Citadark Island, Cipher Headquarters - 2125 hours local time - Day 148 of Ash Ketchum's Journey
Nascour was not happy. A week had passed since the nuclear obliteration of Pyrite. Part of him was quite pleased about the destruction of that place: Pyrite had been a source of problems for them in the past, being the place where they had been screwed over by those children both times, allowing Wes and Michael, both times, to defeat them.
No, he was more annoyed that the base Cipher had lost as well as their best spymistress and every. Single. Nuclear warhead. Now they had to downsize their recruiting efforts on the eve of the insurgency picking up their attacks and Lance Wataru leading an invasion fleet to Orre. It would take them nearly two months to get there, thanks to the Orrean navy, under his orders, laying more mines to hamstring their passage. They would have to destroy the mines or land in Ferrum. The more problems for his so-called allies the better.
Godless fools didn't believe that the legendaries were divine, that Arceus didn't create the universe. They deserved all the problems they had and more.
And the only two that got away from the base in time were in front of him. Miror B, head of assassination and Dakim, trainer in hand to hand combat. They had the only teleporters there, a pair of Shadow Abra.
"I am not pleased." Nascour told his admins. "It took decades to get that equipment from the Unovans and Ferrans and we lost it in a DAY. Now that Ferrum's insurgent movement is getting bolder, they've closed their borders and posted patrols to keep anyone from getting in. We have lost almost everything we needed to begin the final War of Expansion and I AM NOT PLEASED!"
Both Admins subconsciously stepped back from their former colleague, now leader. With the deaths of Evice and Greevil… let's just say the strains of leadership took their toll over the last 80 years.
"And with that, cells all over Orre are staging attacks. And most of all…" the Cipher Leader trailed off before gesturing to a photo from the base uploaded to their remote security grid at Citadark, showing a picture of the two most hated people to those in Cipher: Ash Ketchum and Robin Ryuto. "THOSE TWO are WORKING TOGETHER!"
He turned his furious gaze to Miror B. "Why the hell didn't you figure out he was here?! WITH HER?!" he raged.
"'Ey, Intel was Lovrina's job, not mine!" the afroed man objected. "And she's dead!"
"Do not make excuses. We have lost too much and now we have to press forward." with that, he looked at Dakim. "You are to assist Venus in preparing XD-001 for battle. We will drop the might of a god on them."
Dakim's eyes bulged. "Are you insane?!" he demanded. "We couldn't control it a century ago!"
"A century ago, we were fumbling around in the dark." their leader retorted. "Go. Or I'll send you to help the Ferrans deal with that psychic wretch."
Both men left the room, Mirror to hunt for Ash, Dakim… to avoid dealing with that Kantoan psychic.
SS Libre stern - 0725 hours local time
"Seriously. It's been a week!" Pernon yelled as all but Ash's four grass-types (a Snivy, Ivysaur, Grotle and a Sceptile) all used Absorb to… absorb the radiation in the suit. Ash transferred them in once they returned, sending all but Riolu and Pikachu back to Kanto. Apparently, Gligar was getting someone to keep him in the sun.
Robin was less interested in that then in watching Pernon squirm in the suit. He might not have been funding them, but his equipment ended up in Cipher hands. Thus, she was allowed to enjoy him suffer.
"Kyril, until that Geiger counter stops going insane every time that Ivysaur sweeps it over you, you're staying in the suit!" his overly-busty assistant yelled back from the safety of the ship's bow section.
"BUT I WANT OUT!" the CEO yelled back pathetically. Her Eeveelutions laughed at his predicament.
"No buts, mister!" Rin yelled back.
A flock of psychic parrots all flapped their wings as one. "Na!" 'HEAVE!' "Tu!" HO!' The bow shifted up a few centimeters, slowly coming out of the sand.
"Go, birds!" Ash called, his Riolu joining in on the attempt to lift the massive steel structure out of the sand. He called it 'training'.
Ash called it dumb, but then again, who was he to talk? He'd been doing stupid things since he started his first journey. Case in point, rushing into stop Mewtwo and Mew and dying for it.
Still bitter about that, but he would be the first to admit that was not his smartest move. But he was bitter because it killed him. If it hurt, he wouldn't still be rightfully bitching about it. Instead, it killed him. And thus, the right was his.
"Ri!" 'Lift! LIFT!' cried the shook his head and looked at Ash.
"Pi?" 'you sure standing on this sand is a good idea? Robin said the ENTIRE place was nuked during one of their civil wars.' he asked.
"Pikachu, I'm not an expert, but I'm pretty sure those happened thousands of years ago. Radiation doesn't last that long." Ash waved off. He was pretty sure half-lives wore off after a while.
Riolu then perked up, jumping away from the ship and firing an Aura Sphere somewhere behind him, slamming into the sand.
"WHOA, WHOA!" cried a man's voice Ash hadn't heard in… Arceus, when was the last time he ran into Butch and Cassidy? Johto?
Ash turned around and sure enough, Butch poked his head out of the sand, wearing a dark cloak to protect him from the glaring sun over some tanktop or another. "The fuck was that-" Butch started before seeing Ash's face, paling despite his deeper tan from living in the desert. "Oh, SHIT."
Cassidy poked her head up as well, glaring at Butch. "What?" she demanded before seeing Ash and suddenly agreeing with her...Ash would call her boyfriend until otherwise told. "Oh, shit."
"Pika." 'I think they're scared of you.' Pikachu quipped on Ash's shoulder, his trainer sighing before approaching them.
"Hello, guys," he started, both grunts looking ready to bolt. "If you're worried about Janine trying to kill you, she's not here."
Both grunts ducked into the sand. "And how would you know?!" they demanded. Fair point: kunoichi were hard to find, but Ash would've noticed if she was there. He might not be as well trained as they were, but those lessons stuck and he would've noticed her as easily as he had the TRio hiding in the sand near the stern section.
There were pluses to playing dumb sometimes.
They had been following him since they got here, staying in the shadows. But what were these two doing in Orre? The TRio, sure: Giovanni ordered them to shadow and protect him, given their talk at Indigo. But these two?
"So… why are you in Orre?" he finally asked. "I mean, this is probably the worst region on the planet, so-"
"To get as far away from YOU as possible!" Cassidy snapped. "Proton was insane, but we had enough sense to keep as far from you as possible!"
"How smart!" cried Jessie as she, James and Meowth emerged from hiding, wearing modified versions of their Team Rocket uniform, complete with pith helmets and a cloak to keep the sun off. "Too bad you didn't know Cipher tried to kill him and here's here to do it to them first!"
"How the fuck-know what, never mind." Butch started before shaking his head. "You guys were in Patel's division before you transferred to Proton's. I shouldn't be surprised."
"Hey guys." Ash greeted the TRio, more happy to see them not hiding. Truth be told, he missed them. He would've preferred them to do their own journey, but if they were going to be stalking him, he might as well see them once or twice.
He sought familiarity. Even if it was the TRio. Sue him.
"Wait, you knew we were there the entire time?" James asked, disbelief on his face.
Ash shrugged. "Trained under a ninja for a few days and kept up the training." he answered, silently thanking Aya for teaching him a skill he used and abused all the time. From avoiding an irate Misty that one time after Altomere to remaining undetected after reading Dawn's diary that one time she left it open to stealing the last cookie his mom made before they went to Alola and getting away with it.
Now he had to put it to practical use.
Meowth seemed to give the other two a look before the couple shrugged. "Well, no point in hiding anymore." James then said before walking towards the other two grunts. "You ran off during Proton's attack on Fushcia?"
"It was insanity! You'd've done the same thing, too! Attacking fucking Koga, even if he was on death's doorstep and knocking on it, was suicide!" Cassidy exclaimed. "And Team Rocket's gone! The last remnant's working for Patel and he's… worse."
How many Admins did Team Rocket HAVE?
"Well, we could use help keeping him safe…" Meowth said, suggesting something to the other two grunts.
"No! We're done! We want to die of radiation poisoning in peace!" Butch cried.
"Clearly you guys weren't in Pyrite," Jessie quipped. "Come on, five is better then three. And the Boss ordered us to protect him. Basically called us the last of Team Rocket, too."
Greenette and blonde stared at bluenette and redhead. "The Team is doomed." they chorused.
A soft thud could be heard from the sand near the bow, Robin having jumped down. "Do you know these people?" she asked.
Ash sighed. "You guys might as well come in. We have alcohol if you want the whole-" he never finished as all five rockets rushed to the bow. "Huh."
Pallet Town, Oak Ranch - 1236 hours local time
Metal wings collided with glowing fists as a bird and monkey fought. Primeape slammed his gloved fists together as his enemy landed, panting. "FEZ!" cried the newly evolved Unovan bird as she rushed at him again, the pig monkey preparing to take it head on.
Then a tail hit Unfezent in the back, knocking her to the ground as another Unovan Pokemon took her out. "Ser." 'That's enough.' said Servine, newly evolved and grimacing at the loss of length for her limbs. She would live with it.
It was another session of chaos at the ranch. Everyone was training. All save one.
One terrified, scared pink fairy-type.
Ever since Cleffa came to this place, she hid. All the Pokemon her trainer had were terrifying. Charizard, Pidgeot, especially Ivysaur, Beedrill and MUK.
Sweet Arceus, the MUK… When she saw it for the first time, she thought she was going to die. Just the torrential weight of sludge bearing down on her, crushing her. She prepared to see her family in the Distortion Realm. Giratina wouldn't be so cruel as to deny that, right?
Then the Muk was pulled away by Pidgeot using Steel Wing and she bolted, hiding near the base of the mountain near the town.
And there she hid. No one would come for her. She was doomed.
"Dra!" 'Hello!' cried a snake-like Pokemon, startling her before she was suddenly constricted by it, like a snake after a bird.
Fortunately for her, it was just Dratini and he was being affectionate. Still, she struggled to get out. Dratini noticed.
"Dra!" 'Sorry!' he said, letting her out, backing off. "Dra." 'Spearow found you and asked me to talk to you. You've been missing for so long and the Professor's old team likes to do their thing here. I'm kinda surprised you're ok. You've seen Dragonite.'
Cleffa's beady black eyes shrunk at the idea that she was around beings so powerful they could take on the physical forms of the gods themselves.
It was told in among the Clefairy line that the bodies they saw were not the true forms of the gods. They were physical avatars. The Latis, Birds and Beasts? All of them were all one supreme being split into potentially thousands of bodies. Ho-Oh and Lugia? Same thing on a lesser scale. Groudon and Kyogre? There were only four of them and two of them were kind enough to stay asleep somewhere near Kalos.
The Creation Trio? They REALLY depowered themselves in those bodies. Even Arceus did, even if their creator was so damn powerful she could kill a planet in her limited body.
THAT showed why they were revered as gods. They WERE. Only suicidal idiots would think otherwise or try to control them.
She tried to bolt, but Dratini was VERY fast, getting in front of her with a confused look on his face. "Dra?" 'Why are you so scared?' he asked.
"Cleffa?!" 'WHY?! I am surrounded by killing machines! And your trainer helped destroy my family!' she roared back. "Cleffa!" 'If Ash Ketchum haden't come to my mountain, they'd-'
"Gli." 'Still be dead.' said someone from above as a bat-scorpion flew down, landing on his feet. "Gligar." 'Sorry, only heard that story third-hand, but if I know Ash, he did everything he could to stop them. He just wasn't fast enough.'
"Dra!" 'It happens.' Dratini added, Cleffa glaring at him. "Dratini-Dra." 'Kaiser at the Safari Zone did the same thing to my family all the time. He took them away before they could evolve and get out. I didn't even know what a Dragonair WAS until I came here!'
Another overworked face faceplanted into the ground, groaning as he worked his wings to get him on his feet. "Spear…" 'I swear, volunteering for Ivysaur's diplomatic bullshit was a mistake…' Spearow said, having been doing errands at the Ranch since Ash's Celadon Gym match. The bird looked at Cleffa. "Spear." 'Oh, there you are. It's been a while, young one.'
Cleffa attempted to flee, but her way was blocked by something else. A dark-type from Unova, who struggled with his baggy legs.
"Scrag." 'well, didn't think Ash caught one of those Clefairy liners.' Scraggy said, looking at the fairy. "Rag." 'So, how'd you get here?'
Cleffa wanted to rage. But she couldn't find the energy. So she told the Shedding Pokemon her story, of how Team Rocket invaded her home and Ash's attempt to get rid of the Rockets. Scraggy listened, giving an eye to Spearow and Dratini to not interrupt the little thing.
"Scrag." 'Sorry bout your parents.' Scraggy said once she regaled her tale. "Rag." 'But you know Ash didn't kill 'em. That was that top Rocket's doin'. If Ash couldn't stop him in time, that's just the universe goin' 'ya can't save em all'. Don't mean you don't stop TRYIN', but ya gotta accept failure once in a while. It don't mean you forget 'em, but you gotta stop blaming Ash.'
Cleffa stared at the Shedding Pokemon in shock, as did Dratini and Spearow.
"Spear?" 'When did you get that bit of wisdom?' Spearow asked.
Scraggy shrugged. "Scrag." 'From talkin' ta Oak and all the shit we got involved in.' he answered. "Gy." 'Come on, girly. Might as well actually get to know the others. Charizard's a big softy… as long as you don't touch the subject of his mate in Johto. I think he went to the Valley last week to introduce himself.'
All Cleffa saw was death with those people. She would believe it when she saw it.