Soon Ash and the gang were on a boat heading directly toward LaRousse City. The email that Oak sent him told a good bit, but the main gist of it was that he had a friend named Scott, and he had something called the Battle Frontier.
And something called a Battle Dome tournament would be taking place, and he wanted Ash to go and participate. But not only that, he'd be sending Green and Gary over to join him. Green was already on a boat to Hoenn, but Gary had a little more to do; he would meet them there.
As for why they were going to LaRousse, it was because that's the town Green's boat was heading to. It was technically the closest place in Hoenn from the Sevii Islands, where Green had been doing her own Green things.
But anyway, thanks to Oak's email, he had a good enough reason to go to LaRousse, to see about this Nora and Damian situation. If all went well, he hoped he wouldn't have to stay long and maybe get them to sit this out. He could take care of Zenith himself. To be honest, when Ash hit him with an Aura Sphere, he did it fully intending to incapacitate him, but he had a thick skull and managed to walk away with little to no brain damage.
So that was annoying, but he'd deal with it when he got to it. For now, his main priority was to get rid of this problem before anything happened. He looked down at his phone, hoping for a text back from Nora about her situation. He hadn't gotten anything back yet.
As he was lost in thought, he could sense his friends approaching him with his Aura senses. Yes, he was keeping it on, he was that paranoid. He didn't know what, but something made him think something really bad was about to happen.
May came around the corner of the ship first, holding out an extra juice she'd grabbed for him, "You're thinking too loud again."
Ash gave a small, easy shrug, taking the juice with a smile, "Didn't know that was a thing."
"You know you've been fairly quiet ever since we left," Brock added.
"And you disappeared at the Contest," May added, squinting at him, "Mysterious Phantom Gentleman doesn't even say goodbye?"
"What, you wanted me to stay and get mobbed?" Ash shrugged, "Told you already, I do not want to be famous. It's way too annoying."
May groaned, "Ugh, don't remind me. Lisia was this close to interrogating me for like, an hour."
Ash snorted lightly, "Sounds like you handled it."
"Barely," May shot back, "Do you know how hard it is to not spill everything when someone's staring at you like that?"
"Skill issue," Ash said without missing a beat.
"Hey!" May said, elbowing Ash in the shoulder lightly, but she still smiled.
"Sooooo," Max walked up too.
"I already said, we're gonna go pick up Green, then we're all going to the Battle Frontier," Ash said again.
"Yeah, about that, why are we doing this? Not that I mind, it's just, you know, I'm curious," May asked.
"I don't know," Ash shrugged. He genuinely didn't know, "Professor Oak just told me he wants me, Green, and Gary to enter the Battle Dome tournament."
"Man, I can't believe you really got to talk to Professor Oak without me," Max mumbled.
"It wasn't a call, Max, just an email," Ash shrugged, then grinned and ruffled his hair, "But next time I call him, how about I let you meet him?"
Max's eyes immediately lit up, "Really? You mean it, big bro Ash?!"
"Sure, just wait a bit," Ash said with a cheeky wink. He felt his phone buzz, pulled it out, glanced at it, and sent a quick text before slipping it back into his pocket.
"What was that?" May asked, since Ash had literally done that right in front of them.
"Oh, nothing. Just Green texted and said she's on the boat on her way there, she'll meet us in a few hours," Ash lied.
"Are you thinking of something again?" Brock asked, observing the way Ash's shoulders were shaking.
Ash smiled easily, "Oh, I'm fine, just thinking about how I'm gonna beat Gary again."
"Ohhh, here we go," May groaned.
"You say that like it's guaranteed," Brock added.
"It is guaranteed," Ash said, "I've got a streak to maintain. I've already beaten him three times in official battles, I need a fourth now."
Max pumped a fist, "Yeah! Big bro Ash's undefeated streak!"
"Okay, okay," May laughed, "Now you're just feeding his ego."
"Oh really? I don't see you beating my streak~" Ash teased.
"Oh yeah? Well maybe I need to show you what I can do," May huffed with a smirk.
Ash chuckled, "Careful, you're starting to sound like you're copying me."
"Well maybe I am," May said, crossing her arms.
Max couldn't help but rub his hands together, noticing that May was starting to act more like Ash. He slowly took a few steps back and quickly hid behind a corner to keep observing.
"Don't leave me out then," Brock finally interrupted, "You're not the only one who's gotten stronger, you know."
"Well, maybe we'll just have to settle it in the Battle Dome, won't we?" Ash said, crossing his arms.
"Maybe we will," May nodded along, even if she knew she probably couldn't win. It might be fun, and she could see how strong she really was.
"Alright then, we'll all sign up," Brock smiled, "May the best trainer win."
"I plan to~" Ash said with a confident smirk they all already expected from him, and they all laughed.
Meanwhile, Ash looked out at the water toward where LaRousse was and could only hope for the best.
—
{Meanwhile}
Orm, Carr, and Sird were sent out on a mission together again, finally. Honestly, Carr and Sird were surprised, since Matori had it out for Carr ever since she got there and found out he'd spent the budget on the world's most overpriced helicopter.
And honestly, Sird was also upset, first, this interrupted her project to send the Deoxys she had secretly secured back to Sinnoh for Team Galactic's plans, and second, she hadn't been able to contact Cyrus directly for some reason. He'd said some things had come up and he was too busy.
'How dare he?' Sird thought to herself. She should betray him right now for that...but at the moment, she didn't. Besides, she still wanted to see where this went. The only reason she was even here, and had spent so much time infiltrating Team Rocket, was to steal their information about Space Pokémon, mainly Jirachi or Deoxys.
She had Deoxys here, and while getting Jirachi was proving to be a problem, since her little "project" seemed to be having some issues, it wasn't like she cared. Though she would pay a visit to him soon, perhaps after this mission, to make sure he secured Jirachi.
After all, she hadn't spent all that effort getting him out of the hivemind and replacing it with her own level of brainwashing for nothing. That took a significant amount of effort, and she wouldn't waste it.
As for who, well, you don't need to know his name. But all you do need to know is that he was the one Sird gave the Guile Hideout's armor to, sending him off to capture Jirachi.
Sird had invested a lot into that little project, so she wouldn't let it go to waste. But as for Deoxys, although she couldn't reach Cyrus, she did contact her old rival in the organization, Io. That girl was more two-faced than her, and as a reminder, Sird had spent at least five years in Team Rocket for an overgrown piece of DNA, and she still wasn't loyal to either side.
But at least Io said she would bring one other commander and a few grunts to Hoenn to retrieve the Deoxys. Sird would have gone to oversee the delivery personally, but that was when this whole situation came up, and she couldn't say no.
That's where things returned to their current predicament: clearing out the black market of Hoenn, or at least the rest of it. According to Matori, once they got rid of this last bit of resistance, they would gain control of the Hoenn black market as well.
And while that wouldn't have been a problem for her and a few grunts, unfortunately Carr was with her. So immediately, when there was even a minor inconvenience, Carr threw out one of his Forretress and called out:
"Watch this, Forretress, [Explosion]!"
Forretress began to tremble, its entire body radiating a dangerous light. Seeing this, both black market trainers and Team Rocket members alike paled.
All of Carr's Forretress squad were trained to execute these self-destruct moves, and with no Damp-ability Pokémon around, the explosion was inevitable.
A massive explosion rocked the battlefield, sending black market trainers and Pokémon flying.
But because Sird and Orm were busy on another side, they couldn't protect their own. So while there were fewer Team Rocket grunts in the area, they still took heavy damage.
Sird nearly lost her composure at the sight, inwardly seething, 'How did I get saddled with this fool, Carr?'
Orm, meanwhile, already quieter than usual, saw this and frowned, looking down.
"Carr, you idiot! Stop hitting our own side!" she yelled.
"Oops, my bad," he said, trying to scratch the back of his head in an apologetic gesture. But under Sird's glare, he shrank back, mumbling apologies.
"Go take care of them!" Sird shouted, pointing to an area where more black market trainers were charging in with reinforcements. Carr had no choice but to obey and ran off.
As for Orm, he thought back to after D stopped him. When he did, he showed him documents and pictures of Carr and Sird with the Deoxys in the tubes. At first, he didn't want to believe it, since they were his teammates, part of the same "family." They had told him they both died.
But here was proof, and D didn't seem like the kind of person who would lie to him, he had no reason to. But D told him something that still shook him. He gave him a small device that looked like it connected to the charging port of a phone and told Orm that he didn't have to believe him, and that would be okay, but if he did, or changed his mind, to put it on Sird's phone and help him when the time came.
At first, he convinced himself that he wouldn't need to do it. But now, looking at the scene, he saw other members of Team Rocket getting thrown around and used as fodder. Carr, obviously, but Sird too. She was putting weaker grunts up front, where they were used as shields and trampled over.
He clenched his fist. Team Rocket was his family. He would do whatever he could to protect all of them, and if that meant choosing between them and Sird and Carr, then he guessed maybe they weren't really his family after all. They never treated him like one. Why should he have to keep pretending?
So while the battle went on, he poked Sird on the shoulder and spoke in his usual tone, "Sird, can I have your phone to call Matori?"
"Hm?" Sird looked back and pulled out her phone, handing it to him, "Sure, whatever. Make it quick."
She didn't even suspect Orm. In her mind, he was too dumb to ever plan anything. He always wore his heart on his sleeve, and that made it easy for her to manipulate him, and she had bigger things to worry about.
Like how Carr got bored of fighting normally and immediately went back to his old strategy, throwing out a second Forretress and yelling out
"[Explosion]!"
The left side immediately lit up from another blast, and Carr had plenty more where that came from.
Sird, watching nearby, muttered to herself, exasperated, This fool's going to get us all killed at this rate.
Orm watched this, gritting his teeth, then reached into his pocket and pulled out the small chip D had given him. He held the phone up, but his fingers were too big to plug it in. Just then, one of his Shuckles crawled up, picked up the device, and plugged it in for him. It then looked up at Orm and gave him a nod.
Orm nodded back and looked out at everything happening around him. The rest was up to D. and he had to see this through.
—
{Back at Team Rocket's Hoenn base}
D was sitting in a chair with his legs crossed, his mask still covering his face, while his Meowth sat contentedly on his lap. In front of him was a cup of tea, which he sipped carefully, sipping being the right word, since he had to drink it through a straw, as the mask had to stay on.
Just then, he got a signal from the device he had given to Orm and checked it on his computer. On that device was yet another fragment of Porygon, so he now had complete access to Sird's phone.
And he found what he was looking for immediately, the call logs, messages, and the location of the Deoxys.
"Well, looks like Orm took my offer," D said. Although he already knew Orm would help him, he had planted a seed of trust the first time they met, making him associate D with family, and that was what Orm lived for.
As for who he was talking to, well, sitting across from him was Matori. D showed her the information, of course having Porygon hide "Deoxys" and instead label it as a "package."
Matori, whom D had called up for this meeting, frowned. Before, when D had told her about this, it had been hard to believe. She might give D special privileges, but Sird had been a member for a long time and had made many contributions.
But here, with this evidence...if it was true, then…
Matori looked up at D, "I see. Okay, I'll do what you asked me. But I can only do this much. If you want the Boss to truly believe you, then you need to capture Sird yourself, and get this so-called 'package.' I can't help you any more than I already am."
"That's fine," D said, his legs still crossed. As for what he had asked Matori to do, he wanted her to present this to the Boss and organize all the information. After all, he couldn't just catch Sird and bring her in, not yet. For now, all he had were these messages, and Sird could still technically lie and claim they were photoshopped.
But of course, D had accounted for this, and one more thing.
"Then I'll go for the package and Sird." His one good eye shifted behind him, "And you all go take care of these so-called Galactic commanders that are coming."
The people he was looking at were none other than his squad: Jay, Enid, Helena, Domino, and the recent additions of Annie and Oakley.
Jay grinned and gave a salute, "Don't worry about it, bro, we promise we won't let you down."
"Yeah, we'll do our best," Helena nodded twice.
"Just leave it to us," Domino said, giving a big thumbs up.
Annie and Oakley glanced around at everyone else and how enthusiastic they were. They gave small thumbs-ups of their own, copying Domino since they didn't know D as well as the rest.
Enid scoffed and crossed her arms, but she still looked back at D, "We won't disappoint."
"I know you won't, especially since you're not going alone. Ain't that right?" D said, looking toward the other corner of the room.
From the shadows, a purple glint appeared, and none other than Sayoko stepped out, her one purple eye glowing slightly, "Don't worry, I'll make sure we bring them back. And it's good to see you're back to your old self, D," she said in a way that everyone in the room chose to ignore.
"Well then," D uncrossed his legs and stood up, while Meowth jumped onto his shoulder, "let's take care of a rat."
Under the mask, D smiled. Everything was going exactly as planned, and if he had done his calculations right, he finally had a way to take care of Sird for good.
But of course, he wasn't about to let Team Rocket take the valuable prize he had worked so hard for.
—
{Back with the Gang}
The boat docked when they finally arrived at LaRousse City. This town was known as the one with the most high-tech equipment in all of Hoenn, and it certainly lived up to its name.
As soon as they got off the ship, they saw countless robots working around town and helping people.
When they came out of the station, a robot that looked like a bunch of building blocks greeted them, "Welcome to LaRousse City!"
However, Brock was more than a little disappointed by seeing their greeter, "Why couldn't it be a beautiful girl who came out to greet me?"
"Hey, don't say that, Brock. These little guys are kinda cute," May said as she got close to the one that approached them.
But immediately, the robot stretched out a camera lens from the inner part of its block-shaped body, "Look here and show a smile!"
May couldn't react in time and was photographed with a confused look that just made her look silly, while the other three had more natural expressions.
The robot quickly made four new passports and handed them out, "This is the passport you need to visit/live in our city. Please do remember to keep it with you during your stay in this city at all times. You can also use this passport to shop around and visit the various places we have for visitors!" the robot explained.
As they walked off, May couldn't stop looking at hers, making her face flush red in embarrassment, "I hate this. Can I please retake the picture? You didn't even give me enough time to react!"
But it was too late, as the robot had already flown off to help other people, leaving May to sulk over her bad picture.
"Hey, come on, May, it's not that bad. Everyone looks bad in their passport pictures," Ash waved her off, "Especially from below."
May immediately snapped her head toward Ash, narrowing her eyes, "Oh really?" she said slowly, "Then let me see yours."
Ash didn't even hesitate, "No."
That only made her more determined, "Come on," May insisted, stepping closer and trying to peek at the small card in his hand, "If mine's embarrassing, yours has got to be worse."
Ash casually turned his body away, slipping the passport behind his back, "Trust me, it's not."
"That's not how that works!" May protested, now actively circling him, "Show me!"
Max leaned in, curious, "Yeah, I kinda wanna see it too."
May suddenly lunged forward, "Got it!" She snatched the passport right out of his hand before he could react, or at least, that's what she thought. In reality, Ash let her take it since, oh well, her funeral.
May looked down at the picture and blinked, "…Wait." Her expression slowly shifted from smug anticipation...to confusion...to disbelief, "WHAT?!"
Max quickly leaned over her shoulder, "No way—"
Brock raised an eyebrow, "Huh."
On the small card, Ash was mid-pose, two fingers lightly pushing back the brim of his hat, a perfectly timed wink on his face, with a confident half-smile like he knew the camera was coming.
May slowly looked up at him, her eye twitching slightly, "How...in Mew's name...did you do that?"
Ash reached over and casually took the passport back, glancing at it like there was nothing unusual, "Do what?"
"DON'T play dumb!" May pointed accusingly, "You didn't even pose! That thing snapped instantly!"
Ash shrugged, already walking ahead like it didn't matter, "Skill issue."
"Skill issue?!" May repeated, completely baffled, "That's not a skill, that's cheating!"
Max snickered, "I mean...it does look pretty cool."
"Max!"
Brock laughed under his breath, "Guess some people are just naturally photogenic."
May huffed, looking back down at her own passport again and groaning, "This is so unfair…"
"Come on, let's move," Ash called out, pointing over to the sidewalk that moved automatically, "Let's see where this takes us. We've got a bit before we have to meet up with Green."
Max was the first to see the automatic roads. He immediately ran up and jumped on one, starting to laugh as he moved without having to walk, "Man, this is cool!"
"Max, careful!" May called out, jumping onto the conveyor belt and walking after him, followed shortly by Ash and Brock.
Pikachu and Vee, for the most part, looked around and jumped down, landing on the red path that sent them the other way. But they were way faster, so they began running against the conveyor belt, treating it like a giant treadmill, and laughed as they caught up to Ash, landing back next to his feet.
"Where should we go first?" May looked around at the big city, "It looks like I could get lost here."
"Well, I'm down for whatever," Ash shrugged.
As he did, he noticed from the corner of his eye the characters from the movie, Rafe, Rebecca, Sid, Audrey, and Kathryn, talking together on another conveyor belt.
He knew they were probably going toward the Battle Tower, but Ash really had no interest in that right now. He had more important things to worry about, like finding out if this place had anything to do with Deoxys. He knew D was about to go get one, but that left the second unaccounted for, if there even was a second one. If there was even a small chance that Deoxys was here, he needed to find it fast and move.
But that also depended on whether he could even find it.
While he was thinking, however, he finally got that text from Nora. He picked up his phone and looked at it, seeing that she said she was with Damian and that it would be nice if he could come over.
Ash sighed and looked over at the gang, "Something came up. I need to find a computer, so I'm probably gonna head to the Pokémon Center. You guys keep looking around. Let's meet up in, say, an hour?"
"An hour?" May repeated, "What are you gonna do?"
"Yeah, if it's important, we can come with you. You don't have to go alone," Brock added.
"No, really, it's fine. I don't want you guys to have to do something boring with me. Besides, it'll be faster if I do it by myself. How about we meet up at the docks? Allegedly, Green's boat should arrive in an hour anyway."
"Hmm, I did wanna see if I can get a gift for Green," May rubbed her chin.
"And I wanted to see the local restaurants," Brock thought to himself, since he knew full well he wasn't gonna change Ash's mind. But they were literally in the middle of town, and everything was normal this time. Nothing would go wrong.
Max shrugged, "I just want to see all the cool robots."
Ash rubbed Max's head, "Then go and look at those robots."
Ash smiled, then took one step back and stepped onto the red conveyor belt going one direction while May, Max, and Brock went the other.
Ash smiled as he waved them goodbye, then got his serious face back and pulled his phone out again, calling Nora's number. When she answered, he asked one question.
"Okay, where are you?"
—
{In the Lab}
"Okay, are we ready for the fifth trial?" Professor Lund said from behind the glass.
"We're just preparing the charge. It should be ready in 30 minutes, sir," Yuko said, since they had to warm up the machine to avoid risking any unseen variables. Lund felt like he was getting closer to this Deoxys. He could almost taste it.
Colress, meanwhile, smiled. It was about time he made his move.
He stood up from his chair and stretched, "Professor Lund, I'm sorry, but I have to attend to other business. I'll be occupied for three hours."
"Really? Now? But what about this?" Professor Lund asked. Since Colress brought Deoxys, he wanted him to be here too.
"I'll leave that to your very capable hands, Professor Lund," Colress said smoothly. After all, he had what he wanted, and now it was time to run an experiment.
He exchanged a few practiced pleasantries with Lund, always answering in a way that stroked Lund's ego. As a scientist himself, he knew this was one of the simplest ways to get someone to do what you want.
Once he knew Lund would continue with the experiment, he stepped out of the lab and walked outside. Then he quickly started moving. He only had those 30 minutes, and he had already spent five just getting out.
He quickly changed out of his lab coat and put on a trench coat and fedora to cover his face and body, then pulled out a suitcase he had hidden behind a building. Once he had what he needed, he left his normal gear there and started moving toward the hospital.
The pieces were already set. He had put a sort of virus into the systems that controlled all the equipment, basically giving him master control over the entire lab, and he would use it for his experiment that would take place in the hospital.
And if a few people died for his results, meh, who cares? What are the needs of the few compared to the evolution of humanity? If this worked, it could bring about the next stage in human evolution. Why should Pokémon be the only ones that evolve?
So, with the thought of getting results, he couldn't stop the grin from forming on his face as he continued running on the conveyor belt, moving even faster.
Oh, this was going to be fun.
---
If you want to Suport me, so i can keep writing chapters:
patre*on/Katsu190