. Tori asked, "Was being a gym leader so tiring that you would want to have a two-year-long vacation?"

"It wasn't tiring, just boring," Korrina said, "Each challenger was so, no offense to you two, bad at battling. If we gave it our all the battle would be over in seconds, so we were always forced to play defensively, and that is boring."

Hop said, "Hey give some credit to us beginners! We're just starting, you've got years of experience. Of course, we're going to get slammed."

"That wasn't an insult," Korrina said.

"The way you phrased it certainly made it sound like one!" Hop shouted. He loomed over Korrina and her Lucario but it was hard to tell who was actually intimidating the other.

Serena walked in between them, "Why do you want to argue about this, she didn't mean it!"

"Oh yeah like how you didn't mean to say I was a criminal," Hop retorted.

"I thought you got over that!"

Tori sighed, "Clearly he hasn't," He pulled the back of Hop's jacket, "What is wrong with you these days? I know you're impatient, but this has gone to new heights!"

Hop twisted his body angrily and said, "So what if I'm angrier, and it makes sense? Tori, you force me to go climb a mountain or go through a swamp for 'scenery' and every two days those clowns from Team Rocket come to terrorize us in the middle of the night. Traveling with you is like walking on glass shards, one annoyance after another! I barely even want to get up each day because you're going to force me to do something stupid.

"And whenever I want to do something you're like 'that's so dumb' or 'what a waste of time' I've done everything you wanted, and you haven't done anything I wanted other then that one time you let me fish! Is it my fault that I'm irritated all the time if you keep putting me through this!"

"I…didn't know," Tori said.

Hop took his bag of clothing from him, "Of course you didn't, every time I complain you tell me to shut up and live in the moment," Holding two bags of clothes, Hop walked back to the Pokemon Center. Tori tried to run after him but was stopped by Serena.

"Let him cool down first."

"What a nuisance," Korrina said, she glared at Hop's retreating body, "Tori you couldn't have been that bad?"

Tori looked at the floor like a child caught in wrongdoing, "Maybe I was."

Serena lifted Tori's chin up and looked at him kindly, "Look Tori, there's no use worrying over it now. How about we just get some lunch, and we'll find a way to apologize to Hop later."

Korrina silently cursed herself, if she comforted Tori she might have been able to gain more of his trust. But that anger was slowly replaced by doubt, Tori seemed genuinely sorry for Hop, maybe he didn't plan on using the Colress Machine maliciously. She thought of calling Looker to abort the mission

Lucario firmly said, "Arresting Tori is the right thing to do, he's the son of Colress and he has one of the most powerful machines in the world."

"But he doesn't seem like he knows, or that he's going to do anything evil with it," Korrina replied, watching Tori and Helia closely to make sure they weren't reading her mind.

Lucario said, "We can't be sure with the evidence we have right now. The best we can do is gain his trust and then make our judgement later."

"But what of we make the wrong choice, what if he's bad and we let him go, or worse what if we think he's evil and he's trapped in a prison for the rest of his life?" Korrina asked.

Lucario didn't respond.


Tori half-heartedly ate his lunch, throwing a piece of bacon to Helia. The fox snatched the bacon mid-air and swallowed it in one bite, she looked at Tori expectantly.

Lucario, making sure that Tori wasn't listening in on his thoughts, nudged Korrina, "Come on make conversation."

Korrina put down her fork and asked, "So Tori how has your journey been?"

Tori replied, "It's been fine."

"Come on there's gotta be more stuff than just fine," Korrina asked, she felt Serena's hand on her shoulder, and she shook her head at Korrina. Korrina stopped talking and the table fell silent.

Serena looked at Tori worriedly, "You look like one of my old traveling companions, whenever he made a mistake, he would blame himself so much that he would sulk for days."

"Was that Ash?" Korrina asked.

Serena blushed; her secret had been revealed. Tori instantly broke out of his stupor, "You knew Ash Ketchum? He was such a cool trainer."

"Yeah, we traveled around Kalos," Serena said, she readjusted her hat and combed her hair with her hands with little of her usual elegance.

"You have to tell me about him," Tori said as he knelt beside Serena, "Please!"

Serena, blushing redder than the sunset and struggling to think of any memory of Ash Ketchum in which she wasn't pining over him, said nothing.

"He was a great trainer," Korrina said, cutting into their conversation to try and keep it alive "He was just so determined, but after a loss, he would shut himself up and do nothing for days at a time. One time I had to drag him to training after he lost to Bea," Korrina turned to Serena, "The same thing happened to him while traveling around Kalos, right? When he lost to Wulfric?"

Tori asked like a child after being told he can't do something, "Really?"

"Yeah, and there was this other time where," Korrina started to blast off into all the time she had spent with Ash, occasionally nudging a blushing and increasingly embarrassed Serena. Tori soaped up each story, occasionally even taking notes of the tales, "And that's all I know about him," Korrina said.

"Hey maybe we should return to the Pokemon Center," Serena said, "It's almost three now." The three of them paid for their lunch and left

"Yeah, Korrina can you tell me about how Ash battled?" Tori asked, his notebook at the ready.

Korrina, happy that she was gaining his trust, spilled every tactic that she had ever seen Ash use. They looped around the streets of Cyllage City so that Korrina would have more time to talk about Ash.

"Tori I've been meaning to ask you," Serena said. The constant walking made her remember something she meant to ask before, "You said you were being chased by Team Rocket, can you tell me who was chasing you?"

"Why?"

"It's just that I was also once chased by Team Rocket, and I wanted to know whether we were being chased by the same group."

"You were chased by Team Rocket as well?" Tori asked, his eyes sparkling.

Serena said, "Can you please stop doing that, it's uncomfortable."

"Oh, sorry," Tori said. The two walked for a bit before Tori remembered Serena's question, "The people chasing after me, I can't remember their exact names, but I know there's a man with purple hair, a woman with pink hair, and a talking Meowth."

"There's no way," Serena said, her mouth wide open "Those were the same members of Team Rocket chasing after me. But that can't be right, it's been nearly ten years! How are they still not arrested."

"How dare you underestimate us, twerp!" Jessie's voice echoed from above.

Serena recognized the woman's voice as something she never wanted to hear again, she looked around trying to locate Jessie's voice, "So it is you guys!"

"Yes, it is! Prepare for trouble!" Jessie declared.

James followed, "And make it double!"

"To protect the world from-" Jessie said.

"What's this, a poem?" Tori asked, he was spinning around to try and find the Rocket Trio.

"Manners, kid!" Meowth shouted, and the three of them jumped out from behind a trash can, "This is our motto, nobody I mean nobody interrupts our motto!"

"Kids these days, always so impatient," James said to Jessie, "I don't remember Serena or Ash ever interrupting us."

"Well to be honest that's because that motto was the only charming thing about you," Serena said coldly. Meowth winced at the insult.

James eyes narrowed, "Alright Serena you want to play like that, playing dirty well then how about this!" James threw a smoke bomb at Tori, a cloud of smoke surrounded him, and he was whisked away by James. Serena released her Pokemon and they all coughed at the thick smoke.

"Sylveon!" Serena coughed, "Use fairy wind." Sylveon sneezed loudly and then blew a gust of pink wind, the smoke was blown out of the way revealing the Rocket Trio in masks hurriedly tying Tori up.

"Let go of me!" Tori shouted, he squirmed inside the net that he was stuck in(again) James threw the net over his shoulder and bolted off, with Jessie and Meowth following him. Tori's Pokemon and Serena chased after the Rocket Trio while Korrina had mysteriously disappeared.

"Delphox use fire spin to trap them," Serena shouted. Her Delphox dashed ahead of her and created a tornado of flames that burnt through the pavement and chased after the Rocket Trio. Jessie sent out her Yanmega to extinguish the flames with a rock.

Serena started lagging, not used to such exercise, Sylveon lifted Serena onto her back and let Serena ride her like a horse, "Thank you Sylveon," Serena said, "Now Pancham use stone edge to block their escape!"

Pancham jumped down from Delphox's head and smashed onto the ground, large pillars of rock erupted from the concrete, completely trapping the Rocket Trio, they tried to turn around but were met with more pillars of rock.

"Oh no, woe is us, we have been thwarted by Serena's master performer," Jessie said dramatically, "Please have mercy on us."

Serena got off Sylveon, "Just hand over Tori," Tori continued to struggle inside his net, trying to reach his Pokeballs.

Meowth grinned, "We'll hand him over but first how about we show you our Pikachu," Meowth jabbed James in the ribs. Serena waited, despite Tori's calls to save him, curious at what they were doing.

"Ouch! I got what you meant, Meowth," James clicked a Pokeball, and a round hamster-looking Pokemon with a black stripe across his right appeared, he sniffed the air as if searching for something. James took out a piece of food and put it around his nose, taunting the Pokemon with it. The Pokemon stomped his foot and turned dark purple, "Let's show Serena the power of hunger, Morpeko use Aura wheel!" James threw the piece of food at Delphox and Morpeko charged at her. The rodent rammed into Delphox with enough force that it created a shockwave, making Serena and her Pokemon all lose balance, "Ha you fell for the newest trick in the book!"

James returned Morpeko to the ball and sprinted off. Serena and her Pokemon barely got up when, "Another smoke bomb!" James said, he threw another bomb behind him. The thick smoke blinded the vision of Serena and her Pokemon while the Rocket Trio turned around a corner, shaking Serena off for good. The Rocket Trio continued to run for a while until they were confident that they were far enough away.

The Rocket Trio collapsed in an alley, Meowth lay on a pile of trash, flicking a rotting apple core off him. James, despite his exhaustion, still closely watched Tori.

Meowth panted, "We got Tori, now all we need to do is just hand him over to the Rocket HQ in Cyllage City which is just a few blocks away. We're in no hurry."

The sound of rollerblades scratching the concrete echoed across the narrow alley. The Rocket Trio looked up and saw Korrina looming down on them like a god waiting to punish them for their crimes. The setting sun illuminated her head and her Pokemon like a halo

"No hurry for a beating that is," Korrina said from above before landing on Meowth. Her Lucario, Mienshao, and Hawlucha landed beside her, menacingly looking at the Rocket Trio, daring them to attack.

"How did you find us?" Jessie asked.

"I followed you on the rooftops, your hair color isn't exactly easy to fit into the crowd with," she said pointing at the two vibrant heads.

"Team Rocket never surrenders!" Jessie declared, clutching her Pokeballs.

"Jessie that's Korrina," James said, "She's the mega successor."

"Yeah, that's right," Korrina barked, "And I suggest you back off!"

"So what? We're The Rocket Trio and we never lose!" Jessie shouted, she released all her Pokemon and they charged at Korrina, who easily dodged them and their attacks.

James sighed and released his Pokemon, "Go help Jessie."

Korrina chuckled, "Finally a worthy battle."

Korrina and her Pokemon were outnumbered three to one but that didn't stop them from beating Team Rocket to the ground. Their attacks worked in perfect unison to dodge, attack, and defend all at the same time. Mienshao dragged the flying Pokemon to the ground while Hawlucha dueled with them in the air, finishing them off with a flying press. Lucario and Korrina fought together like they were one, each attack they did the other one would copy. Before Jessie or James could even get their bearings all their Pokemon fainted on the ground.

"On second thought, I want to surrender!" Jessie picked up Meowth and scurried off, watching Korrina make sure she didn't suddenly get to chase after them. James shouted back at them, "We still never lose!"

Korrina walked over to Tori heroically. She asked Tori, "Are you okay?"

Tori nodded, he said in awe while Korrina cut open the net, "You are so cool, Korrina."

Guilt stabbed into Korrina's heart, she had succeeded in making Tori trust her, not as a friend but as a hero, as somebody who would do the right thing, no matter how dangerous. She always thought of her inevitable betrayal of Tori as something that had to be done for the greater good, but now Korrina couldn't tell whether capturing Tori really was the right thing.


"What a nice nap," Hop said, he got off the bed and stretched, put on his new blue jacket, and looked out the window, how was it sunset already? He sat down on the chair given to him by the Pokemon Center and started searching for photos similar to the weird machine he saw last night.

Hop jumped at every noise, fearing that each one was caused by the large red Pokemon he met last night, after a bit of research he learned that that Pokemon was named Volcanion. He had his three Pokemon in the room with him, both to act as moral support and to protect him if Volcanion did come.

If he was honest, he wasn't that mad that Tori forced him to travel to some really weird places just for a view or the "experience" he didn't know why he snapped at Korrina, but it just happened. Maybe he was a bit too mean to her, but she seemed suspicious, it couldn't have been a coincidence that she was in the same city with him and Tori at the same time as them. He was too mean to Tori though.

Hop pushed those thoughts aside; Korrina's suspicious habits can wait. He needed to figure out what he saw in the forest last night, many times he thought what he saw last night was just a hallucination but then a blurry image of something similar to the thing he saw last night would appear and his hope would reignite. He searched for images of the weird machine across forums, and he flipped through the internet to find its name, strangely, despite all of the photos on it, there was no name for this machine. Hop had almost given up hope again when he scrolled onto a high-quality photo of a shiny machine with pink eyes. Excited, he tapped it, but the phone didn't respond. Hop continuously clicked the phone but still, there was no response. When Hop finally got in the photo corrupted itself and the words turned to gibberish.

Suddenly, the lights in the hotel flickered. He looked up to see whether Rotom was causing it before remembering Rotom was still inside his phone, how strange. The leaves rustled outside the Pokemon Center, Hop looked out the window and saw a large red thing walking toward the Pokemon Center. Hop jumped and frantically pulled the curtains shut. He peeked through the bottom of the window and saw the red Pokemon walk closer. He risked another peek and the traits of the raging Pokemon he saw yesterday, Volcanion, appeared. Hop could've sworn he heard the impacts of every step the Pokemon took.

What had he done, to anger Volcanion so much? Did Volcanion think he broke his promise and had now come to punish him? He wasn't searching for the machine he was just looking at some photos, he was innocent. Hop edged toward the door, hoping that he could escape without the Volcanion noticing him. Hop had gotten to the door when the doorknob vibrated, the door shook slightly. Hop turned off the lights and stood still, he could hear his heart pounding in his chest and hoped that the thing on the other side of the door couldn't. Hop stopped breathing, hoping that Volcanion would leave him alone. The door swung open; Hop covered his head hoping that it would protect him from Volcanions' attack.

"Oh, my Arceus, Hop! I didn't know you were here." Tori said, he bowed profusely, "I'm so sorry."

Hop breathed a sigh of relief and slumped on the wall, "No it's fine." He could still feel his heart assaulting the skin of his chest.

"Look Hop I'm sorry that," Tori started. Hop kicked his foot.

"Stop talking, it's my problem," Hop said.

Tori's mouth curled into a smile, "Thank you, you don't know how that's been weighing on my mind. Oh, and also do you know that Serena knew Ash!"

Hop would've been excited any other day, but he was still confused about what just happened, "Did you see that large red thing at the door of the Pokemon Center."

Tori tilted his head, "That? That was a mascot costume. Anyways do you want to hear about Ash?"

Hop clutched his head and started shaking as his fear subsided. He had overthought things, thinking that Volcanion was going to kill him when instead he was far away. Hop breathed deeply, there was nothing to worry about, right?