It has been a few days since they left the hidden village, thankfully because Ash knew where they were going. It did not take the full 10 days it took Ash.

Over the trip. Bulbasaur started trying to try and catch up with the rest of the team so with the help of Gloom and Weepinbell, he tried to learn Mega Drain, sleep powder, poison powder, Leech Seed, and Sludge Bomb. He only managed to get the hang of sleep powder, poison powder, and Leech Seed for the time being since he only trained when they stopped for rest.

And during the time they were training Ash used aura to look at Bulbasaur's bulb, and what he saw was that it was very underdeveloped. Melanie was right that if Bulbasaur stayed in the forest for much longer he may have never been able to evolve due to how damaged it was.

(A/N Yes I know that in the anime Bulbasaur chose to not evolve, but they never did anything with the words Melanie said, so consider this part of the AU and my excuse on how I will get Bulbasaur to evolve.)

So over time, Ash used aura to slowly start the healing of Bulbasaur's bulb, if this was some bad cultivation story this could be considered fixing one's mana core cliche.

That's how the days went until they were getting close to a familiar Pokemon center.

It was getting late and Ash was reviewing his map with Brock, "So with the pace we are going we should arrive in a little under a week to Vermilion."

Yellow was sitting on Dody and Misty was resting on a log since it was getting late and they were both tired, "How about a Pokemon center? I don't want to stay out here with bugs another night." Misty asked with a tired expression.

"Uh, there's a bug right on your–'' Brock couldn't even finish before Misty screamed.

[screams] "Get it away!" Misty Yelled as she jumped landing on top of Ash making Pikachu who was on his shoulder jump to Yellow.

"Heh, it was just a piece of grass," Brock said as he started laughing nervously, as Misty started glaring at him, it was super effective, Misty then Kicked Brock to the ground leaving the imprint of her shoe in his face, all while still on top of Ash's shoulders.

"Hey Misty, if you wanted a piggyback ride you could have just asked," Ash teased.

Misty released where she was and got embarrassed and blushed before getting off, "Sorry, Ash."

"It's fine, anyway there is a Pokemon center pretty close to here, we can probably make it before the sun sets if we hurry," Ash said while helping Brock back to his feet.

"Alright, no time to waste. I want a shower and to sleep on a bed!" Misty announced as she started leading the way.

She was right showers are a privilege when you are traveling, the group kept walking, and on the way Ash saw the infamous rock but there was no fire lizard on it, 'Well I am a few weeks early so I guess it makes sense, no matter I now have a way to get here fast.'

The group continued walking until they eventually saw a Pokemon center in the distance, Misty immediately ran to it at a speed that left Dody surprised. They eventually all followed.

As soon as they got in Nurse Joy looked surprised in the direction of the rooms but turned back hearing more people come in, "Hello, you wouldn't happen to know that girl who just came in would you."

"Yeah she is with us," Ash said, handing some Pokemon to Nurse Joy along with both Brock and Yellow.

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"Of course, I will get them back to you in one second, will you all like a room for the night?" Joy asked, they all nodded and got everything ready.

Yellow and Misty went to shower while Brock decided to flirt with Joy, Ash didn't care he could ruin his own chances himself.

Ash instead went to his room and had Abra start memorizing their location so she could teleport him back whenever he needed to, then he decided to lie down and think a bit.

'I wonder what Jessie & James are doing, they didn't show up for a bit, probably on a mission or something. I wonder when Damian will decide to abandon Charmander. It was never really said how long Charmander was waiting, but it couldn't be more than a week.'

'Well, no point in thinking about it. I will just come back every few days, but for now, I'm going to go take a shower.' Ash got up and left the room.

_________________________

Meanwhile in Team Rocket HQ.

Jessie, James, and Meowth were preparing an elaborate plan to try and capture Pikachu again; they didn't know what they were doing but it involved Drills, a car, and 2 Bananas. However, they were called back to base by the Boss.

When they arrived they saw a few more grunts along with Butch and Cassidy, and the admins Arlo, Cliff, and Sierra.

Ario is a young man with a custom-made Team Rocket Hoodie, Glasses, and black hair with a streak of red. Cliff is an older man that looked like he could give Bruno a run for his money, he has a custom-made muscle shirt and the grunt cap, Sierra is a young woman that wears a custom-made jumpsuit with custom-made heels, and her hair is tied in a bun.

When Jessie, James, and Meowth arrive they go to Butch and Cassidy since they are technically the closest thing to a friend they had in Team Rocket.

"Hey, do you guys know why we were all called back?" James asked.

"I don't know we were in the middle of a mission when we called back, you?" Cassidy said taking things seriously since the boss called them.

"We were preparing a trap for some trainers with Archer's order," Jessie answered.

Meowth was about to put himself as the center of attention again but he was hit on the head by all 4 of them, since this was a serious thing they had to do they couldn't have Meowth be annoying.

As soon as they finished the Executives walked up in front of everyone and got everyone's attention. In front of everyone stood Proton, Ariana, and Archer.

Archer caught everyone's attention, "Everyone listen up, the Boss has put me in charge of speaking to you all about why you all are here."

Most of the grunts knew not to speak out, but one of the newer members who didn't know about who the executives were thought himself special, "Hey where is the Boss why did he send you!"

Archer didn't even turn to see the grunt and raised his arm in Ariana's direction. Ariana nodded and from behind the grunt that spoke out, Ariana's Arbok grabbed him and pulled him into a side room his fate left unclear.

"Anyone else has anything to say?" But the room was left quiet.

"Good now let's start," Archer said with a smile, "Our spies in the league have found that the replacements in the elite 4 have been chosen. We have also found out that the league will be funding an S.S. Anne Cruise to introduce people to the newest members."

"Now as some of you may have deduced, the elite 4 will be on the boat along with former member Agitha, however Lance himself will not attend, and we plan to make sure of that." Archer continued and most of the grunts were confused.

"Now onto the reason you all were called back, We will send some of you to the S.S. Anne to hijack it," Hearing this most of the grunts were confused why they were going to do such a blatant suicide mission, "Now your goal in the S.S. Anne is not to capture Pokemon, though you are allowed to do it if you want, your goal is to spread as much chaos as you can."

Some grunts understood but still had some questions so Archer continued, "Now to answer some of your questions you may have, on the S.S. Anne, some of you will be given some teleporting Pokemon so you will be able to escape so form a squad it will be one per team."

"And secondly, your goal is to cause chaos since the members of the elite 4 will not have their full teams it will be perfect, and as for Lance, our Spy and Boss of the Johto branch will be causing team Rocket to form their own chaos and bring Lance to 'stop' them. Leaving us to start phase 2 of our plan." Archer announced proudly.

"Obviously I will not disclose what the plan is, however, it is time to assign who will go to the S.S. Anne," Archer said while signaling for Proton to step up, "Proton will be in charge of this mission since he just recently became an Executive, and Admin Arlo, Cliff, and Sierra will be directly under him, they will separate you all, those who are left will follow Ariana to prepare."

Archer then separated the grunts into two groups leaving Jessie, James, Butch, and Cassidy in the same group to go into the S.S. Anne, they were told to return a week before the end of the month, so they separated for now.

_____________________________

(In the League)

Lance was busy doing Paperwork since he took over as champion for 2 regions, but this time he was Preparing the paperwork to add the new members of the elite 4.

But then he received a phone call from someone in Johto, picking it up it revealed former Elite 4 current Gym leader Pryce, although he is much different from his game counterpart he is in a wheelchair and depressed, he used to be part of a love triangle with Agatha and Oak, but on the day of the accident everything changed and he hasn't talked to them in years.

Since that day he stepped down from the position of elite 4 and barely went to the meetings with the rest of the gym leaders, though sometimes he will call Lance like this moment.

Lance was surprised to see Pryce but he calmed himself, "Hello, what do I owe the pleasure, Pryce."

"Save it Lance we both know we only talk when there are problems," Pryce said not looking amused, "I found some team rocket grunts trying to get into my Lapras sanctuary, after some convincing I learned that Team Rocket is going to do something big with the Executives here in Johto, and from what they told me Executive Petrel is already here."

Lance looked surprised but kept his composure, "What else did you get from them?"

"Only that Team Rocket is planning something on the last day of this month, the same day the Kanto Elite 4 will be on the S.S. Anne, they must be expecting you to stay in Kanto," Pryce answered.

Lance thought to himself before saying, "Alright, thank you, Pryce I will prepare to get to you in secret, I will let you do what you want with those grunts since they tried to get to your Lapras sanctuary, I know how protective you are of them." Pryce didn't even say thank you he just nodded and hung up.

Lance sat back in his chair for a bit to sigh and think, after a while, he got up to make some calls.