On the following day, Misty and Lily made their way to the train station to catch the early fast train to Saffron, not before having one of their usual arguments, this time about the preparations for the official gym inspection from the league happening on that day, it was part of the gym's routine, mostly about how safe the conditions were, and Misty had made sure that everything was up to code, so it was merely a formality for the inspectors to come and do the checks, so Violet offered to stay, given that Daisy was going to her date and Misty and Lily were going to Saffron. Naturally, Lily always had the urge to complain about the way Misty did everything, so she was just trying to look for mistakes that were not even there.
It only took them an hour by train, during which Misty mainly focused on reading one of the books from Tracey while Lily just kept posting updates to her social media.
Once they reached Saffron, Misty got a message on her mobile phone from Violet saying that the inspectors had just left and the gym passed the inspection with no minor marks at all.
- "Oh at least that was quick" – Misty said out loud.
- "What was?" – Lily asked
- "The inspection just finished, we passed. See, I told you I had everything up to code" – Misty said triumphantly to her sister.
- "Don't like, flatter yourself, the inspectors probably just thought Violet is cute and didn't pay much attention to the rest" – Her sister brushed her off.
- "For Mew's sake! Is it so hard for you to admit that I did something right?" – Misty protested
- "I would like, when I finally see it happening" – And Lily just stuck her tongue out.
After that, the girls made their way to the gym, which fortunately was a short walk from the station.
Once they were reaching the gym, they saw a van from the Pokémon league parked outside, and Sabrina and one of her students were at the entrance talking to what seemed to be 2 of the inspectors. It looked like they were inspecting the gardens and equipment outside the gym.
- "It must be inspection day for them as well" – Misty said to Lily as they were approaching the entrance.
- "That's odd, I don't recognise those inspectors" – Lily mentioned.
- "What do you mean? You can't possibly know them all, there's so many of them, I've rarely seen the same twice coming to our gym" -
- "Me and Vi used to check the official league's website for the full list of active inspectors, both to see whether they were hot or not, but like, also to check their social media so we'd know how to flirt with them to get a pass. We got away so many times with it and Dais never even found out! "– Lily said proudly giggling.
- "So that's how you were getting the inspection pass before and you still were criticising me who actually does the work at the gym to get a proper pass?" – Misty protested.
- "Oh Damn, I like, forgot for a second I was talking to you" – Lily shamelessly admitted earning a face-palm moment from Misty.
As the girls approached the entrance where Sabrina, her student and the 2 inspectors were talking, Sabrina greeted them.
- "Oh, apologies Misty, I thought the inspection was later today, but we'll still train" – And after Sabrina said this to Misty she addressed the 2 inspectors – "Sirs, you might know her already, this is the leader at the Cerulean Gym who's also a student of mine" – Sabrina said to the inspectors to introduce Misty - "and… You're not Daisy" - She said surprised not to see the usual blonde.
- "Yes, this is one of my other sisters, Lily, they all perform at the gym. Nice to meet you, your colleagues were just at ours" – and as Misty said this she went to shake the hand of the older looking inspector (A middle-aged looking man).
The second her hand shook the inspector's hand, Misty heard what to her sounded like the most sinister and dark tune she'd ever heard, even including those you normally hear in horror movies, it was causing her Goosebumps all over her skin and leaving her quite terrified, which she was trying to not let show in her face, but was really difficult, especially because at that same time she started having multiple visions of Rocket soldiers led by these 2 men crawling the ducts of the gym from what looked like a basement all the way to another room that seemed to have some documents and a weird looking machine, kind of the scanning type you'd see on a hospital. In some scenarios the soldiers were leaving with the machine, in others they end up setting the Saffron gym to flames, in others she saw battles, but majority of the scenarios did not seem to end well, and curiously enough, Lily seemed to be present only in those that ended badly.
Thankfully Misty's "Poker face" was slightly better than Daisy's, but she was struggling not to show that she was feeling terrified of the man and everything she just saw. As Misty hastily let go of the inspector's hand, Sabrina went to say that she and Lily were welcome to stay at the gym's waiting area while she finished with the inspectors, but as Lily was starting to make her way into the gym Misty held her arm stopping her.
- "You should like, totally head to the mall and like, make sure you get those fabrics we all wanted for the costumes in the show…. Remember I want the fabric for MY dress to be like, as shiny as possible, in fact, the shinier the better" – Misty said to Lily trying her best to sound just as shallow and vain as… well… Lily.
Had it been either of the other sisters, this would most certainly fail, but Misty thought Lily would get the clue that something was wrong, as Lily would certainly know Misty would only be acting that way as part of a charade. After all, Lilly was the scheme queen amongst the sisters, so if someone would just go on with such a charade, it would be her.
- "Oh you're like, totally right… we definitely want those shiny dresses, I'll go make sure to buy the fabric" – Lily said trying to follow with the charade but still unsure where this was going.
- "You're like, the best, I'll start posting on my Insta about how fabulous we'll all look" – Misty still kept the vain tone, which actually made both Lily and Misty cringe inside, but it somehow seemed to work as the inspectors seemed unbothered about the whole "vain girly talk"; However, Sabrina did definitely pick up that something wasn't right.
As Misty mentioned the social media update, she casually grabbed her phone, but instead of insta, (In which she didn't even had an account), she texted Lily – "Don't ask how I know, those are Rockets, get Jenny and the cops".
Lily made her way out of the gym as casually as she could while she knew she was still in view of the "Inspectors", but as soon as she got far enough, she started rushing after seeing the text.
She tried calling the number for the Saffron Police office, but all lines seemed occupied, and as she wasn't that far from the station anyways, she just dashed there.
Meanwhile still at the gym's entrance, Sabrina did notice Misty's change, and having read her mind she knew what Misty wrote to Lily.
"Gentlemen, Would you excuse me for a minute? I need to check something with my fellow gym leader here about our lesson today" – Sabrina said addressing the inspectors, and then she turned to her other student – "David, would you mind showing the inspectors the fire hydrants so they can inspect that in the meantime?"
As David obliged and went with the inspectors to check the hydrants, Sabrina led Misty to the reception at the gym.
- "What is happening? Why do you think they're Rockets?" – Sabrina asked
- "Are you not listening to their thoughts?" – Misty asked quite puzzled, she would've thought Sabrina should have picked something by now, as she literally could hear what other's think.
- "In their heads, they just keep going over the checklist of things they need to inspect at the gym… quite compulsively I admit, but I thought, possibly they're just very committed and boring inspectors" Sabrina said now in doubt whether her assumption was right.
- "The tune coming out of that man is the darkest, single most sinister tune I have ever heard Sabrina. Is not normal. And I saw them in many scenarios leading Rockets here at your gym taking some sort of scanner-looking machine from a bright room" – Misty explained.
- "My ability only allows me to read what a person is actively thinking, but technically it is possible to train your mind to actively think of something else in order to push other thoughts away. Is a technique some try to use to deceive psychic users, but it requires extreme concentration, most normal people would fail… Wait; did you say a scanner-looking machine? " – Sabrina asked.
- "Yes, a white one like those in hospitals, they all make it to that room from what seems to be a ventilation duct which starts in another room, one very dark, I think I saw loads of boxes and… Is that your dollhouse? Do you still have it?" – Misty said in shock, as she was trying to remember the visions from the room where she saw the Rockets going in, this time she recognised that dollhouse where once, herself and Brock where held captives.
- "Yes, I guess you can call me a sentimental, I have it on the basement" – Sabrina replied as if it was the most normal thing to keep as a memento.
- "Well, there's where I saw them coming in from, but that room is dark, the one with the scanner seems very bright and there's a lot of documents in that one"
- "That's our testing room, and the machine is one the university lend me for some research we're doing on Psychic Pokémon, that research and machine cannot fall onto team Rocket's hands" – Sabrina said with increased concern.
- "Hopefully Lily will be here with the Police, but we need to stop them. The only scenarios I saw of them not taking it have us in the basement with the 2 fake inspectors and your students in the scanner room, I'm not sure how or why though"
- "Well, then what's what we're going to do. They'll start to get suspicious if we don't come back soon, you and I will take the impostors to the basement, have your Pokémon prepared" – As Sabrina finished saying this to Misty, she called another of the students at the gym on her mobile and asked her to go with the rest and all their Pokémon to the testing room for a potential Rocket attack.
Misty and Sabrina went back to the entrance where David and the impostors were checking the hydrants.
- "My apologies gentlemen, we may all proceed now to the gym" – Sabrina said on her usual "newscaster tone" as she led the inspectors inside while Misty and David followed.
- "Is she going to join as well?, is not usual to get the leader of a rival gym witnessing other gym's inspections" – The older inspector went to protest visibly uneasy.
- "Nonsense, Cerulean and Saffron have a long standing cooperative relationship; in fact, Misty here has been helping me with some expansion ideas we want to implement for our gym which is why it'd be beneficial to have her around, We'll show you the expansion area first" – Sabrina replied back to the fake inspector.
- "This is highly unorthodox" – The younger fake inspector added as well.
- "I have read the Kanto gym code enough times to know it is no breach to have another leader present at the inspection, and article 182 section C clearly states that the gym needs to cooperate with the inspector officials by providing someone with enough experience to explain the features in each area, and she's the person to explain the expansion plans" Sabrina seemed almost lecturing the inspectors on the code.
Misty was not sure at all if the section Sabrina quoted was correct, but likelihood was, the fake inspectors wouldn't either, she also thought that she would never want to be in a poker game against a team with both Lily and Sabrina, they surely were both masters of deception.
The fake inspectors reluctantly followed, and Misty noticed Sabrina went lo give a very focused look to her other student David, Misty knew David was a mind reader just like Sabrina, so her guess is that Sabrina must have "caught him up" on the recent findings telepathically.
As Sabrina was leading the group to the basement, the fake inspectors started to look anxious. When they arrived to the basement and Sabrina was about to open the door, the older inspector tried to stop her.
- "Regulation states no gym activity shall be held underground" – The older fake inspector said almost trying to imitate Sabrina's previous lecture tone but his nervousness was evident by now.
- "Fascinating" Sabrina said and added "Then How come Magenta Gym has a whole Labyrinth underground that challengers need to find their way in before battling the leader? Surely experienced and meticulous inspectors such as you would know that. Although, given that you don't know the Kanto Gym code only has 175 articles, I'm not surprised." – This time Sabrina's tone was very defiant, clearly exposing the inspectors.
Sabrina quickly went to open the door revealing inside a couple Rocket soldiers still getting in through one ventilation duct and trying to make their way out to the rest of the gym by another duct entrance.
As the 2 fake inspectors tried to run back, Misty and David got in their way, Misty only had Psyduck and Starmie with her, while David released a Medicham, a Hypno and a Beheeyem. David's Pokémon all used Barrier to block the hall for the inspectors
Sabrina released Alakazam, Gardevoir and Metagross. Alakazam had used psychic attack to toss the 2 Rocket soldiers away from the ventilation duct.
As the 2 Rocket soldiers and the young inspector were getting their pokeballs for battle, the older one took from his pocket a sort of walkie-talkie.
- "Get out with the machine and documents ASAP by any means, we've been busted in the basement"
From the other side of the walkie-talkie there was a lot of background noise, shouting and Pokémon sounds.
- "Chief, we've been busted here as well. The gym's students and their psychic Pokémon are all attacking us, we're outnumbered" – And as the rocket member managed to say this, a few Jynx voices were heard in the background and the communication was cut.
Meanwhile in the basement, Sabrina's Pokémon were taking on the 2 Rocket grunts and their Pokémon with ease, while David was battling the older fake inspector and Misty the younger one.
Starmie had used confusion on the young inspector's Pokémon, a trio of Toxicroaks that started to punch each other, while Psyduck used levitate to send the young inspector flying where Sabrina's Pokémon were holding the grunts captive with their barrier attacks forming a sort of cube.
With all the commotion at the scene neither Misty nor Sabrina noticed that David was struggling with the older inspector. He definitely must have had a higher rank than any other rocket there; he had with him quite an intimidating Salamence, and two really angry-looking Houndooms of impressive size.
The Houndooms knocked over with ease Beeeyem and Medicham; and even though Hypno had managed to catch the inspector on a levitate attack, Salamence got to Hypno with Dragon-Tail causing the levitate effect to be over, making the older inspector fall just besides Misty who was giving Starmie instructions to separate the Toxicroaks with a water gun so they'd stop hurting themselves (Just because they're owned by team Rocket, does not mean that Misty would let a Pokémon get injured if she could avoid it).
In the split of a second that tool the older inspector to fall from Hypno's levitate besides Misty he quickly got up and grabbed Misty by the neck with one hand as he drew a sharp knife with the other one, in an attempt to hold the girl hostage for leverage.
Before Sabrina or David had time to think on a counter-attack or a way to help Misty, an impressively imposing psychic wave approached, and blew both the older inspector and his Salamence, tossing them against the basement wall with an incredible strength. The Rockets could only hear a loud "Psy- Psyduck – Psyduck"; however; Misty, Sabrina and David who could understand the language, heard loud and clear "GET YOUR FREAKING HANDS OFF HER!".
(Meanwhile at the police station in Saffron)
- " Like, why are all your phone lines busy?. I've been trying to call like a dozen times" - Lily said with a clear annoyance and confusion in her voice.
- "What do you mean busy?, we haven't had a call the whole day" – an even more confused Officer Jenny replied.
- "Well, I like have been calling like Crazy for the past 15 minutes while running here and all lines are busy, there's an emergency" Lily said with urgency.
- "OK.. What's the emergency?" – Officer Jenny asked
By this point Lily realised she couldn't go to the police saying "I got a text from my sister, who might or might not be a little bit nuts, saying there are Rockets in the Saffron gym, but they could also be just new Pokémon inspectors, not really sure", so she decided to trust her sister, and make use of her own exceptional acting skills to make the Police go to the gym under a slightly different version of the events.
Quicker than any director could have shouted "Action!" Lily's eyes filled with tears, and she hysterically started crying and shouting.
- "Those horrible Rockets have everyone at Saffron gym kidnapped!, including the Saffron Gym leader, and my sister who's the leader of Cerulean's. I barely managed to escape, but everyone is in terrible danger, you need to help us and send all your team there".
Jenny complied and sent all the patrols available to the site, while she went on her motorbike with Lily riding in the back.
(Back to Saffron gym)
Psyduck's attack had managed to free Misty from the older inspector's grip, who after hitting the wall (literally), decided his only option left was fleeing the site, so with barely any strength left, he ordered Salamence to use Hyper beam on the basement's wall that was already cracked because of Psyduck's attack and rode on Salamence's back flying away from the scene leaving everyone else behind (Including his own Houndooms).
Misty ordered Starmie to use Hydro-pump on the Houndooms, which caused a KO on both of them.
Sabrina ordered David to keep an eye on her own Pokémon holding the rockets in the barrier cube while her, Misty, Psyduck and Starmie went through the broken wall outside in an attempt to see where the older inspector went to, but as they reached the outside, he was already out of sight.
Who Sabrina and Misty did see, was Jenny in her motorbike with Lily on the back and all the patrols surrounding arriving to the gym.
- "Where are the members of team Rocket? I thought you were kidnapped" - Jenny asked
- We managed to overpower them, a group of them is being held by my students in the examination room on the attic while my Pokémon and David are keeping some more on the basement. The leader escaped on his Salamence just minutes ago though. – Sabrina explained.
- Jenny sent to teams of cops to get the Rockets from both areas at the gym while she stayed with Misty, Sabrina and Lily to ask more questions"
- "Very impressive how you managed to escape the kidnapping and overpower your captors, no wonder you're both gym leaders" – Jenny said.
- "We were not exactly' – But before Sabrina finished her sentence, Misty interrupted her.
- "Yeah we were not exactly impressive, just trying our best to protect the Pokémon and Sabrina's research, hoping to buy some time until Lily got to you" - Misty completed the sentence, Lily probably would have gotten away with it, but there was no point getting Lily in trouble for lying to the authorities.
On that moment, a second Pokémon inspection van arrived the scene, and two young inspectors came out of the vehicle, looking confused at the knocked-down wall, and how the Police was dragging out of the gym the several Rocket members while another inspection van was already there.
- Inspector #1 (To inspector #2): "Wait, I thought we had Saffron after inspecting Cerulean, why is there another van here? And what's with all the cops?.
- Inspector #2: "Look at the dent in the bumper of the van, isn't this one the one that got stolen from our headquarters a few weeks ago?" – But as the inspector said this he noticed the group of girls with Jenny. "Hey Lily! Long time no see, you haven't come to Poker night"
- "I told you, I like, know them all" – Lily said quietly smiling to Misty – "Hi boys, you like are not gonna believe this, the Rockets were pretending to be you" – Lily shouted to the 2 real inspectors.
The inspectors then approached the group, and got the explanation from Sabrina on what happened. The inspectors also said to Jenny that they were sure that second van on site is one the Pokémon league had reported stolen to Viridian police a few weeks ago, if she calls Viridian department they will have all the details".
Jenny got a call from the station where her colleagues were checking why Lily's calls couldn't make it though and why oddly no call had been received that day, and they found out that all their lines had been tampered since the night before. Team Rocket certainly planned for nearly everything for their attack… well, everything but Misty and Lily to be on Saffron and not Cerulean on that day.
- "We will lock these up for a long time and track where their boss went, so hopefully we'll be able to catch him too" – Jenny said to the group. The station told me the press is on their way, this will be a massive story for the local and Kanto news, you ladies took a whole Rocket operation down, I'm sorry for the damage to your gym though" - Jenny said.
- "It was just one wall, at least we managed to save the machine and all the investigation papers. Our insurance will cover for the wall's repairs" Sabrina said quite relaxed, but then she addressed the real inspectors. – "However, this might pose a challenge to your inspection today"
- "Oh don't worry, we'll reschedule you after you get the wall repaired, your gym always passes with distinction anyway" – One of the inspectors said, and then he noticed Misty – "Hey you must be the fourth Cerulean sister!, good job on the gym, you guys got a distinction too, that gym has improved so much since you came back"
- "Yes we were looking forward to meeting you, all the inspectors kept raving about how changed the Cerulean gym was, but they forgot to mention the fourth sister also has the beautiful genes from the family" – The second instructor was trying to flirt with Misty but was cut short.
- "Probably because she's only 15!" Lily said with a threatening tone to the inspectors.
- "Hehe, yes that must be why, maybe give us a call in a few years time" The inspector nervously replied.
By this point, the newspaper van was also arriving the scene.
- "Oh no, I don't want to talk to the press or have my picture in the papers" - Misty said worried.
- "I'll handle the press, should not take more than 15 minutes, you go and get ready for today's training" – Sabrina calmly replied.
- "Oh but I do want my picture on like, every newspaper" – Lily said.
- "I don't have a problem if you want to be the one talking to them, in fact I can resume training sooner that way" – Sabrina answered.
- "Wait, What? Are we still going to train? You're missing a wall in your basement"- Misty asked in shock.
- "So?, Of course we'll train, why wouldn't we? The missing wall is on the basement not the training area" – Sabrina said now fully back to her documentary tone.
- "I'll go talk to them first and then send them Lily's way" – Jenny replied and went to where the press van had just parked.
- "It makes more sense for Lily to handle the press, I don't know all the details on the kidnapping story she gave the police anyway. It's fascinating the trust you have as sisters to have been so in sync" – Sabrina mentioned.
- "Me? Trusting her? She's always been a clumsy Ducklett" – Lily tried to brush off Sabrina's comment.
- "Oh apologies, I'm just noticing is just your sister that heard my introduction" – Sabrina commented as if the most natural thing and then proceeded to give Lily the same speech she had given Misty and Daisy on the first day they arrived to the gym for help - "You should know, for our interaction to be productive, you need to accept that there is no hiding anything from me, I can read your mind, and any attempt to lie to me will be futile". – Sabrina completed while Lily was looking utterly confused.
- "That means she knows you're lying" – Misty said while laughing.
- "You know what, I do need to buy those fabrics for the show dresses, I'll go talk to the press and then to the mall, so you go do your like training, or whatever, and I'll see you in a couple hours" – Lily said to Misty annoyed to have been exposed for lying, no one could ever read her poker face, this was certainly new for her.
Misty did not even have time to enjoy the small victory against her sister, because Sabrina rushed her at that point.
- "Well, then everything's settled, the inspectors will return in a couple weeks, Jenny and Lily will handle the press and you need to rush for training because we are late" - Sabrina said rushing Misty to go back to the gym.
After a few hours, Lily was back, and once Misty finished the training, which this time took a bit longer as Sabrina apart from the "Face the music training", also wanted to do more tests on Psyduck, she was quite impressed and puzzled on the magnitude of the psychic wave Psyduck used on the inspectors, as it is technically not possible for a Psyduck to reach that level of psychic power.
Once the training and tests were finished, Misty and Lily headed towards the train station back to Cerulean.
- "Nice acting skills with the kidnap story, Jenny and the cops bought it" – Misty said.
- "Well, you know me. I'm a girl of like, many talents" – Lily said faking a bit more bravado than usual.
- "Things work out when you trust me" – Misty said to her having a nod at Sabrina's previous comment.
- "Don't like flatter yourself, I'm sure that was a fluke, or maybe on the whole psychic thing you're just lucky your mentor seems to be decent" – Lily replied annoyed.
- "Sabrina? She's not just decent she's awesome!" – Misty admitted to her sister in all honestly, Misty knew she was miles away to reach the level of control over her abilities that Sabrina has, and she had grown quite admiring on Sabrina's ability to deliver any truth in such a disarming way.
- "Well, I'll admit I definitely wouldn't want to play Poker against her" – Lily replied.
- "Right?" – Misty agreed laughing.
The train journey was going fairly quiet for Misty until about 20 minutes before reaching Cerulean when her phone rang with a text notification:
- From: Ash Ketchum – "You free tomorrow at noon Cerulean time?. It's the first"
Misty's heart skipped a beat, part of her was in denial thinking Ash would just simply forget about the deal, but there it was, the text from him on the last day of the month to set the time for their agreed call on the first.
She of course knew the call was going to be a friendly one to catch up on the travels, but she couldn't help feeling so much joy knowing that she still had a place with him. Even if that place was just as best friend.
Misty was torn between not appearing too keen by replying right away, but she also didn't want to risk due to time difference for the text to arrive once he wouldn't see him for hours, so she decided to reply as casual as possible in that moment.
- "Noon works for me. Talk to you tomorrow J" – She might have spent too much time overthinking whether having added a smiley face to the text was too keen or not, but "What is done is done" so she tried to push her insecurities aside. She was still fairly tired from everything that had happened.
Misty and Lily finally arrived to the gym and were greeted by Daisy and Violet. Lily obviously took the chance to tease Daisy about her date, but then they told their sisters about what had happened with the Rockets earlier.
- "I know, it's already on my social media feed. Why didn't you take pictures for the story though? I'd expect that from Misty, but not you Lil" – Violet replied, not seemingly concerned about the actual danger that occurred, but rather the fact that an opportunity for media exposure was "wasted".
- "They wouldn't just get me on the picture, and little Swanna here and her friend couldn't be bothered to get it taken, so the journalist went with the pics of the broken wall and captured Rockets instead" – Lily replied quite annoyed at her sister in agreement with Violet.
- "You know I hate pictures!" – Misty just stated.
- "Yeah, but now you would even look OK in them, this would like, have been good for you" – Violet kept insisting.
- "Did the Rockets hurt any of you? Is everyone OK?" – Daisy interrupted, being the only one who actually understood the danger of the situation.
- "Yeah, well, the one who escaped had me grabbed by the neck pointing a knife at me, but Psyduck just tossed him and his Salamence against the wall with a psychic wave attack. That was as close as it got, everyone else is safe… apart from Sabrina's basement wall obviously" – Misty replied.
- "I'm so glad you're both OK" – The eldest sister was just relieved.
- "Somehow your paranoia not to let me go alone kind of helped" – Misty gratefully admitted to Daisy.
On the next day Misty did her normal morning routine, which included piano practice time and taking on a few gym challengers (Which now was obvious even to her that Lily's statement of them being majority teenage boys with little interest in the actual battle was true).
Without a minute delay when the clock hit noon, and Misty was in her room, she called Ash's number first, so the call will be voice only.
- "You're all over the news today!" – There wasn't even a "hi", Ash jumped straight to that statement.
- "Wait, What? How on earth did they manage to get the pictures? That Lily!" – Misty just started rambling in panic.
- "No, actually I was surprised all the pictures were of team Rocket and the destroyed Saffron Gym, but your name, your sister Lily's and Sabrina's are all over the news piece. It says you three took a massive operation down" – Ash replied, slightly confused over the picture panic in Misty's voice.
- "Oh those pictures, yes there were so many Rockets infiltrating the gym to steal Sabrina's research, it was mental" – Misty replied more at ease.
- "It says they had you and Sabrina kidnapped, but you managed to get your sister out who alerted the cops"
- "Well, Lily had to exaggerate a bit the story to get the cops to come, the Rockets were undercover as inspectors, I just happened to notice they were fake and got Lily to never enter the gym in the first place so she could alert the cops" – Misty explained in vague detail hoping Ash wouldn't dig too much in how she knew, for some reason she still felt so insecure about discovering her abilities so late, and to not be able to control them, especially to someone like Ash that at age 10 seemed to have accomplished what most trainers would have needed over 15 years to do across multiple regions.
- "The news said you were held at knifepoint" – Ash said with genuine concern.
- "Yeah that was during the battle, but it was barely for a few seconds, Psyduck went ballistic once the inspector grabbed me and tossed him and his Salamence to the wall, even Sabrina was impressed by Psyduck's attack" – She tried to ease Ash's concerns.
- "Psyduck took on a Salamence?... Your Psyduck?" – Ash Asked in shock.
- "Hey!, you should not be that surprised!, you send Pikachu against much bigger Pokémon too" – She replied in defence of her Psyduck.
- "I know, but still, whatever training you and Sabrina are doing must be really working on him, it used to take a lot, if not luck, for him to get the necessary headache to attack when commanded" – Ash was honestly impressed, he was fond of Psyduck, but never really considered him a particularly fierce battling force, more of a wildcard that could go either incredibly well or terribly wrong, no point in between.
- "Well he is amazing, even a psychic specialist says so, so stop picking on him" – And as Misty said this Psyduck came out of his pokeball enthusiastically chanting all over.
To ash It was just Psyduck gibberish but Misty did understand him and couldn't help but smiling at her Pokémon.
- (Psyduck): Nobody freaking puts a hand on MY MASTER!, I'll toss anyone who dares, just come at me!"
- "If I remember correctly, you were the first one usually picking on him though" – Ash teased.
- "Not anymore!, he gets on my nerves, but he's the best Psyduck, and if anything only I can pick on him, no one else" – Misty said trying to defend herself, although from some time now, she was feeling guilty on her previous lack of patience with her very loyal Pokémon, that as she recently found out, chose her, and saw in her the power and abilities that nobody else could at the time.
The rest of the call went quite smoothly. After Ash stopped asking about the incident with the Rockets, he told her of her travels, and how his Pikachu had become friends with a captain Pikachu they met there in Paldea, with the pair of them becoming like some sort of dynamic TV duo. Ash was really enjoying the region and all the different Pokémon and powers hidden in it. Misty couldn't help but noticing there was no single mention of Serena in all his stories, but once again, that was a subject she was not prepared to get into with him, and that was the one question she wouldn't press herself to ask him, so the call ended in a friendly tone with the promise to catch up again after a month.
(Meanwhile in an Unknown location)
- "Boss, you don't understand, that other gym leader somehow found out our plans and busted our cover" – The older fake inspector was explaining on a video call.
- "You mean to tell me, that a plan you've been developing for the past 6 MONTHS, and on which you made me invest thousands, was ruined by 3 TEENAGE GIRLS!" – On the other side of the line the shadowy silhouette of the team rocket leader was shouting at his subordinate.
- "They're no ordinary girls sir, they're all gym leaders"
- "You were supposed to have mastered the training to disguise your thoughts in front of Sabrina, and as our records go, Cerulean gym has always been marked as irrelevant, is ran by 3 teenage instagram models who couldn't care less about Pokémon" – The boss kept shouting
- "Sir, the one who found us out is not one of those 3, there's a fourth sister in that gym, she's been training with Sabrina, she did something to find out the plan, and her Psyduck just sent Salamence to the wall with too much ease"
- "So not only the 15 year old girl was better than you, you were taken down by a tiny Psyduck!. It costed us my precious Houndooms, and Salamence returned in a really bad state, you're just masking your incompetence" – The boss was really losing it.
- "Well, the Psyduck wasn't particularly tiny, it was a normal-sized Psyduck" – The older fake inspector stupidly pointed out.
- "IT'S STILL A MUCH SMALLER POKEMON THAN SALAMENCE!" – The boss completely lost it and he added – "You'll be demoted to grunt training from now on".
- "Sir, you need to reconsider Cerulean's position, I believe that gym is no longer irrelevant, this leader can be a menace to our plans" – The older inspector said accepting his fate, Rocket team had mapped out trainer and leaders who pose a threat to their organisation, and they usually try to either seize their Pokémon or do their plans counting for their intervention.
Ash did not know this, but he had been in that list for a while since he frustrated so many of Team Rocket's plans. Sabrina was in the list too, as team Rocket actually tried to get her to join when her troubled child-self possessed her, but when Ash helped her to gain self-control back, she refused any contact with team Rocket. Blaine, Lt. Surge and Koga before he retired as a gym leader were on the list as well, and as it looks like, now one more leader is being added… Misty.
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OK, here's the next part, I know it took a while, life really got on the way, hopefully will still get a couple readers :). I'll move the next chapters a bit faster in the timeline, so there'll be a few timeskips until getting to age 20 which is where the main story will follow on, but I need Misty to catch a couple important Pokemon to the story before that, so I'm planning to get that next.
As always would love to hear comments and suggestions