Hello again, welcome back to A Promise Kept Ash's Johto Journey. And the votes are done and will be noted at the end of this chapter. With that said, let's get started.

Chapter 8: Ash, The Chikorita, and Team Rocket

"Human Speech"

"Pokemon Speech"

We join our heroes as they travel to Azalea. Little did they know, a pair of eyes watched them as the group had lunch.

"These humans seem very...interesting and many new Pokemon, some I've never seen," A green Pokemon with a leaf on its head watched the group closely. Another one, a male Pokemon of her same species, walked over.

"What's so special about these humans? They look boring to me. I want someone more to my liking. They look like they make friends with any Pokemon and catch them," He said with a snotty tone.

"Well, that's the type of trainer. I want a trainer that is jealous that you haven't found a trainer like that, bro," she said with a humph.

"One's who aren't kind, those who either don't care or just want to be different from the boring kind ones who won't bother to do what I want, and I despise these humans just by the Pokemon they have, and why bother they have another grass starter on them," he growled.

This commotion caught the attention of Ash and the gang, "Hey, did you hear that" Ash said as the poker speech sounded familiar, as the group nodded.

"Yeah, it sounded like a Chikorita or two," Misty said.

"But why is one or two? Most here, most of them are not known in the wild and are known in the Pokemon labs," Brock said.

The male Chikorita overhears this."See, not knowing there are many starters in the wild, some trainers there," he said as he left.

"Hey, don't run off, bro," The sister of the two Chikoritas left. Ash noticed and followed Misty, and Brock followed as the male Chikorita used Razor leaf at Ash and Co.

"Stay away," the male Chikorita yelled as his sister ran to him.

"Hey, that wasn't nice, bro," the female Chikorita said as he humphed.

"You too soft, sis. If you want to be with him, fine, I'm out. He's not worth my time," the male said to his sister. As he ran off, she whined, looked at Ash, and ran to where her brother had gone.

They were out of sight as Ash sighed, "What was that all about? I wasn't going to hurt them, but it seems that one Chikorita has issues against humans or me," Ash said.

"Well, they're wild Pokemon, so that makes sense that they would be angry towards humans, but I do agree it was just him," Misty said with concern for the other Chikorita as Brock interjected.

"Seems like he has a problem with certain trainers, but we don't know the whole story?" Brock said to Ash and Misty, still concerned about the one interested in the group. The group nodded.

Little did they know that Team Rocket was listening to the whole thing, with Meowth being the translator. "Seems like that one Chikorita would fit perfectly with us," Jessie said.

"With the right words, we can turn him against both his sister and the twerps after," Meowth said, which James chimed in.

"The way he attacked the tweeps, he is teammates rocket material and can be useful for us here in Johto," James questioned the group.

"The problem is, how are we going to get him without the other Chikorita noticing?" Jessie asked as Meowth smirked.

"Simple, I can try to convince him about you two and what we stand against twerps like them. Just prepare to get him just in case he backs out or something like that," Meowth said.

Meanwhile, with the two Chikoritas. "Why must you be such a downer, brother? Just because your old trainers family dumped you because you wanted to be a pet around all of them. Your trainer was more interested in herself, doesn't mean that all of them are like that. Yes, there are abusive trainers out there, but do you want to be around those types of trainers," the female Chikorita said as he slapped her head with a vine. "Ow! What was that for," she said, holding her right cheek with her vine.

"Never speak of my past again, stupid sister. You are so blind in finding a trainer that you will believe all trainers will be honest and different. She didn't even care that they left me out here. The only reason I allowed you to find your own is so that you can be happy and out of my life, especially after you just said that," the male Chikorita said as he turned around. "Don't bother trying to tell me otherwise. Leave me," he said as he left, upsetting his sister.

"Brother, please do be like that," she said as he was already gone.

Ash and the gang arrived. They saw the tail end of their argument and saw her crying. Ash picked her up. "Hey, hey, it's okay. I don't know what happened with him, but maybe we can at least try and help you," Ash to the Chikorita, surprised by this, nodded.

"We also have to be careful team rocket may be nearby and will do anything to get Pokemon," Brock said, which Misty chimed in.

"Like taking advantage of this situation, they'll lie and steal to get their way," Misty said, which upsets Chikorita.

"Don't worry, we'll help," Pikachu tells her. "But we need to know what happened," Pikachu questioned. She explains his situation well, what she was told, and how he's her older brother, which makes Pikachu speechless just by looking at Pikachus's expression. What is going on with her brother is worse than what he lets on.

"We need to get to him before they do," Ash told Misty and Brock, who nodded instantly.

"I agree with you, but we have to deal with that. If they convinced him we could do nothing about it, he's a wild Pokémon. Yes, we've helped wild Pokémon before, but being willing to join them is something that might happen," Brock said. The group knew that might be the worst-case scenario.

The male Chikorita stopped farther away from where she was and sighed. "She just had to bring up my past. I would have given him a chance or one of them if Sis hadn't. Still, she's so adamant about them that," as he was interrupted.

"Pushed it too far, of course, a human-trained Pokémon would be," Meowth said, lying.

"Huh, what did you say? "They already took her before you noticed them. She's trying to get you to be with them," which made him glare at Meowth. "And why should I believe a Meowth that speaks the human language," he said.

"You have a point there, but that boy you attacked he's not worth your time and will probably leave you or forget your sister when this Journey is over here. He's done it before," Meowth said, which made the male Chikorita growl."It's true, Lapras, that Pidgeot he has? He was planning, at one point, to leave that Pikachu, his starter, behind. I know that he only has them because his friends made him do so. After all, the organization I work for has been trying to steal that Pikachu for two years," Meowth said while he only told half the truth and lied about Lapras and other Pokémon Ash released, aka Lapras.

"You mean Team Rocket?' he asked, piquing Meowth's interest. "Oh, you heard of them, have you," He nodded. "Yes, I heard stories about them, the type of trainers I would like," the male Chikorita said, making Meowth smile.

"All you need to do before joining is cut ties with your sister. You may run into her during your stay with us, but she will be your enemy, not your family, in the Team Rocket thrown out the window," Meowth said. The male Chikorita was shocked by this. Was it that easy? Yes, she's his sister, but she's still family, but if what he said was true, was she really with a new trainer without knowing one similar to his situation beforehand?

"My teammates of team rocket. Will be waiting for your answer. You know that you can't turn down a deal. To get even with the twerps and other twerps like your old trainer and her family. Before you ask, I saw the whole thing. She's even acting like a human-trained Pokémon. Why'd go back to someone who betrays you like that?" Meowth asked.

"But wouldn't that be like turning my back on," he was cut off again as Meowth was hammering home his point to the male Chikorita.

"No. It won't. You already started when you attacked her and her new trainer like that. That's not what a kind Pokémon would do to humans. Or any other Pokemon. You've crossed the line of a kind-hearted Pokémon, a Pokémon who wants a good trainer would never act like that?" Meowth told the male Chikorita, which shocked him, and he looked at his vines and leaf.

"You already have the making of a Team Rocket Pokémon. Willing to harm for gain for our boss. To take Pokémon. Even if it means giving up on your old values. Manipulating Pokémon to our advantage. I'm telling you the truth about your sister and her trainer," Meowth said, managing to manipulate his ideas and logic. What he did was true, and he would get any trainer who wanted him to go against him, even costing him a trainer their license.

Jessie and James arrived beside Meowth. He saw them. They meant business, as he needed to be more confident about what to do.

He heard a voice coming their way. Ash and the gang noticed that she was with them and was being brought to them via the Pidgeot, searching for him as he growled, but not only at Ash and his sister. Meowth whispers, "Told you, you believe me know."

"Come on, bro, don't you see that they're manipulating you too,' she was interrupted by her brother as Meowth translated for everyone to hear.

"NO, I'VE SEEN ENOUGH OF YOUR HUMAN FRIENDS HERE. YOU'RE THE ONE WHO IS BLIND AND DOESN'T REALIZE IT!" The male Chikorita yelled at his sister in a rage as if what Meowth said was true, not caring that she wasn't captured. As this took aback the groups. The brother turned around to Team Rocket and said.

"I accept joining team rocket. You came here with them, proving that you are his Pokémon. You're no sister to me. As he walks over to James, 'From this day forward, I'm your enemy. You're mine," He said to his sister Ash and the others as Chikorita was sad. 'Don't bother trying to tell me otherwise," he said as he nodded to James, as James pulled out a Pokeball and caught him without hassle or fail.

"We got what we wanted. We're off. Please don't bother trying to save him. He's ours and will always be," Jessie says as James sends out Weezing. "Smokescreen so we can make our escape," James said, which he did as it made it enough for their escape.

Pidgeot was about to go after, "They're gone, Pidgeot, there's nothing we can do about it, but we will try to convince him to get him back from them," Ash said to Pidgeot, sighed, and nodded. "Team Rocket, whatever you said to him, you won for now, but we'll get back at them. That's a promise," Ash said, clenching his fists. As he noticed that Chikorita was still unsure what to do next as her first real experience with humans wasn't what she wanted or planned.

Ash kneels and pets her back, "I'm sorry for what happened, and if you want to leave, you can. I won't stop you or try to catch or convince you," Ash said, trying to comfort her and showing her that he's a respectful human trainer. She looked up at Ash and smiled.

She will free her brother and do that. She needs to get stronger. She shook her head, noticed an empty Pokeball on him, and tapped it, catching her like with her brother before her without even trying to break free as it dings. This was Ash's ninth Pokémon on his team, which caught Ash off guard.

"She must've had the idea to save her brother and gets stronger on my team," Ash said as he let her out."Welcome to the team, but if it's not to your liking or something of that sort, you don't have to stay," Ash said to Chikorita, who was surprised but understood that Ash was showing that he understood what she was going through as she nodded.

"The problem is that they did it the fairway but took advantage of his situation, so getting him back won't be easy," Misty said. Ash agreed.

"It just shows that different Pokémon are going through different pasts or had it rough I will try and help them see that not all trainers are like that," Ash said to Misty and Brock, who sadly nodded in agreement as they couldn't do anything about it was a legal capture and if they would try to take him away from Team Rocket would make them just like them.

What a ride, folks, with a new team member for our heroes and Team Rocket. What else have they planned for the region's Pokémon to discover as the Journey continues?

Stay tuned

And done, oh boy, did this chapter take forever to do and get out as this was the one chapter in which skipping wasn't an option and was tricky to get right. Yes, team rocket managed to get a Chikorita. I planned on this story to have two of them, one for Team Rocket and the other for Ash. And trust me, you'll be seeing him more throughout the story. As for Team Rocket, let's say they are manipulative, and all that will happen more often later in the story. With that said, the requests are still open, and I got more asked. With that said, the Scizor episode is next, with a few new things. See you all then.