Yo, Apologies for the long wait but as I'm sure you know things are crazy in the World right now. Anyways here's the newest chapter hope you all enjoy please leave a review, whether it's positive or negative. Just want to know how you guys are finding the story thus far. Once again, hope you enjoy.

Chapter 6

"Thank you for your help Giselle but it's time we get going." Gary spoke up.

"What, why? We're finally getting somewhere." Ash shouted.

"You have an important battle coming up against an Elite 4 trainer and you're getting side-tracked, you're falling too deep into this. I know all this means a lot to you because of how you looked up to Red, but you have to let this go for now." Gary retorted, getting angry himself.

"Why are you trying to stop me? I know about the battle I'll prepare but this is important too!" Ash's voice rose with every word he spoke.

"That's just its Ash you're saying you will do it, but you haven't even given it any thought have you? You have been fixed on this whole Red thing and pushed your responsibilities to the side! We didn't push each other and battle each other all our lives in every aspect just to see each other fall short! I have a closer personal connection to this whole situation, or have you forgotten about that?" Gary's frustrations were exploding from his voice as he spoke.

Ash was caught off guard by this. He had to admit Gary was right, throughout their long rivalry the biggest benefit of it was the fact they pushed each other to limits they may not have been able to reach before. Ash benefited from this the most as Gary was the better battler off the bat, inspiring Ash to become the person he was today. Was he really throwing this away now? Over a figurehead in his life, not even someone he knew personally.

"He's right Ash." Misty piped up. "This can wait, we have more pressing matters."

"We're all here for you and the best thing we can do is to help you train." Dawn said kindly.

"You're right I need to push this to the back of my mind for now and focus on Lucian." Ash admitted.

May could tell that Ash was still down about the situation though and whenever Ash's normal cheerful demeanour was disturbed a little bit of her hurt inside. She walked up and placed her hand on his arm.

"We'll stick with you through everything Ash, but we need to focus right now. We can always come back to this and we'll help you with that as much as we can too." She emphasised these words with sweet smile.

Ash looked May in her sapphire eyes and felt a surge of warmth pass through him, he never realised he could be so enamoured by them.

"Thank you May." He said with a smile, hoping that May could sense his appreciation through his reaction.

May found herself just staring at Ash's smile, she could feel the genuine warmth and emotion filtering through from it and passing into her body and being filled with it. It was a feeling she never felt before but had always wanted to.

This exchange wasn't lost on all the others in the group. Gaz gave Dawn a nudge and the two of them snickered at the two. Everyone was smiling and nudging each other at the sight except for Max who was wondering what was going on and why were Ash and May still looking at each other. Eventually Ash broke the gaze.

"Well, we better be moving on. Thank you so much for your help Giselle."

"No problem Ash it was good to see you again and to meet you all." She said with a smile. "If you need any other help at all just let me know."

Giselle walked the group to the main gates, and they all said their goodbyes. After the exchange of farewells, the group was on their way. Brock then decided to address them all.

"Well, I think we keep going forward until sundown and then we set up camp for the night and then I'll get dinner started, that sound good with everyone?" He spoke up.

Everyone nodded and voiced their approval except Iris who had her head down. Dawn sensed this and decided to try cheer her up.

"Just wait till you taste Brocks cooking Iris, it's the best you'll ever have." She said with a wink.

"It's even better than that of a connoisseur." Ash added.

"Pi Pikachu." Pikachu voiced jumping from Ash's shoulder to sit on Iris' head.

Iris could feel the kindness emanating from all the people here, but she still couldn't shake the feeling of sadness and anger at what Cilan has done. She looked down at Axew in her arms.

"Xew, Axew." He proclaimed with a smile, trying to cheer his trainer up.

While looking at her oldest friend Iris came to a decision. She can't get closure on what happened to Cilan unless she can ask him herself, so she'll have to push it to the back of her mind right now, just like Ash is doing. She will make the effort with everyone as much as possible and when the time comes get her answers from Cilan.

"That sounds great." She exclaimed, raising her head to give everyone a smile.

After she spoke everyone's mood lifted and they all were chatting and laughing light heartedly.

"Oh, I can't wait to try Brock's food." Serena squealed. "Ash told me so much about it in Kalos."

"Me neither." Cameron added. "It sounds awesome."

Ash soon began to drool at the thoughts of Brocks food.

"I'm so ready for this food I can't think of anything else." He said with a dreamy look in his eyes.

"You're such a kid." Iris muttered with her hands outstretched in exasperation causing the group to laugh.

After another couple hours walking through the route they stopped in a clearing and set up camp. They all began to construct their tents and Brock set up his grill and brought out all his cooking utensils. While he was cooking up the meals for both people and Pokémon everyone else took tasks of gathering water, firewood or watching out for wild Pokémon. As the time for dinner loomed closer May stood up.

"Well I'm going to wash up before dinner." She then began to make her way down to the small stream nearby.

"Wait May can I borrow your Pokétch for a while? I'm bored." Max cried out.

"Yeah sure." She took it off her wrist and handed it to her brother. "Don't mess with it too much though because I won't get to charge it again till we reach Vermillion." She then walked through the trees towards the stream.

She knelt by the flowing water and splashed the cool liquid on her face and rubbed it in, she then scrubbed her hands and up her arms. She stared at her reflection in the clear surface. She fixed her bandana a little and checked her hair. She remembered her original travels through Hoenn with Ash Max and Brock, in particular that day that they encountered Oscar and Andi. Ash had been annoyed at her for doing what she is now, looking too much at her reflection. They then started bickering more than they probably ever had, causing the couple they just met to be convinced Ash and May were in love. At the time both scoffed at the notion. They were best friends, they cared for each other deeply but as friends.

Things didn't stay that way for long though, as they travelled together and learned more about each other they became closer and closer and feelings began to change. They trained together, combatted Team Rocket together and even swam with Luvdisc together. Leaving him to go to Johto was the hardest thing she ever had to do but it was something necessary for her own growth, even if it was where her worst memories came from. For all she knew though these thoughts were all one sided, Ash's denseness being a real obstacle for her.

"Well," May thought to herself. "All I can do keep showing him how much I care and wait for him to reciprocate, even if he doesn't see me the same way I know we'll always be friends."

As May turned to make her way back to the camp something caught her eye, a glimmer of red by a bed of rock on the shore of the stream. She approached it slowly, many years of being trapped by Team Rocket in the past left her wary. After making sure that the coast was clear she walked right up to it and examined it. It appeared to be a small object in the shape of a marble. When giving it a closer look May realised it was actually white with what looked like a sort of aura inside it. The energy had a red outline with some black in the middle. As she rolled it around her fingers, she felt a slight feeling of warmth from one of the pokéballs on her hip.

"Huh, how strange." She said aloud. She decided to pocket the object and made her way back to her friends, maybe they knew what it could be.

Despite her caution when it came to the object, May did fail to see a looming presence deeper in the nature's shadows.

The presence of two people dressed in all white with a large red 'R' on their chest and a Pokémon with a gold charm on its forehead.

"What do you think that thing was?" James whispered to his partners.

"I don't know but it was a piece of beauty unbefitting to a twerp like her." Jessie scoffed.

"Looked pretty valuable too." Said a Meowth in perfect English but a strange accent. "Should we try take it off her?"

"No." Jessie commanded quickly. "We have strict instructions to follow them and not to engage."

"She's right." James said in a very reserved way. "You saw how the boss was when he was giving us that order, he really meant it."

"We can't afford to mess up on this one." Jessie said looking slightly scared. "This is a very important mission from what we heard from him. If we don't do well, we could be fired or worse."

They collectively gulped at the thought.

"Who'd have thought that following the twoips and failing all these times would have paid off?" Meowth noted.

"That's the only reason we got this mission." James sighed. "Follow the lead twerp and notify him when he gets near our temporary headquarters."

"I wonder why that is though." Jessie said thoughtfully. "Does he want him to avoid the base or is he looking for a conflict?"

"Maybe we could ask him next time we call to update?" James mused.

"Fat chance he'd tell us. Maybe we should ask those new recruits, since they know everything going on already." Meowth spewed bitterly.

"I'd like to avoid them at all costs." Jessie scoffed. "Too many bad run ins in the past. We don't even know their intentions."

"Well, do we even know our own intentions?" James asked hesitantly, he was simply answered with silence. After a few more moments without a sound Jessie spoke up.

"Well, they've settled down for the night we should do the same. Let's find a good place away from any wild Pokémon."

As she said this, she stepped on a branch that caused an unexpectedly loud crack. The sound reverberated through the area they were in and a bush then began to rustle. Immediately the Team Rocket trio froze in fear and stared at the bush. They saw, to their surprise, a small sleuth of Teddiursa's poke out from the shrubbery.

"Oh, it's just some little tykes." James exclaimed in relief.

"Okay little Teddiursa's, shoo, move out of our way." Jessie accompanied these words with exaggerated gestures of swinging her arms. The Little Bear Pokémon scuttled off away from Team Rocket into the trees.

"That was easy." She commented.

"I wonder what those baby Pokémon were doing here all alone." James pondered.

"Yeah, usually they aren't left by themselves that young." Meowth added. He then shrugged.

The group went to move forward again until they heard a growl behind them. The fear rose in them once again and they turned around slowly to face the terrifying sight of a group of Ursaring's standing imposingly over them.

"I guess they weren't alone…" Meowth said terrified.

The Ursarings then began to form a powerful energy in the back of their mouths. They reared back ready to release the full power they had stored upon the two trainers and the Pokémon.

"They're about to us Hyper Beam!" Meowth shouted, completely scared.

Suddenly a flash of energy appeared from Jessie's waist. The energy then began to take the physical form of a large blue creature with a black, flat tail with what appeared to be eyes on it.

"Wobbbuuuffettttt!" It cried loudly, standing firm while giving a salute to the sight of the Ursaring before it.

"Wobbuffet, perfect, use Counter!" Jessie screamed terrified.

"Wobba." It exclaimed glowing in an orange aura. The Ursaring's released their full power Hyper Beam and it went right through Wobbuffets attempted defence and caused an explosion that sent Team Rocket flying.

"Why didn't Counter work." Jessie cried, filled with anger.

"Jessie, Counter stops physical moves, not special ones like Hyper Beam." Meowth remarked flying through the air.

"Oh… now you tell me." Jessie replied dejected as she soared.

"Some things never change. "James sighed, flying with his partners.

"TEAM ROCKET IS BLASTING OFF AGAIN"

"WOBBBBBAAAFFFEEETTTT"

With that they disappeared in the night sky with a glint.

Meanwhile in a building not far from Vermillion near a waterfall, a tall man wearing a sophisticated all white suit made his way to a comfortable chair behind a desk while an elegant four-legged cat like creature stood beside it. They were not alone in the room however, once the suited man sat down, he faced the two people that he invited here. Two male adolescents, one with green hair and another with purple.

"So, Paul, you were successful?" The man enquired.

"Yeah, I got the Mewtwo." He said bluntly.

"Excellent, good work." A smile crept across the seated man's face. "I assume you recovered the Latios and Darkrai from the captive we captured?"

"Yeah, pretty easily." Paul remarked.

"It was easy cause he was dead." Drew muttered.

"We had to take precautions." His boss sighed. "He was a powerful trainer, took down a lot of our grunts before our admin got to him."

"I'm guessing I wasn't summoned for a battle analysis." Paul sniped. "Why am I here?"

"Watch your tone." He was warned, this accompanied by a growl from the large cat. "Just because you're both important operatives it doesn't mean that you can show me any less respect."

"Anyway. Giovani… I mean sir," Drew changed up after getting a glare from the Rocket boss. "Why are we here?"

"Your next assignments." Giovani took some files from the drawers in his desk and gave them to the two young men.

"Paul, you must go back to Sinnoh and lure out Cresselia with the captured Darkrai's pokéball, even the presence of Darkrai through the ball will be enough to have it emerge, it's that strong a bond. Drew, I want you to take that partner of yours and go to the Ocean Temple, formerly known as Samiya in Hoenn. There's a Manaphy living there that we need. It also has a special connection to the people you hate so much, and the one you care about."

"I don't care for anyone, anymore." Drew snarled.

"Is the poor delicate co-ordinator a touch sensitive?" Paul mocked.

"Shut up, you pathetic trainer! You don't have an ounce of class in your body." Drew shot back.

Paul just scoffed at the irritated Drew.

"Enough, both of you." Giovani scolded. "I didn't bring both of you in to listen to childish squabbling. Paul, get going, Drew remain here for a moment."

Paul left with one last glare to his colleague. He proceeded through the door leaving Drew alone with his boss.

"So, if your outburst taught us anything it's that you still harbour feeling for those group of trainers that have caused my organization so much trouble." Giovani said to him.

"I don't have feelings for M-"

"That's not what I meant." Giovani talked over him. "You have hatred for the Pallet Town trainer and lust for the Petalburg co-ordinator, you seek ownership. Quite selfish and deluded of you I must say."

Drew's fist clenched, he was having his thoughts and emotions analysed and unravelled before him. Still, he was having trouble making sense of his feelings himself. Did he really see May that way? Even if he did, was he so wrong? It shows his love. He was only sure of one thing, he despised Ketchum.

It was important that he remained calm, especially in front of Giovani.

"You seem to think you know me pretty well." Drew said with a sly smile.

"That's because I do." Giovani replied.

"Is that all you wanted to say?" Drew replied, rolling his eyes.

"No," Giovani then looked straight into the emerald eyes of the LaRousse native. "I recruited you while you were in Sinnoh and you accepted and even brought along another talented co-ordinator. Since I've noticed you two seem to place your own goals above the teams in certain instances, like in Veridian Forrest recently."

"How did you know about that?" Drew asked, dropping his cool demeanour.

"I have eyes on everyone at all times, I'm a powerful man." Giovani answered. "You ruined your cover; you could've planned a covert operation of taking that group down from within but the two of you ruined the prospects of that."

"It was Kenny's idea, then he got cold feet and hesitated, but we committed to the plan."

"And you failed." Giovani snarled. "Do not let it happen again. In order to succeed in this world, you must eliminate emotions, be cold. Emotions are a sign of weakness, something to be exploited. I thought you of all people would understand that. If you two want to be successful here, you must adhere to this. Now get out, get your partner and go to Hoenn immediately."

Drew gave a curt nod and exited the room. He took a deep breath once he entered the corridor. He and Kenny had to shape up if they want to reach their goals, but for now they had to follow orders.

Giovani looked away from the door that Drew had just exited and towards a phone that was ringing on his desk. He did not have a videophone like the vast majority of others as if anyone somehow managed to get a line through they couldn't see his face.

"Who is it?" He answered gruffly.

"Now is that anyway to answer the phone from your favourite employee?"

A very dainty voice rang over the phone.

"Just tell me what info you have? Are those three idiots still sticking to their assignment?"

"Yes indeed, they're still tracking fine." The voice thrilled back.

"You timed this call well, I want you to follow Team C to Hoenn, make sure they get the job done."

"Only if you say please." The voice replied cheekily.

"GET IT DONE!" Giovani shouted down the phone, his patience completely run out. "Why have all our recent recruits been so talented yet so strange?"

His eyes then fell on a file lying in his still open drawer. The file had a red font written over the brown cover saying: Code L.

"I really can only rely on one member, and even he I have questions about."

That's it for this chapter hope you all enjoyed. Please leave a review. Stay safe out there. #Blacklivesmatter