After a short 2 hour ride of flying on the back of Charizard, Ash landed on route 28. Ash patted Charizard twice on the head and then returned him into his pokeball. Ash decided that he would not land at the entrance to Tohjo Falls to make sure he has not attracted too much attention.
Ash Ketchum took the rest of the journey on foot. Ash wore a Red jacket and a white scarf that covered his face to make sure he was in no way recognized. The only slight giveaways to himself was his Z-Ring and Mega ring which were slightly visable under his red jacket. The biggest problem was Pikachu.
Pikachu was definitely not the most common of pokemon to be in your party. chances are, you would have a Raichu instead. But Pikachus are only seen to be used for contests or for show if you were from either Hoenn, Sinnoh or Alola. Ash knew if he had Pikachu on his shoulder all the time, that he would have been recognised already. Or maybe one of his friends like Richie might be suspected. To get behind this, Ash changed Pikachus pokeball with a Luxury ball. Pikachu seems to prefer it over the original pokeball but still likes to be out most of the time.
After about 5 minutes of walking, Ash entered the cave to Tohjo Falls. When he got in there, Straight away he noticed the lack of zubats swarming him.
'Team Rocket must have cleared this place out. Have to be a little bit cautious.' Ash thought.
Ash decided the best option was to go the waterfall and act like he was trying to find a Bronzor and played a Sinnoh Sound on his Pokegear.
This did not catch the attention of any bronzors as there was none nearby but it did of a Team Rocket Grunt who was sleeping on the job in the control room.
This grunt fell asleep to the sound of the waterfalls buzzing into ears but the Sinnoh Sound woke the man up with quite a fright. Luckily for him nobody knew he was sleeping. He then noticed what appeared to be a kid on Semistoad near the top of the waterfall closest to Johto.
The grunt immediately went to the his microphone and alerted the Team Rocket grunts outside the base.
"Mayday, Mayday, there seems to be a hooded figure with a scarf nearing the base. Note, he has a semistoad. A pokemon from the Unova region which is extremely rare in other regions of the world. It would probably sell for a high price and you guys might get a promotion if this goes well for you guys."
This made a few grunts smirk as they saw this as their chance to go for gold and maybe get promoted. Some others saw this as their way out.
You see, Some of the Team Rocket grunts were not doing this because they wanted to. A lot are in debt and just see no alternative.
The money used to go through the Game Corner as a cover up. This of course was brought to light by Ash Ketchum after a long interrogation with a couple of grunts and the scheme was dubbed as "The Dirty Rocket Scandal."
As Ash continued to bring attention to himself, 2 grunts started to near him from one of the cave's caverns'. Ash immediately took note of this and decided to make his move.
"Excuse me, do you know if there is any Bronzor around the place? I really want one!" Ash said in a somewhat fake cheerful tone. This caused one of the grunts to start laughing.
"Do you not know what this logo means?" The grunt asked in a dark tone.
"This means I am part of Team Rocket! And we want your Pokemon!"
"Wait aren't you those guys that steal pokemon?" Ash said trying to look dense in the situation.
"Obviously you idiot now hand over your Pokemon!"
"Wait! Before you do anything hasty, let me just do one thing."
"Seimistoad, use Hydro Pump on the giant rock to the left!"Ash shouted.
"WHAT?" said the 2 grunts as the camera hidden in the rock was destroyed.
Ash then went to his backpack and took out 2 pokeballs containing Infernape and Emboar and then threw the pokeballs in the air.
"INFERNAPE! USE MACH PUNCH, EMBOAR! USE LOW SWEEP!"
The 2 grunts had no time to react and were hit with powerful blows from the Pokemon and were now moaning on the ground in pain.
The Pokemon then pinned the two grunts down and continued to stare down their respective target.
Ash then got off of Semistoad and thanked him before putting him back in his pokeball. He then walked over to the 2 grunts and gave them a glare that was more petrifying than the Pokemons.
"Now you 2 better start talking unless you want to eating your food through a straw for the rest of your lives."
"You will get nothing out of us!" One of the grunts said.
"Knock him out and I will tell you everything." The other grunt said.
The response surprised Ash quite a bit since Team Rocket members are known to be loyal. But he was going to knock them out eventually anyway and didn't see a downside.
"Infernape, knock him out cold."
Infernape then continued to so as ordered.
"Alright, tell me what you know." Ash said in a sturn tone.
"The base is located further down the cavern which you met me in then its the first left path for you see then its the third on right. There is 1 way in, 1 way out. There is Pokemon kept at the lab being tested on and being tortured. There is at least 6 people kept as hostages in the jail area that have pyschic abilities. There is dark type barrier powered by dark type energy from pokemon to prevent telecommunication. That is all I know."
Ash wondered why the man was cooperating willingly and then he realized exactly who the man was.
"You're the Gym Leader Sabrinas Father, Aren't you?"