"Oak!" Surge screamed. He pulled free another piece of rubble and tossed it behind him. His shirt was soaked with sweat. Dust was clawing its way through his lungs. Surge growled as he pried a lab coat free from beneath the ruins of Oak's lab, but no person attached to it.

"Come on you old fuck," Surge growled. "Don't you dare be dead." He jumped backwards and gestured forwards. His electivire charged forwards, snarling, fists glowing. It lifted a portion of the wall that seemed to be concrete and industrial steel as if it weighed nothing more than polystyrene. With a snarl it crushed it like an empty can before tossing it to the side. When it hit the ground it created enough of a shockwave to make Surge lose his footing momentarily.

When he heard the familiar mechanical whirring, Surge spun on his heel. The sight of Lockheed's triumphant return was enough to make his anger vanish and cause a slightly crazed laugh to burst free. Atop the magnezone was Professor Oak, sans lab coat and looking decidedly worse for wear. His turtleneck sweater was singed and his boots appeared to be frozen together.

Most importantly though, he was sitting up and he was alive.

"Lockheed you magnificent metallic bastard," Surge roared, leaping towards them. He ran a hand across the pokémon's flank before wrapping an arm underneath Oak's shoulders and hoisting the man off his pokémon. "Oak, you crazy old fuck. You scared me half to death. I don't know if I should hug you or throttle you."

"Time will tell, my boy," Oak said, sighing. As he looked at his demolished laboratory, the youth and vigor seemed to leave him for a moment. He was no longer the former Champion of Kanto, no longer the fierce protector of West-Central Kanto. Instead in his place was the shell of a pensioner, who looked far too old and beaten for any one lifetime.

"Someone really doesn't want us finding out something," he said. He glanced at Oak's electivire and sighed as he shook his head. "This is… not how I was hoping my day would go."

Surge barked a laugh before he could stop himself. "Understatement of the fucking century," he said. Oak's battle had circled round several times, with the corrupted porygon apparently intent on wrecking the lab as much as possible. As they stood over the smoldering ruins, Surge wondered if he had done enough to evacuate the staff. Accounting for the pokémon Oak cared for was another task that Surge honestly wanted to pretend was already sorted.

"How badly will this set you back?" he asked.

Oak sighed as he removed his arm from Surge's shoulders and walked forwards on shaking legs. "My research? Days maybe, weeks at most. My reputation? Maybe a year or so. The trust trainers place in me to care for their pokémon? I'm afraid that may be gone forever, my boy." He shook his head. "Thank you, for sending your magnezone after me. I wasn't expected ASPER's corruption to increase his battling prowess so badly. Bahamut may be a force of nature, but even he has his limits. Neither of us were expecting ASPER to have such a command over the cold."

"Oak," Surge said slowly, "what happens now?"

"Honestly Owen, I wish I knew." He sighed again. "I'm an old fool, but I still have some of my wits about me. I can move my research to my offsite backup. It'll take me maybe a week or so to get up and running again. But the care and safety I provide to my charges' pokémon? I don't know what's going to happen there. I don't know if they sought only to stop me, or to ruin me, but I think we need to be smart about our next steps."

Surge was about to agree before the ringing of his phone cut him off. With a growl he snatched it from his pocket and answered with a snarled, "What?"

"Owen Surge?" said the woman on the other end. "This is Helen Jenny with the Porta Vista coastguard. It's regarding the SS Anne, sir. We're still getting reports and have barely even started rescue procedures, but it's been attacked, sir."

The phone dropped from Surge's hand. He found himself momentarily lost for words. He heard the coastguard calling his name, but it sounded like it was coming from a million miles away.

"Owen?" Oak asked. He placed a hand on Surge's shoulder.

"My ship," he whispered. "My Anne. They've destroyed her."

Oak seemed to lose several shades of skin colour. "The SS Anne?" He sucked in a breath. "My grandson's on that ship."

Surge swore. He felt like he was drowning and had nothing to grab onto for life. "I'm going," he said. "I've got to go there, I've got to help."

The sudden appearance of an alakazam behind Oak was only a surprise because of how seamlessly it appeared there.

Oak and the alakazam vanished without a word.

Surge knew what Oak was planning, even without any communication between them. His grandson was involved - there was no question where Oak would have gone. He grabbed the phone from the ground. "Round up every one of my elite trainers. Tell them to help. Contact every fucking gym leader that you can. Don't take no for an answer."

He placed a hand on his magnezone and nodded. They vanished in a flash of light, leaving behind only a phone with a confused coastguard on the other side, and an electivire too busy with finding survivors of one disaster to assist in another.

-O-O-O-

'Authorities are still investigating the cause of the recent disaster that saw the luxury cruise ship SS Anne sink in international waters west of Porta Visa. As of yet, the death toll is still not complete but is estimated to be in the hundreds, or at least sixty percent of the total passengers on board. Now we go live to-'

Brock sighed as he closed his phone and slid it back into his pocket. The sea breeze that danced through Vermillion seemed flatter, somehow.

He sipped at his mocha and smiled as Nanako reached for it. "You have chocolate," he told her. "You only get to drink these when you're older."

"Well I am old now," she shot back, going so far as to pout up at him. "We heard you were in Vermillion and thought you might have been all important gym leader here and drownded trying to help people." She sat in his lap and smiled up at him, displaying a missing front tooth. "It aged me so much. I'm now thirty-three!" She held up three fingers on both hands and pushed them up to his chin. "That's almost as old as you, brother!"

Brock laughed as he ruffled her hair. "And to think, I was almost starting to miss you." He hugged her with one arm and pushed her chocolate towards her. "Thanks for coming though," he said, both to her and his uncle, who sat opposite them both and looked far too large to sit on the metal cafe chairs. "It means a lot."

"Of course," Bruno said. "We were worried, Takeshi-Brock, sorry. And not just because of the latest news. I am your emergency contact."

"Yeah," Brock said heavily. He bounced Nanako on his knees as she sipped at her hot chocolate, oblivious to the weight of the conversation happening in front of her. "All things considered, I got off lightly." He ran a hand over his now-shaved head. The small spikes of hair that rubbed against his hand filled him with a strange sense of disappointment. He liked his hair. The moment Forrest had pointed out that Brock had the perfect anime-style hair, it became a competition between his siblings to try and style his hair to match whatever anime Saburō had become obsessed with. The moment Yomoko had first expressed her interest in fashion and design, he had become her template and his hair was often her muse.

It felt like he was losing another part of himself, even though he knew it was just hair. It would grow back.

"You look good, big brother," Nanako said. "You're like an exeggcute!"

"Thanks," Brock said. "That makes me feel much better."

"You're welcome!" she said happily, oblivious to the sarcasm.

Bruno smiled opposite them. "So," he said, looking to Brock, "it must have been something serious to affect you and all of your friends so badly."

"Mh," Brock grunted, reaching for his coffee. He took a slow sip, pausing only to move the cup away from his sister's reach. "He sent us on a recon mission to the power plant. It was something he sent one of his rookie trainers on, so if it was something they'd struggle with, Misty and I were there to be backup. Then we got there and there were two people claiming to be-" he looked around, "the Rocket boogie man." He nodded at the way Bruno's eyes widened. "They had a talking meowth with them too - actually talking, not just one trained to be a living ventriloquist dummy." He shook his head. "Honestly, if I hadn't been travelling with Ash and have seen him training a mankey to read and write with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it. That on its own would have been fine but then…" He pointed to the electrical burn on the side of his head. "The Thunderstorm took issue with all of us being there."

Brock saw the way Bruno breathed out and distinctly swore under his breath.

"Brother," Nanako said slowly, "did you find a bad pokémon? Is that why Uncle Kiyo has been busy swearing at people on the phone?"

Brock glanced at Bruno, who had buried his face in a hand. "Not a bad pokémon," Brock said, smiling as he rested his chin on her head, "but a strong one. So strong people thought it didn't exist. It didn't want me and my friends being there. That's why when you're a trainer you need to be careful. Some pokémon are so strong that no one has ever managed to beat them."

"Wow," Nanako said, her eyes wide. "I'll catch it!" she declared. "Just wait, big brother! I'll go kick its butt for you, then I'll catch it and tell it that it's a big meanie for hurting you and your friends!"

"I'm sure you will," Brock said. "And what will you do after that?"

She frowned, going as far as to bite her lip as she thought of her answer. "Take over the world!" she finally declared, pointing to the sky.

Brock laughed. "Well, I look forward to the day that we're all listening to Princess Nanako."

"Well no one can accuse you of having small goals," Bruno said with a laugh. He looked to Brock with a more serious expression. "And you're sure you're fine?"

"Uncle," Brock said, smiling, "I'm fine. When I was running the gym I'd only ever dreamed of crazy adventures. Now I'm living them, I can't exactly say they're dull."

"I'm glad," Bruno said warmly. His smile told Brock that he was being honest. When he had announced he was coming to visit him, Brock had panicked, thinking that he and Uncle Kiyo were struggling with the sudden influx of children. "Nanako here wouldn't let me tell her no when she found out I was coming to visit." She looked up and grinned toothily at Brock, not an ounce of shame to be found. "I don't think Plume was quite prepared for that flight."

"He has a fearow," Nanako whispered conspiringly. "It's huge!" she declared, throwing her arms out for emphasis. "I couldn't even fit my arms around its neck!" She grabbed her chocolate and took a sip, nodding to herself as she placed her cup back down on the table. "I'll have a whole team of big, scary pokémon just like that! I want a gyarados," she declared, "and I'll call it Fluffy."

"There is something on that note that I wanted to talk with you about, Brock," Bruno said. "So we've been discussing starters. I know it's a year until she's of age-"

"But everyone else got one when they turned nine, I know," Brock said tersely. "Except for me, of course, because the birth giver left just before my birthday, and our sperm donor spent the next few weeks being too drunk to know up from down."

"Brock," Bruno started.

"No, Uncle," Brock said. "Nothing you say can change what I feel, what I've been through. I'll never forgive either of them for what they did, or the fact I was robbed of a childhood just because they were too-" He sucked in a breath and forced himself to swallow it. He could feel his voice starting to waiver and felt like his vision was getting blurrier. He smiled down at Nanako when she gave him a concerned look and sighed. "But that doesn't matter," he said slowly. "What's done is done, and I need to set an example for my siblings." He looked back at Bruno. "So how can I help?"

"Well," Bruno began.

"Can I take Keith?"

Brock felt like he had been punched in the gut. All the air left his lungs and he felt like someone had taken him and flipped him upside down. "You want… my rhyhorn?" he said slowly. "Nanako, Keith is too strong to start with, he's a big pokémon. That'd be unfair on everyone else."

"But I want Keith," Nanako said, pouting. "Brother, can't you see what he thinks?"

"I tried saying no," Bruno said apologetically, "but I wasn't listened to. I was hoping that if we spoke to you, if you had your rhyhorn itself-"

The rest of what Bruno said was lost to Brock. He knew exactly what would happen when he asked his rhyhorn what he thought. Nanako had treated the pokémon like a younger brother from the moment Brock had introduced them. A large, selfish part of him was already rebelling at the idea. Why was it, yet again, down to him to make a sacrifice? Why could someone else go without for once, just so he could finally benefit?

He wanted to scream, to cry, to flip the table, drop his sister on the floor and walk away, never to look at any of them again.

The thought made him sick the moment it crossed his mind. If he did that, how different was he from their parents? Yet another member of their family unable to get over their own ego and put someone else before their own needs.

"I'll see what he thinks," Brock whispered. He cradled the poké ball to his chest for a moment before releasing his rhyhorn onto the sidewalk.

Keith appeared with a roar that was cut short when Nanako jumped from Brock's lap and threw her arms around his crest. The mighty pokémon looked stunned for half a second before a smile spread across his face and he bumped gently against her. She was laughing as he ducked his head low and flipped her onto his back, where he began to shake slowly and rock her like he was a rocking ponyta.

"I'm sorry," Bruno said. "I really am, Brock. I tried to get here without her noticing. I wanted to tell you in confidence, to let you make the decision." He sighed as he looked at Nanako laughing as she leaned down to hug the rhyhorn. "I can be the bad guy. I can tell her he's too strong, that we can't legally-"

"It's fine, Uncle," Brock said, his voice breaking. "As much as I don't want to part with my pokémon, I don't want my siblings to go through anything like what I've been through. Let them enjoy what they can, before life and the people in it disappoint them."

"I'm sorry," Bruno said, bowing his head. "I'm just like my brother, aren't I? I'm failing you yet again. I could have done more, when he left. I should have stepped down as an Elite then, not just pushed problems onto you because I thought I had bigger things to worry about."

"Uncle," Brock said, "it's fine. Really, I don't hold it against you. I might have thought something along those lines when I was younger, but that was before I learnt how important your position was for Kanto's future. You stayed because you had to." He smiled as Nanako slid down Keith's side, only for the rhyhorn to grab her before she hit the sidewalk and throw her back onto his back. "You did it so the little moments like this can still exist." He sighed as he turned back to Bruno. "Just give me the rest of the day. I'll send him over tonight, but I want to spend a little bit more time with him too."

"Of course," Bruno said, nodding. "Whatever you need. If you need any other pokémon from the gym, just say the word."

"I'll manage," Brock said. Because that seemed to be his life in a nutshell. Whatever happened, he would manage because somehow, he was the one expected to cope.

-O-O-O-

It was yet another morning that started with Ash nearly choking to death on his breakfast.

"This is great!" he managed to say, only after recovering his ability to breathe. "Don't tell Brock, but this is just as good as his cooking, if not better!" He managed to inhale an entire sausage without any apparent need to chew it first. "Thanks Mrs Sato!"

"Leah," the woman corrected, sighing as she took a seat opposite him. She raised her mug of coffee to her mouth and held it there, fogging up her glasses in the process. "After you and your friends helped us before, you can call me Leah."

Pikachu was watching her over the rim of the table. Ash had been kind enough to let Pikachu sit in his lap, but apparently eating from the table was another thing entirely. Ash had handed him a small bowl of berries and promised a reward later if Pikachu managed to eat them without frying them first.

Berries never tasted as good raw as they did cooked with his powers, but Pikachu obliged. The woman and her mate both smelled similar to the sandshrew that had elected to join them. Honestly, Pikachu was glad that Titan had not just turned out to be on their side, but also joined them. As much as he relished in getting to battle strong opponents, if he had faced her and then Zapdos back to back, he would find a way to get back to the Pokémon Ranch he had been captured in and be having very choice words with the elderly Professor.

There was someone coming to the door. Pikachu's ears pinned in their direction. Misty was out, training her pokémon by the sea. Brock had also gone out, saying that he was meeting his uncle for breakfast.

The footsteps and the smell belonged to neither of them. Pikachu sniffed the air and found whoever was coming smelled like the house they were sitting in.

The door to their kitchen conservatory opened and an explosion of noise followed. Pikachu bounced out of Ash's lap as Ash stood. The bowl hit the floor with a resounding thud that continued to echo even after the berries had finished rolling across the floor.

A Kantonese sandshrew speared one of the rolling berries with a claw and bit a large chunk out of it. Pikachu stared in abject horror.

"Hey numbnuts, that was mine!"

The sandshrew gave him a very flat, unimpressed look. "So?" it asked, taking another, smaller, taunting bite this time.

Pikachu took a deep breath and forced himself not to get angry. They were indoors and Ash had already impressed upon him houses were not a place for electrocuting anyone.

"Meh," Pikachu said, turning his nose, "I could take you, even without my lightning."

He looked away as the sandshrew tried to reply and purposely tuned him out. He saw that there was another human in the room now, moving away slowly from Leah. He looked similar to her, but different at the same time. Pikachu guessed that he had to be her other child - Titan had mentioned that her previous trainer had a younger brother, and if the woman and her mate were Titan's old trainer's parents, it was a logical leap.

"You're the one who helped my parents find my brother." He bowed so low and fast that he nearly hit his head on the table. "Thank you. CJ… he was…" He blew out a heated breath as he stood up just as fast. "What happened to his sandshrew?"

"Titan?" Ash asked. There was a familiar grin on his face that was making Pikachu anxious. "She's right here!" he declared, tossing out her poké ball before anyone could stop him.

Predictably, the dining table went flying. Food crashed down on the floor. Leah shrieked as her coffee spilled over her lap.

Titan emerged in the middle of the chaos with a look of pure bewilderment.

"My trainer," Pikachu sighed, burying his face in his paws. "Ever the one to think things through."

"Did I do that?" Titan looked at the destruction around her, but it was quickly forgotten when she saw the other people in the room. "AJ!" she squealed. "And the imp!"

The other sandshrew growled. "Not an imp!"

She was laughing, even as AJ was crouching down in front of her with wide eyes. "You've grown, but you're still an imp," she said.

Ash was busy apologising and trying his best to clean up the mess he had made. Leah was doing her best to try and shoo him away from the broken glass. Titan had the attention of both AJ and his sandshrew.

Watching from the sidelines, Pikachu just sighed. "I knew I died facing those spearow. I died and this is my own personal hell." He grabbed a nearby berry and sat down on the spot. It gave him front row seats for when Ash, on all fours, put his hand into a pool of oatmeal. He leaped back in horror and disgust, bumped into Titan, who in her surprise shrieked and formed a gust of cold air that blew that hat off of AJ's head, covered Leah's glasses in a layer of frost, and froze the oatmeal to Ash's hand.

"The others are gonna be sad they missed this," Pikachu mused. He took a bite of his berry, only for his teeth to crunch against its suddenly cold and hard flesh. Titan's frigid blast had managed to freeze it solid and leave Pikachu's teeth throbbing in pain.

"My own personal hell," he reiterated, letting the frozen berry fall to the floor.

-O-O-O-

"Me-ouch. I'm hurting in ways that evolution won't even heal."

"Tell me about it," Jessie whispered. The three of them were bruised and bloody, but somehow still alive. Meowth was honestly still unsure as to how they had managed to get out of that one without using up all nine of his lives.

Jessie and James were sitting next to each other, slumped over and exhausted. The medic treating them was silent, face hidden behind a reflective mask that served to show them just how ruined they looked.

Meowth had collapsed on both of them. He was draped across their laps and wondered if he would ever have the energy to move again. Each time he closed his eyes he saw the flashes of lightning once more. Each slight breeze made his heart skip a beat, fearful that there was going to be another storm arriving.

He could remember being young, before he had ever first thought about learning human speech. Back in his human-free, pokémon heavy world, he could remember the stories that were passed around of ancient times, where pokémon would seek out the Legends to beg them for power. He had always thought they were fancy stories, with tauros crap morals about how the journeys gave them the skills and power they needed.

Now he found himself believing them.

His eyelids were impossibly heavy. When he heard the whirring blades of the helicopter, he forced himself to try and sit up. It was easier said than done. It took James guiding him gently back to his feet before Meowth remembered how to be vertical.

Meowth sighed as he stood up and blinekd the fatigue out of his eyes. The moment he saw grunts rushing to open the helicopter doors and literally roll out a red carpet on the ground beneath him, he groaned and considered just going back into the power plant and gnawing on some exposed wires. Being electrocuted to death would be a preferable alternative.

"Oh great," Jessie muttered. "Someone do me a favour and just shoot me."

"Jessie!" James hissed. "He'll hear you."

"So?" Jessie snorted. "What's he going to do? I'd like to see him try something. Proton is a pussy masquerading as a psychopath."

Meowth stared as Proton made his way off the helicopter. The man's face was etched in a scowl and even from a distance, there was an overpowering smell of aftershave that made Meowth gag. The man's bright green hair was gelled in place and tucked beneath an ostentatious black hat that even Meowth thought was better suited for a wedding.

His suit was jet black, though Meowth could smell the dried blood on the cuffs. When he smiled and said something to the nearest grunt, there was the distinct smell of rot that seemed to come out of his mouth. Mixed in with the aftershave, it turned Meowth's stomach.

Meowth was still staring as the admin walked up to them and stopped just where the red carpet ended. He glanced down at the dirt floor beneath him, grimaced and turned his nose up. An unfortunate grunt, whose face was hidden beneath a black bandana, rushed over, pulled off his coat and placed it on the ground.

Without even glancing at the grunt, Proton stepped on the coat. He sneered down at the three of them. When he met Meowth's gaze, he turned his eyes quickly. Meowth smirked as he continued to stare up at him, his tail flicking.

"Colour me surprised that you managed not to fuck this up," Proton said. His voice reminded Meowth of the try-hard villains he had seen on every television show he had watched to learn how to speak. "We captured our target without any losses or injuries."

Meowth could feel the way Jessie's anger suddenly started to radiate off of her. "Our pokémon are injured," she hissed. "They're going to be in recovery for weeks."

"So?" Proton asked, shrugging. "They're just pokémon. Requisition another and use it until it breaks. That's all pokémon are good for." He looked down at Meowth with another sneer. "They're tools to be used for the good of Team Rocket."

"Sir, these are our pokémon," James added. "We've raised them, trained with them, lived with them. If it wasn't for them, we'd be dead right now and -"

"That's what pokémon are for," Proton said, breaking eye contact with Meowth again. "They exist to serve us."

"Funny you say that," Meowth said. He weaved his way between Jessie's legs, rubbing his face against her calves. He was staring at Proton as he skulked over to James and pressed his face against James' legs. "Where would you be without us? You call us tools, but the only one I'm seeing right now is you."

Proton's face turned red as the air around them seemed to chill. Meowth was smirking at the way the nearby grunts quickly fell back a step. "Watch your tone, abomination," Proton hissed. "You might be able to speak our language, but you are not one of us. Try me and I'll make sure our labs take you apart piece by piece. I'm sure you remember just what it was like to be a lab rat. You can always return to that life."

Meowth's tail flicked. "'Abomination', huh? It's so sweet that you call me the same pet name your parents called you." He heard Jessie crush a snort of laughter short. "What're you so afraid of, Protein? Think I'm gonna take your job?" He smirked. "I don't want your job. I'll be your boss, and I'll have you cleaning toilets with your tongue."

"Listen, cat," Proton snarled, "my name is Proton. I am an admin of Team Rocket and you will treat me with the respect I am due, or you will pay the price for your insolence."

"Oh sorry, Protein," Meowth hissed, "I guess I just struggle so with human words. But-" he blinked and mustered every bit of his charm to work with the big, wet, kitten eyes, "I thought I was giving you your due respect."

James kicked him softly. "Please, sir, ignore him," James said quickly. "Our nerves are frayed from our encounter. I trust the target has been transferred to base?"

Proton bared his teeth at Meowth. Meowth just smiled back, unblinking, until Proton looked away with a snarl. "Yes," he said tersely. "The boss is pleased with your efforts. Our operations to the south have been successful as well. Expeditions will begin into the Seafoam Islands within the next few weeks, and our biggest political hurdles have unfortunately been lost at sea with the recent tragedy that befell the SS Anne."

Meowth was frowning as he tried to think of what he was talking about. Nothing came to mind. Jessie and James looked equally as lost.

"Oh, you didn't know?" Proton taunted. "I guess that you're just not important enough to know those details. Seems that Biff and Cassidy are still your betters."

Meowth could hear the adrenaline rushing through Jessie's body. He was amazed at how she managed to remain calm - he half-expected to see her punch Proton clean across the horizon.

"Well since it's national news, I suppose peons like you three can know about it," Proton said. "Certain members of high society have been funding investigation attempts into Team Rocket. They thought they could work their way out of our pockets. Sadly, it seems the SS Anne floated into gyarados territory. They're saying there were no survivors." He barked a sudden, manic laugh. "Of course, Archer's hypno personally saw to that."

He looked over their shoulders to the ruins of the power plant. Meowth glanced back at it and sighed. Their battle had destroyed more of the ruins. The nearby forests still smelled like smoke and burning ozone. The river that ran nearby was quiet, like all the life had run away.

Even though the storms had gone and the sun had returned, Meowth still felt cold.

"You're done here," Proton said. "Return to your previous assignment. Make your way to Vermillion and continue your observations."

"Sir," James said quickly, "our pokémon have already been transferred for healing. How are we-"

"You have at least one pokémon," Proton said, looking briefly at Meowth. "I'm sure that there's at least one working brain cell between the three of you. You'll find your own way to Vermillion easily enough."

He turned and walked back across his carpet, reaching into his pocket to retrieve his phone. Grunts were rushing behind him, rolling up the carpet. The poor grunt who had placed his coat down on the floor sighed as he pulled it out of the mud.

"Well, at least he didn't shoot anyone this time," James sighed. He shook his head. "Meowth, did you have to taunt him?"

"Jimbo, I was just giving him his due respect, that's all," Meowth said innocently. He laughed. "Surprised Jess didn't just kick him into next week."

"Oh believe me, I wanted to," she growled. "But then I'd have to spend the next week cleaning his residue off my boots. I like these boots too much to just burn them." She sighed and ran a hand through her tangled hair. "I guess we have our orders. I only have Vincent left." She fell backwards and sat atop the boulder they were previously sat upon. "I can't believe it blew so easily through Cleo, Adam and my darling Wobuffet. Well," she said, grunting as she stood back up, "I got dumped in Unova with just an ekans and fought my way to the top. With my darling venonat, getting to Vermillion will be a breeze." She glanced at James. "Of course, we'll have to find you something on the way too. At least your chimecho should recover faster than the others."

"I hope so," James said. "She exhausted herself teleporting the twerps to safety then coming back to help us so quickly. Well, I suppose there is no rest for the wicked after all. We'll have to retrieve our supplies from where we stashed them, then get to Vermillion as quickly as we can."

The helicopter started whirring. All three of them glanced up at it. The two grunts who had been busy rolling up the carpet behind Proton were staring in obvious disbelief at the fact he had taken off without them.

"Something tells me he'll find an excuse to blame us for being late, even if we got there yesterday." James sighed. "I really hope this was all worth it."

Meowth was smiling at the feeling of electricity sparking between the tips of his claws. "Dunno about you Jimbo," he said, watching the way the sparks danced between his paws, "but I prefer dealing with the wilds over people. So let's get this next adventure underway."