Viridian City Pokémon Center
In the year that Misty had been on her own, she had learned many street rules that she had to follow if she wanted to survive on her own due to her bloodline.
One of the first she learned was that the Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys of the world were not a threat.
While most private doctors or regular policemen, upon seeing anything vaguely reminisce of a bloodline, would refuse aid or attempt to arrest her, the identical supe family was different.
No matter if she came in with the most bizarre of wounds, or had a witness statement that suggested she was underwater when it occurred, she was never ignored. Perhaps they had a really strong honor code about helping anyone in need and serving people equally, Misty had never asked.
So, for the first person she had ever seen with a bloodline just like herself, there was no other place to go.
Misty, hunched over in the waiting area of Viridian City, with nothing to do as the boy was being treated for his injuries but stare at the ancient image of legendary Birds of Kanto (And Arcanine, known as the legendary Pokémon due to being the only aide to a legendary knight of Cameron Palace, in the remote Rota nation to the north of Pewter City, who with his faithful beast defeated the Legendary Birds who were under the control of a Flying Bloodline Warlord. This knight would later train a squire named Aaron) that hung over the reception area, and ponder the question of the boy.
Who was he?
Why did she feel as though she knew him, yet she had no clear recall?
Was that just some Bloodline thing (She had never met another person like her before, after all) and any other bloodline user would feel oddly familiar to her, or was it something more...
Grumble Grumble
Misty's hunger derailed her train of thought instantly.
There were many, many problems with having a bloodline in Misty's opinion, and one of them was a very, very, very strong metabolism.
It would explain why the boy's backpack's food supply had been reduced to mere wrappers. Not that Misty was going to steal food from a injured boy or anything...
"Psy y y." 'Ah, doughnuts, the hallmark of civilization.'
Misty's head rapidly turned to her right, where her Psyduck was gorging himself on a box of donuts (The box being mostly white with orange and purple trim).
"Hey, don't hog them all to yourself!" Misty snapped as she tried to get a doughnut for herself...and found an empty box as the duck belched.
"Duck duck duck duck." 'Hey, you snooze, you loose. Oh, um, by the way that was the last of the food in the Pokémon center until tomorrow.'
Due to her bloodline, Misty could hear what Water Pokémon were saying, as opposed to telepathically being told, but there were times she wished she didn't have to listen to 'certain' Water Pokémon talk.
This was one of those times.
In her annoyance at him, Misty looked ready to eat the annoying duck, but thankfully the duck was saved by the cop who spoke up behind the girl to be noticed.
"Misty." The girl stopped in her impulse to roast her Psyduck with the sheer heat of her rage as she turned to see the impeccably identical, blue haired and dressed Officer Jenny.
The cop looked troubled.
"Yes, officer?" she replied as the Officer frowned.
"I really can't thank you enough for saving that young man."
The Spearow flock on Route 1 were among the last of the "hyper aggressive Pokémon of old" at least according to the officer's mother (another Jenny, the one before her). Apparently, all Pokémon were that aggressive to humans if not caught before Professor Oak's research took effect. Ever since, Pokémon had become far less aggressive towards humanity; most species now would only chase intruders out of their territories and would leave them alone if sufficient force was used.
"However, while I did find the area where the Spearow had attacked the poor boy, and it was quite clear that that is what had happened...the Spearow were all gone."
Misty looked surprised to hear that, how was that possible?! Those birds weren't going to go anywhere anytime soon.
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Team Rocket HQ
It was rare that Giovanni was happy after hearing about the trio of Jessie, James and Meowth, but today was one of those rare days.
Normally, they would either annoy him with their cheerfulness, or they would be late on their Pokémon quotas, but this was a rare inversion of such irritations.
After all, an entire flock of powerful Flying type Pokémon was a worthy additional to the Team Rocket arsenal after all, and there were enough of them so their debt was paid off, and would be for some time into the future.
(Of course, this just meant more time for them to mess up, but then again that was normal for them.)
The standard black business suit the man wore (bar its R insignia on the breast pocket), with his black hair short on his head, made him all the more sinister looking as he gave a once over to the white uniformed trio of a red head, a blue haired fellow and a talking Meowth (A/N, Origin Giovanni design and no change for the Trio as they were at the start).
They looked nervous at his silence, and the Persian who sat by the Team Rocket leader seemed to enjoy the Meowth's misery. Giovanni decided to milk it for a bit more, slowly tapping his fingers and enjoying how they all seemed to flinch with each tap.
"Well done" he finally spoke as the trio seemed ready to burst into tears of joy at a rather simple bit of praise.
A quick glare at them silenced them before they actually did so.
The fact they seemed to be...unnaturally loyal was one of the very few reasons he had not had them executed for their failures. Even if they were generally incompetent nimrods, it always paid to have minions with undying loyalties to you in your criminal organization, as measures to deal with inevitable take over attempts.
Though with them, they were less 'enforcer' material to take back power as 'disposable pawns who would sacrifice themselves while he begun his contingency plans'.
"The fact that you have granted Team Rocket a substantial boon in our resources is commendable, but we are not finished yet. Not until Team Rocket is in full control of the world, and to do that, we will require many, many more Pokémon. So go forth and obtain some more."
The often bumbling, yet at the same time occasionally efficient trio left his office in a hurry, muttering about going hunting in Viridian City or something of that nature.
"Viridian City..." Giovanni mused of where his Gym was located, though at the moment it was closed down for repairs, "You know my pet, I remember when I first went to Viridian City as a young, foolish trainer. It took me three days to get there you know, the roads were horrible back then."
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The Pokémon Center
Opening his eyes for a moment, Ash could have sworn he saw the rainbow light of Ho-Oh flying overhead...
That was due to happen roughly at...
Hey, where was he?
This wasn't a hill on Route 1.
The outdoors did not have a skylight...
"Pika-Pi!" 'Ash! Oh, thank Arceus you're alright!'
Ash blinked as he heard...a voice alongside Pikachu's. It was familiar...yet he had no idea who it was.
He quickly rose up, only then realizing he had been lying on a hospital cot and Pikachu was perched on the side table, tilting its head "Chu?"
"Hey buddy..." he looked around a few times, to find that the only other person in the room was Pikachu "Hey, who was that just earlier?"
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"Pi?"
"There was someone else in this room...I heard him, and I could have sworn I knew him from somewhere..." Ash trailed off as he got a better look around his hospital room "Er, how exactly did we get here anyway?"
"Pikachu-Pi!"
"I brought you here," a familiar voice spoke up as Ash saw a red haired girl about his age staring at him from the doorway.
Ash wasn't quite sure who she was, she looked familiar...her voice, while changed by age, was still ringing more than enough bells to summon Ho-Oh, Lugia and Giratina (Who came just to shut them up after the sound crossed into its space.)
"Now tell me, have we met before? You and your Pikachu seem familiar somehow...before I have to pound it out of you!"
Ash just blinked.
Misty?!
Ash really couldn't believe his eyes as he saw her; the short, angry, tomboyish girl just a bit older than him now was a tall, angry, tomboyish girl who actually looked like one of her sisters in body shape.
Of course, even Ash had the sense to realize that comparing Misty to her sisters, no matter how you did it, was a way to be physically harmed.
But...she didn't seem to remember him fully, what was that...
'You will be able to restore memories, but not as perfectly and evenly as I'd had hoped to grant you.' Arceus's words rang in Ash's ears as he recalled what was the problem.
Oh...yeah there was going to be no right way to do this. He could either lie and say he didn't know her, then Misty would leave and he'd never see his old friend again. If he said he did, she'd inquire how and he'd have to lie, be found out and slapped. If he told her he knew from an alternate timeline...he was pretty sure the Pokémon League had a sanity clause somewhere in its rules.
However, he was saved from having to either lie, or sound insane, by the huge explosion up front.
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Up in the front of the Pokémon Center
"Prepare for Trouble, today we are on fire!"
"Make it double, now listen up or earn our ire!"
Misty and Ash, who had managed to force himself out of bed due to the shock of the explosion, only just remembered it was at this Pokémon Center where he had first ran into Team Rocket.
He had almost hoped they had simply not existed in this new timeline, but since when was luck ever on his side, as the bothersome threesome posed right below a hole in the ceiling that had not been there previously.
"To protect the world from devastation!"
"To unite all peoples within our nation!"
"To denounce the evils of truth and love!"
"To extend our reach to the stars above!"
Misty just stared at them in sheer...confusion.
"Jessie!" the red head looked the same as she always did.
"James!" the bluenette guy was likewise. It would seem they were the same.
Of course, having said that, Meowth was going to end up being a Garchomp now.
"Team Rocket blasts off as the speed of light!"
"Surrender now, or prepare to fight!"
"Meowth that's right!"
Thankfully Ash's worry was for naught, as the scratch cat Pokémon was exactly the same as he was once before.
Misty just stared at them. "Are you for real?" She didn't even seem to be confused as much by Meowth being able to talk as...them in general
"We're more than real," James boasted, "and we're here for every Pokémon in the Pokémon Center, but since we're nice we'll spare you all a few Caterpie so you can go train it up into a Butterfree, use it to capture more Pokémon, and then come back to steal those too!"
"You steal Pokémon..." Misty sounded just...horrified. While Ash knew that his, no the original Misty was opposed to the practice, but this Misty was beyond that; she sounded like a mother who was just told to eat her own newborn.
The sheer...disgust at the idea of Pokémon being stolen made Ash wonder why her distaste had become so much greater.
"Well, got to pay the bills somehow, little girl. Not all of us can survive merely by traveling the world after all. Now, hand over your Pokémon before..."
"Go Staryu!"
Jessie was interrupted when the single star Pokémon flew at her in a rapid spin and nailed her in the chest, sending the attractive red head right into the wall with a bang.
Of course, Team Rocket had an uncanny ability to avoid being killed off a la 'darker and edgier work that shoos off the clowns'
"OW! How dare you hit me you little brat, Ekans go give her a taste of your Bite attack!"
"Koffing, Tackle now!"
From each trainer let loose one of their original Pokémon (What ever did happen to them anyway? Ash had never found out.)
The purple snake Pokémon Ekans promptly bit down on Staryu while floating gas sack Koffing slung itself towards Pikachu.
Ash was going to order Pikachu to use Thundershock, but after what happened last time...well Ash decided to air on the side of caution in case that this explosion actually might kill someone (or himself.)
"Staryu, use Water Gun to blast it off!"
As Misty got in her non violent attack option to blast the Snake off her Starfish, Ash called for Pikachu to use Iron Tail.
The tail glowed a solid white, Pikachu swung it into the thing bag of air pollution successfully, causing it to fly back as the astonished James gaped at him.
"Ekans, Acid!"
"Water Gun!"
The two female trainers Pokémon exchanged range attacks, the two attacks colliding for equal power, while Meowth managed to get behind Pikachu.
"Quick, use Iron Tail!"
Pikachu's tail glowed white, but flickered out.
"Ha, looks like your still working on that move pal...now let me show you a real move, Fury Swipes!" Pikachu promptly unleashed a barrage of claw attacks on the mouse, before the poor cat suddenly was covered in electric static.
"PiPi-Kachuu!" Pikachu taunted the cat after flinching a bit from the stinging scratch attacks 'Never use a multiple hit contact move on a Pokémon with Static, cat!'
"I envy Persians and their Limber" Meowth muttered in his paralysis.
Ash blinked, there was that voice again.
Who did he keep hearing? It sounded really familiar...
"Koffing, Sludge Attack!"
Pikachu narrowly avoided a wad of the disgusting gunk that shout out the now recovered Koffing, who floated alongside James
"You know, that Pikachu doesn't seem to be that bad. It might actually be worth something to the boss."
"Koffing, the Poison Gas Pokémon. Levitating in the Air with its balloon like body, Koffing are quite violate and explosive when exposed to heat or electricity. These explosions have a 40% mortality rate." Ash's Pokédex rang out from Ash's pocket on its own accord as James quickly looked at Koffing, then Pikachu, then panicked.
"Oh no! Get that horrible rodent away from my Koffing!"
Ash and Pikachu exchanged glanced, Pikachu smirking as he turned back to the two and let some sparks fly out of his cheeks. Both James and Koffing had looks of terror on their faces.
"Koffing, return!" the nice Team Rocket member quickly recalled his Pokémon from the very real danger of the electric mouse as the two heroes smirked.
"Ha, now you can't hurt my Koffing! You will now surrender to our superior intell..."
"Pikachu use Thundershock!"
A huge burst of electrical power flew from Pikachu right towards the Bluenette and the downed cat, who both promptly were shocked and began comically withering in pain.
Jessie was knocked into the attack as well with her Ekans due to a Swift attack from Staryu, getting caught in the attack just as the electricity caused them to explode.
Thankfully for Ash's innocence, it was as it had always been, with the trio flying straight through the hole in the roof they had used to get in.
"What, how did a minuscule mouse pack that much power!" James questioned as they flew away that somehow Ash could here.
"Why did you call back Koffing you dolt!" Jessie grabbed James by the collar as Meowth shook his head.
"'Cause he's more scared of losing it than you, but it looks like..."
"Team Rocket is blasting off most unusually!"
Twinkle.
Nurse Joy and Psyduck poked their head up from behind the nurses counter as Misty returned her Staryu, then the duck after she gave him an annoyed glare for hiding like that and leaving her to deal with Team Rocket.
"Oh...you beat Team Rocket? I thought the only way to get rid of them would be to get Officer Jenny here as quickly as possible...now I feel like a fool," the nurse said before blushing as she flipped open the cell phone she had been holding "Maybe now I can avoid having to redo the tiles again..."
The doors to the Pokémon Center barely opened in time before a police moped burst through and skidded across the tiles before coming to a stop right in front of the Nurse, who had a anime sweat drop.
"Or, maybe not."
Removing her white helmet in a rush, the unchanged appearance of the Kanto Jenny; blue hair and uniform in all, looked around in confusion.
"Wait, where's the emergency...?" The officer questioned, looking around for anything obviously wrong before she looked up to see the hole in the ceiling. "Oh, that probably has something to do with it."
"A trio of Team Rocket grunts broke in and tried to take over, but those two fought them off" Jenny explained as the Officer noted the two teenagers.
"You did huh? That was a great service to the entire community of Viridian. If there is anything I can do to thank you both for your...
Grumble Grumble
Misty blushed as her stomach grumbled again as the Jenny lit up
"Oh, you're hungry? Well, it may not be a key to the city, but I can get you a pizza, what's your favorite..."
Grumble Grumble Grumble
Ash blushed as he now sounded hungrier than Misty was.
"Okay, make that two pizzas. What toppings do you both want?"
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Back at Team Rocket HQ, about two hours later
Most people have their vices.
Some drink, some smoke and some watch shows about fat idiots, but Giovanni had a completely different sort of vice.
He enjoyed watching those who fail get punished for it.
Every time he saw one of his grunts get arrested, he chuckled. Whenever a engineer failed to properly construct a bomb, he shook his head in merriment as the poor fool blew up.
In particular, he got a laugh whenever he found the trio of Jessie, James and Meowth blow up.
He had no idea how they didn't die; they were genetically normal humans (and Meowth), but it made them all the better to distract any usurpers if Proton or one of the other executives decided to try something.
Standing over the crispy and twitchy forms of his minions, he reached down into Jessie's hair and removed a little clip on device; a high tech spy lens that also could detect certain informative tidbits of information; Pokémon Levels, access government databases for identities and myriads of other things.
Drawing an tablet device from a laptop bag hung over his shoulder, the mafia kingpin shook his head as he removed an SD card and info card from the camera and inserted both into his handheld device.
"So, what happened this time? Try to use a net on a Magmar again?" he asked sardonically as he began to view the data from whatever wrecked his minions, and determine if he would have to chastise them for attacking too strong a target, or being beaten up by too weak of a target.
However, as the data began to display itself, Giovanni's eyebrow rose up in surprise.
It stayed that way for a few minutes, enough time for Jessie, James, and Meowth to recover from their crash landing and stare up at him.
"Er, boss..."
The well dressed crime lord quickly tapped a few buttons, hiding a few statistics as he turned the tablet towards the trio, causing James to whimper about the Koffing killer in the making.
"See this boy?"
The image on the tablet clearly showed Ash as the trio had first spotted him. As the trio nodded, (James in slight terror), Giovanni continued, "You are to follow him, monitor his skill level and report back to me on everything he does. Every captured Pokémon, every girl he kisses, what his goals are, you will keep me informed of everything this boy is and will be! No detail is too small!"
"But boss..." James whined before the most feared man in the underworld of more than four regions (Kanto, Johto, Orange Islands, and SeviiI slands) glared back at him with a glare that could paralyze a Arbok.
It in fact did paralyze them just long enough for him to replace the data cards into the spy camera, after downloading all the information it had gathered to his personal device of course. The trio was still none the wiser he was somehow monitoring them.
"We're on it boss...come on you big crybaby!"
"He's going to blow my Koffing to bits and pieces!"
As Jessie and Meowth dragged the terrified bluenette away, the head of one of the world's major crime syndicate seemed to be in his own world.
"So, it has finally begun," Giovanni said to himself.