The Utility Umbrella spun in place as Kirlia twirled it around his body. It glowed with the blue of Psychic Type energy, held firmly in his mental grasp.
With one foot on the ground and the other in the air, he forced the umbrella to shift its position to extend out in front of him like a shield. Motes of fire seared forward, slamming into the umbrella and superheating the air around him. Ponyta, taking the opportunity to move in while Kirlia was blocking his Mystical Fire, charged as fast as he could.
As soon as he was only a foot away, Ponyta jumped straight over the floating umbrella and positioned his body to land on Kirlia with Stomp. However, a quick Teleport brought Kirlia away off to the side, where their battle entered a brief pause.
Both Psychics Types looked over to Florges for approval, who pressed her lips together in thought. Deciding to step into their spar, her flowers shook and sent out two condensed lumps of pollen that she caught then casually tossed at both Pokémon.
Ponyta and Kirlia were easily able to telekinetically catch the Pollen Puffs before sticking the sweet masses in their mouths. Chewing on the move, what few injuries they had sustained as well as their slight exhaustion vanished thanks to the healing property of the move.
Satisfied, Florges smiled then held up her hands, conjuring a ball of fire that she tossed into the air. With the Sunny Day reset, the pair of Psychic Types resumed their practice.
A little ways away, I smiled as I looked on. Seeing my Pokémon working together so well filled me with pride. I made sure to verbalize that to the light-colored, spotted egg sitting next to me in a glass case.
“It’s great that everyone’s trying their hardest, isn’t it?” I said out loud.
In the distance, both Whimsicott and Carbink were engaged in practice with Steven's Cradily, trying to learn Toxic from a Pokémon that had learned the move after going through the same difficulties as them, and a little further away than them, Ninetales was participating in her own spar against Steven’s Armaldo, practicing facing a much stronger Pokémon who could both weather her ranged attacks and shake off her illusions with little effort.
Overall, all six of the Pokémon I had with me were putting in their best to continue to improve themselves. I wasn’t slacking off either; I was trying to become a better cook to support my team.
The training continued until I managed to make what I thought would be enough food for everyone, Steven’s pair of Pokémon included. I shouted out for all the Pokémon here to come get it, as Steven was currently underground, searching for rare minerals.
"Meal's ready!" I yelled.
There was no delay between the sound of my voice and the Pokémon stopping what they were doing to rush over. Kirlia was first, of course, thanks to his Teleport. With him here, I handed him a plate of the food I made today: bread buns stuffed with all the seared vegetables and proteins developing Pokémon needed to support their training. He took it with a big smile, then Teleported away to sit on a nearby rock to dig in. Once I gave Ponyta his plate—he grabbed it through telekinesis—Ponyta trotted over to Kirlia and laid on the ground next to him to eat their meal together.
It didn’t take long for everyone else to receive helpings for themselves, but unfortunately, there wasn’t enough left for everyone to get seconds. I clicked my tongue in disapproval and made a note to increase how much I took with me on routes in the future. It would be a bit of a stretch, since now that I’d moved away from canned food, the vast majority of my income was spent just purchasing high quality ingredients for my Pokémon. It was ridiculous just how expensive supporting a team of six with three cooked meals daily like this was. If it wasn’t for Cynthia’s extremely generous check, I’d basically have no money put aside for emergencies.
Speaking of Cynthia’s generosity, the egg was still next to me. Once all the food was dished out, I grabbed my own meal (which was a premade sandwich I’d bought back in Lake Valor) and the questionnaire I told Cynthia I’d fill out. It’d only been a couple of days since we left Lake Valor, but I was making decent progress. I was now on page nine! ...out of sixty seven.
“So the question I’m currently working on is basically about architecture, which I feel is weird, but I guess it highlights the differences between where I’m from and where she’s from,” I said to the egg. “Like, this world has its share of big cities, but I’m more used to ones that are even larger. Here it’s like someone took a part of the central, downtown districts of a city then just plopped them into the wilderness. I still can’t wrap my brain around how that actually works.”
The egg showed no sign of reaction, because of course it didn’t; it was an egg. However, I knew from Ponyta that there was a benefit to speaking to unhatched eggs, which was especially true for Togepi as a species.
Ignoring the fact that this unhatched Togepi was the progeny of a Champion’s Pokémon, as well as the fact it’d likely know several rare Egg Moves, Togepi eggs, in general, were special. A Togepi egg didn’t hatch within a set period of time, like how almost every other Pokémon egg functioned. Instead, it could stay in a torpor-like state for near-perpetuity until it found itself in a joy-filled environment.
I was given a bunch of reading on the Togepi line through a delivery by Cynthia. It was really quite fascinating. A Togepi would hatch when it felt like it was appropriate to hatch, which could take anywhere between a few days and literally years. When the Pokémon finally left the safety of its egg, it tended to imprint on whatever creature it saw first and consider them its mother, regardless of gender. Once evolved, a Togetic would outgrow that imprint, but they would still hold positive feelings towards whoever cared for them as long as they were treated well.
I really felt like my schedule was becoming tighter and tighter between all the training, cooking, reading, egg-tending, and questionnaire-answering I was doing, but honestly, I was feeling great. All my Pokémon were happy and more determined than ever to get stronger, and not only that, we had a Gym Battle coming up in Pastoria.
I doubted anything could bring me down.
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“This is boring! They’re just sitting there, reading!” Jessie complained.
“No, I think they’re actually writing.” James paused. “Is that a questionnaire?”
Jessie groaned and put down her high tech binoculars. She let her head fall forward into her hand as the trio of criminals watched their newest target from a long distance away.
“You know if you two are so bored, you could help me assemble our next mecha,” Meowth pointed out.
“No thanks.”
“I’m good.”
Meowth groaned and mumbled a few choice insults under his breath. James took this moment to put down his binoculars as well.
“What I don’t understand is why we’re chasing that Alex twerp instead of our twerp. How is this going to help us catch Pikachu?”
“Do you really need me to explain the plan again?” Meowth asked.
Both Jessie and James nodded. James’s Mime Jr., positioned on his shoulder, mimicked the motion of nodding, synchronized with the other two.
“Ugh, how’d I get stuck with these two dolts!” Meowth groaned. “Now look here! That Alex has a team of super strong Pokémon, right?”
“Yeah, they beat up two different Gym Leaders in show battles.”
“And they beat us back in Oreburgh!”
Jessie smacked the back of James's head with a rolled up magazine she had been reading earlier.
“Don’t remind me,” she hissed.
“Anyway, if we can steal their Pokémon, we can use them to steal Pikachu! They already beat the twerp once before, I’m sure those Pokémon could beat him again!”
“And then with Pikachu in hand, the boss will be sure to reward us!” Jessie exclaimed.
“Acknowledgement from the boss...” James said, dreamily.
“A place in his lap...” Meowth added.
“And don’t forget the money!” Jessie exclaimed.
The three members of Team Rocket had literal stars in their eyes thinking of what they stood to gain upon successful completion of their mission.
“Right!” they all said in unison.
With that declaration out of the way, both Jessie and James leapt back to try to help Meowth with his mecha-assembly.
“Move over, Meowth! You’re putting this together too slowly.” Jessie ordered. “Huh. This looked weird. What does this doohickey do anyway?”
Meowth paled.
“No! Don’t touch tha—”
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As my Pokémon finished their meals, while they were relaxing to digest their food, I heard an explosion off in the distance. Both Ponyta’s and my head snapped towards it, but neither of us could tell what had happened. I looked at him to see if he detected anyone nearby, but he just shook his head back and forth to signify the negative.
Whatever it was, it was too far away for us to be concerned.
“Well, since everyone is done anyway, we might as well get a move on,” I announced. “Is there anyone who wants to return to their ball as we travel?”
Ninetales moaned, her stomach stuffed from overeating, and Florges, wanting to rest after putting in so much energy to heal, raised her hand to show she wanted to be returned as well. Chuckling at Ninetales’s karma from gluttony, I returned the pair of them to their balls and stood up to leave.
“Just a bit of clean up duty before we can head out,” I said. “After that, Ponyta, can you and Kirlia try to find Ash so we can—”
“Wow! Alex!”
“Nevermind,” I mumbled.
With him announcing himself like that, all Pokémon still out of their balls watched as Ash practically ran into our little clearing with Pikachu on his shoulder. Behind him, Brock and Dawn were hot on his heels, a bit out of breath from most likely chasing him for a while.
Honestly, I was surprised that over the past few weeks, this was the first time Ash had accidentally stumbled upon us. Steven and I had been staying relatively close just in case anything too bad happened; close enough that at some points, Ash’s Staravia should have at least noticed us from the air.
If we were in a city, I wouldn’t have been too upset about this “chance” meeting, but with my knowledge of the anime, I knew Team Rocket would be relatively close by.
Before responding to Ash, I glanced over to Ponyta and flexed my fingers in a way we’d already set up back during the Contest. He gave me a slight nod then nudged Kirlia next to him. The pair of Psychic Types now had a goal, and that goal was to prevent Team Rocket from doing anything too stupid.
I might have tolerated them any other day, but with the Togepi egg in my possession and with Kirlia finally cheering up? I wasn’t going to let them ruin the good mood my team had going on.
If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“It’s nice to see you again, Ash,” I said, honestly.
“Yeah! It’s been a while. I haven’t seen you since Veilstone!”
I paused and tilted my head in confusion.
“Wait, didn't we meet at Lake Valor?”
“Huh? You were at Lake Valor?”
I sent a glance over to Dawn, who just shrugged and laughed quietly to herself. It seemed she hadn’t informed Ash I was Robin. I chose to not explain myself.
“Anyway, what brings you out here?” I asked. “Heading to Pastoria Gym, I assume.”
“You got it in one!” he replied. “You’re doing the same?”
I nodded.
“Mostly. Sinnoh isn’t the biggest of regions, so my team and I have plenty of time to travel and train. We’re still in the process of taking on the Gym Challenge, but I’m half tempted to spend a while just exploring Pastoria’s Great Marsh. I don’t have anything I want to catch there. It just seems fun.”
“You know, I’ve heard of a Croagunk festival that takes place in the city,” Brock pointed out. “It might be fun for Croagunk and I to experience that.”
Brock glanced down to his side, where his poison frog Pokémon was squatting and staring off in the distance. In response, Croagunk tilted its head up at the mention of its name and inflated its orange cheeks in a questioning tone.
“Croa... gunk?” it croaked.
“Wait, Alex! If we’re two Pokémon trainers who met on the road on the way to a Gym...” Ash started.
I hid a sigh. It looked like this was going to be one of those “episodes.”
“I challenge you to a battle! You and me, let’s have a rematch from our last battle in Oreburgh!”
“So you want it to be Ponyta versus Turtwig?” I asked.
“Oh.” Ash scratched the side of his face. “I wanted to use Gligar, actually.”
“That’s not really a true rematch, but sure, I’ll battle you.”
As I said that, I had a brief dilemma in my mind about who I wanted to send out. Sure I could reuse Ponyta, but he’d already faced off against Ash’s Turtwig. Ninetales and Florges were resting in their Pokéballs, so they were out of the picture. Whimsicott and Carbink were still working with Cradily, so even if they were up for the battle, I didn’t want to disturb them. That just left Kirlia to tackle Ash’s Gligar on his own.
A small smile started to grow onto my face. I’d been waiting for a chance to use Kirlia in a serious battle ever since Lake Valor.
"Kirlia. Do you want to fight?"
Kirlia stiffened in surprise then spun in place to properly face me. He locked eyes with me for a brief moment before giving me a big smile and nodding.
"Kirl. Lia," he declared confidently.
I gave him a big smile right back.
"Then let's do it."
Just like last time, my battle with Ash would just be a one-on-one battle, with Brock refereeing. He had already sent out Gligar, who was currently licking Ash's face. As we moved over to a slightly flatter area in this forest clearing to fight, Kirlia teleported to take his place on our determined field.
However, as I approached, I paused briefly then doubled back. Ponyta hadn’t detected anyone from Team Rocket just yet, but there was no way I’d leave Togepi’s egg alone. I didn’t want them to get captured without anyone noticing. That’d happened a few times in the anime, and there was no way I’d let that happen here with a member of my team.
Egg in hand, I moved to stand behind Kirlia to ready myself for the fight.
Brock started to announce the rules.
"This will be a one-on-one battle between Ash from Pallet Town and Alex from—"
"Elsewhere," I interrupted.
Brock nodded and continued.
"Each side will send out one Pokémon, and the battle will be concluded once one trainer's Pokémon faints. Trainers, are you ready?"
"Yup."
"You bet!"
"Then begin!"
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“This is our chance! Look! Original flavor twerp and the bigger twerp are moving into battle!”
“The bigger twerp?” James asked.
“Older twerp. No, the fairy twerp. Wait, I got it: the mega twerp,” Jessie concluded.
“Now’s not the time, ya goofs!” Meowth interrupted. “Remember the plan: nab Pikachu and whatever else you can, then book it!”
“That's our plan every time, Meowth. How could we forget?” James replied.
“If you don't forget, how come it never works?!”
The group went silent at that, absolutely refusing to even consider the implication of Meowth’s statement, before resuming their observation of what was going on. They started to stalk closer to where the battle was starting, Meowth pulling out a remote control from who knows where to put their assembled mecha in the right position. For a brief moment, Jessie could have sworn the cute little Ponyta glanced their way, but there was no reason for that to be the case. After all, they were hundreds of feet away.
Her worry melted away when the Ponyta didn’t acknowledge them and instead walked over to one of those bigger fossil Pokémon that were with the group for some reason.
“Wait, do you see that? Urgh. Why’d they take that egg with them?" Jessie moaned. "It’s going to be so much harder to grab it if it's not unattended.”
“Then grab something else! Look at the prime selection we have on the sidelines! We’ve got our choice of Fairy Types for the pickings,” Meowth said.
Team Rocket began getting into position as the battle started.
The first Pokémon to move was the twerp’s Gligar, who jumped into the air and glided around while sending out a barrage of Poison Stings. The Kirlia used Teleport to flash around the field and narrowly dodge the harassing Poison Type stingers coming out of Gligar.
The twerp yelled out a command, and the Gligar’s wings glowed white with Steel Type energy before diving down right at Kirlia. Kirlia tried to hold it in place with Confusion, but Gligar switched attacks to start up an X-Scissors instead, and the unfamiliar Bug Type energy caused the move to break.
The attack landed across the chest of the Psychic Type, knocking it back. The twerp’s cheers were so loud, Team Rocket could hear him from here.
“Just a single attack. No need to get so excited,” Jessie complained.
After a brief search of their surrounding area, Team Rocket gathered up a few loose branches to hold in front of them as they moved closer. As they neared, they started to be able to hear what the battling trainers were saying.
“That’s it, Gligar!” Twerp, original flavor, said. “Build up speed! Get it with Steel Wing!”
Gligar brought itself back down to the forest floor before jumping back up into the air and diving once more at Kirlia. The Psychic Type focused to try to grab it again, but Gligar’s speed meant it was moving too fast to wholly interrupt. Kirlia was forced to Teleport away.
“Kirlia, I know you like your Psychic Type moves, but you can’t win every battle just relying on those,” mega twerp called out. “I know you know another attacking move that you haven’t been practicing. I believe that you can use it well. Now, Disarming Voice!”
Gligar dived back down at Kirlia as the small Psychic Type clutched its umbrella a bit tighter. It then sent a nervous glance back at its trainer before readying a deep breath as Gligar approached.
Rather than using Confusion to try to slow it down, Kirlia trusted its trainer and chose to scream its name as loud as possible. A visibly pink burst of Fairy Type sound waves hit Gligar and interrupted its smooth glide downwards. Gligar’s wings flailed as it tried to regain its momentum and ended up crashing into the ground instead.
“I told you, Kirlia! There’s more to battling than just Confusion! But, uh, you should go ahead and use it again.”
Kirlia, looking far more confident now, closed its eyes to focus on its ordered move. The twerp called out for Gligar to grab onto the ground with its claws, which helped prevent it from being lifted up into the air with Kirlia’s Confusion.
He then called out for Gligar to use Poison Sting to disrupt the attack, but that’s when Team Rocket made their move.
With a press of a button from Meowth, two gloved mechanical hands burst from the treeline to grab at the battling Kirlia as well as the similarly small Ponyta. Before they reached their targets, however, vines burst from the ground and grabbed the machines with Wrap. The Cradily turned its head towards Team Rocket, a mad glint in its obscured eyes.
“Team Rocket!” Ash shouted.
“Team Rocket,” Alex grumbled.
This was Team Rocket’s cue to emerge from the forest.
“Listen, is that a voice I hear?" Jessie started.
"It's speaking to me loud and clear," James continued.
Meowth hit buttons on his controller to have the mechanical arms retract, escaping from the vines, and sink back into the ground where the rest of their Mecha was hidden. As the motto continued, the mega twerp started to quietly give orders to the spectating Pokémon on the sidelines.
"On the wind!"
"Past the stars!"
"In your ear!
"Bringing chaos at a breakneck pace."
"Dashing hope, putting fear in its place."
The mega twerp looked around briefly, but couldn’t find whatever it was they were searching for. They walked over to place a hand on Ponyta’s head affectionately instead.
“A rose by any other name is just as sweet.”
“When everything’s worse, our work is complete.”
Team Rocket’s main twerp stared on, hand clenched into an angry fist. The mega twerp let out a sigh.
“Jessie!”
“James!”
“And Meowth, now that’s a name!”
“Putting the do-gooders in their place.”
“We’re Team Rocket!”
“In your—”
"Take them out," Alex ordered.
“Eep!”
Now, the Team Rocket trio wasn’t necessarily dumb, at least by the usual standards. Last time, the mega twerp didn’t let them finish their speech, so they had come prepared.
Rather than taking the attacks sent their way as is, the ground opened up underneath them as each of them fell into their own cockpit. The earth shook as three rounded, brown heads emerged from the dirt.
A smacking sound echoed out, and a hand-shaped red mark was left on the mega twerp’s face.
“Eat this, suckers!” Meowth yelled maniacally. “Get a taste of our Dugtrio-Bot Three Thousand! Take this on for size!”
The talking cat continued to laugh and hit a button, causing a multitude of arms to extend out of gaps on the sides of the mechanical mimicry of a Ground Type Pokémon. They shot forward at all of the mega twerp’s Pokémon, ready to grab them and collect them for Team Rocket’s nefarious purposes.
However, something suddenly caused all the arms to lock up.
“Uh, Meowth? Isn’t this the part where you grab them?” James asked.
“I’m trying! There’s something holding them in place!”
“Look! My Kirlia!” Jessie yelled.
In the back of the group, the eyes of the Psychic Type Kirlia and Ponyta glowed a bright blue. Working together, every single one of the half dozen mechanical arms were held in place by their combined Psychic Type energy.
“See that, Pikachu? They’re wide open! Use—”
“Hold it Ash,” Mega twerp interrupted. “Dugtrio is a Ground Type. They probably have some form of immunity to your Pikachu’s attack.”
“What! How’d you figure that out?!” Meowth yelled.
The mega twerp gained an infuriatingly cocky grin.
“I guessed. Your reaction just confirmed it.”
“Well, who asked you anyway!” Meowth shouted. “You might be able to Mega Evolve your Pokémon, but we can de-evolve our mecha! Dugtrio-Bot Three Thousand! De-Evolve into three Diglett-Bots One Thousand!”
There was a silence on the field as nothing happened.
“I can’t move, Meowth!” James yelled.
“Use your foot pedals!” the cat replied.
The three members of Team Rocket huffed and puffed, but their creations weren’t going anywhere.
“Looks like you three are grounded,” Dawn quipped.
She giggled to herself as Team Rocket rotated in place to see what was going on. Unfortunately, they realized in that moment what the mega twerp had been searching for earlier.
While everyone had been distracted, that big Armaldo had somehow stalked off into the forest. It was now behind the group, holding them in place.
Without their arms or the ability to move, they were sitting Digletts.
“To continue what I was saying earlier, if Pikachu can’t hurt it, Water and Grass Type moves might,” the mega twerp said.
“Water and Grass Type moves, huh? Turtwig! Buizel! Use Razor Leaf and Water Gun!”
“Wait, no!” Team Rocket called out.
Their shouts were too late to stop his Pokémon’s attacks before the super effective damage hit their machine. In any other case, it’d likely have been fine, but the electricity immunity came with a glaring vulnerability. A chain of reactions started to pop and crackle within the machines as the powering device started to melt down and begin to explode.
“This isn’t right! We’re supposed to split up into Diglett bots and escape individually!” Meowth cried.
“This isn’t fair!” Jessie moaned.
“I don’t want to get exploded,” James added.
“Mime, mime!” Mime Jr. mimicked.
Alas, Team Rocket’s pained shouts did not matter, and for yet another time, Team Rocket was blasting off again.
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"Good going, you dolts. We didn't even get a single measly Pokémon,” Meowth said.
"Well, if someone had told me to be more alert about that Ponyta—"
"What are you looking at me for? I didn't do anything!" James yelled.
"That's the point!"
Somehow, in the ensuing argument, all three members of Team Rocket ended up with a bump on their head. Wobbuffet gained one too, for some reason.
Tired, injured, and hungry, the trio continued to stalk their way through the forest.
"Think we can find a berry tree again?" James asked. "Oh, who am I kidding. We’re not going to find anything. How much money do we have left Meowth?"
"Zip. Zero. Nada. Zilch," he replied.
Jessie’s eyes widened.
"What! But my makeup—"
"Sold to afford the robot."
"So take James's bottlecap collection—"
"Sold to afford the makeup."
"Argh!” Jessie screamed. “What are we supposed to do?!”
At that moment, an absolutely delicious smell caught the group's attention.
"Do you smell that?" James asked.
"Course I do. How could anyone miss such a delectable aroma?"
Team Rocket rushed off the side of the path they were on towards the smell, stopping briefly to disguise themselves in their mining outfits. In a discussion that lasted only three words, they agreed to pretend to be lost explorers in need of a rest.
Resuming their mad dash, they quickly came upon a clearing where a man and his Claydol were letting a thick, hearty stew simmer. The trio's mouths were already drooling from just the smell, finding themselves unable to pay attention to anything else.
"Hungry, are you?” the man said. “Go ahead, help yourselves."
"Don't mind if we do!" The trio replied in unison.
Immediately, they lunged forward with bowls and spoons in their hands and dug into their meals. They went for one serving, then two, then three, and then all of a sudden, there was no more stew left.
Their stomachs inflated, Team Rocket leaned back and moaned with a satisfied sigh.
"Happy?" the man said.
"Of course we are! It's not every day that—"
Jessie paused to look the man over. Spiked, steel blue hair grew out of his head. His outfit was a cool, black-purple suit. At his side, a Claydol floated perfectly still next to him, and hidden within the trees at his back was a partially camouflaged Scyther.
James verbalized the group's realization.
"S-Steven Stone, the ex-Champion of Hoenn."
"In the flesh," Steven replied.
The group paled and thanked their own cleverness for having the smarts to disguise themselves beforehand. Steven gained a small smile on his face.
"So I can't help but notice you're wearing miners' outfits. Do you dig often?"
"We're actually explorers, sir. Lost explorers. Very hungry,” Meowth said quickly.
Jessie and James sent glares over to Meowth to shut him up. Steven took a ringed hand and rubbed his chin.
"Is that the case? Because if you were miners, I would have considered hiring you for a job."
Both Jessie and James jumped up to cover Meowth's mouth, even though he wasn't talking.
"Oh, no, he's just delirious from the lack of food! We're great miners and diggers! We can make a tunnel at the same rate a twerp—I mean a Pokémon trainer—can walk!" Jessie exclaimed.
Steven's grin widened, and Meowth nervously laughed.
"Is that so?” Steven said. “Then I have a proposal. I wish to explore The Underground, but there's only so much territory I can cover in a day. Help me out, and you can keep any rare stones we find that I don't plan to add to my collection. I imagine if you sold them, you’d be able to easily afford any food you wished."
Team Rocket all froze at once and sent a look between all of their members. Dollar signs appeared in their eyes. There was no need to discuss this at all.
"We'll do it! Thank you sir!" They said in unison.
All three "miners" grabbed Steven's hand to shake up and down. He laughed and waited for them to stop.
"It’s not even nightfall, so we'll start now. Do you think you can get us underground in time?"
"Of course! They don’t call us tunneling masters for nothing!"
"Then by all means, lead the way."
And thus, Team Rocket entered the temporary employment of an ex-Champion, completely unaware of his penchant to add everything he finds to his collection.