CHAPTER 94 – THE LAST BADGE

In the previous chapter we see how Ash enrolls Molly in a encampment for Pokémon while the girls are responsible for enrolling Molly in school and buying the school supplies, while Ash acts as a monitor in the encampment, helping Professor Oak to teach the future generation about Pokémon.

...

With Ash.

The two weeks passed as if it were only one day and soon, our parents had returned from their honeymoon in Alola.

As for the Pokémon encampment, Molly was able to learn many things and even made a friend, remember the girl with twintails? Well, both had a lot in common and did not take long to become friends, the only thing is that both girls were always close to me, Molly did not want to separate from me and although the other girl at first was also a little shy, little by little she got used to me, unfortunately all good things come to an end.

Today was Monday morning and my parents had just arrived from Alola.

"How did it all go?" - my father asked.

"Everything went great, we managed to enroll Molly in school, she will start next month and also like she was in the Pokémon encampment with Professor Oak, she no longer has to make the test" - Nancy said.

"Yes and also Molly managed to make a friend at the camp, her name is Cristina and they are the same age" – I nodded.

"Haha, that's great, you guys did great!" – my father said happily.

"The truth is that you have done a good job, but the question is, are you going to stay?" – my mother asked.

Normal that it is my mother, she knew of our intentions as soon as she saw us.

"We're leaving today, we were waiting for you" - I explained.

"No, brother don't go, I want you to stay!" – Molly said with tears in her eyes.

That look... It's going to break my heart.

"Molly, your brother is a Pokémon trainer and has to travel all over the region to get his badges, he can't stay here forever" my mother said.

"No, I don't want him to leave, uwa....!" – and so he began to cry.

I quickly picked her up from the ground and hugged her.

"Listen to me Molly, I already have 7 gym badges, which means one more and I will already be able to participate in the Indigo League, do you know what happens after I get the badge?" – I said with a smile.

"No" - she denied.

"Well, there are a few months left before the Indigo League, so I will have to live in Pallet Town during that time to train, so we will not separate for more than a few days" – I smiled.

And it's true, technically in 3 days I would come back if there is no incident along the way, once I win my last badge, I will spend the rest of the time training before the Indigo League, it is very important to train, I remember that the original Ash kept traveling or something but I will dedicate my time to train and be with my family so I'll be ready when the time comes and I'm supposed the girls will do the same, so we won't be out long.

"Do you promise?" - asked Molly somewhat calmer.

"Of course" – I nodded.

"But... can't we go and see you? I want to see your battle, brother" - Molly said.

"I don't care" - Nancy said.

"I agree" - Verity said.

"It will be fun" - Koharu added.

"As you can see, we wanto you to see us but you have to ask our parents" - I said.

"Mommy, Daddy, can I watch brother's gym battle? Please, I want to see him" – Molly said with a puppy look.

"When are you going to fight?" - my mother asked.

"Today if nothings happens" - I replied.

"Can't it be tomorrow? Today we have things to do and we are very tired" - my father asked.

"I don't mind waiting a day, what do you say girls?" – I said asking the girls' opinion.

The girls didn't seem to care in the least about having to wait a day.

"Very well, so tomorrow we will go and see your battle" – my mother nodded.

"Yay, yes, I'm going to watch my brother's battle, this is great!" – Molly exclaimed giving me a hug.

...

After a few hours.

After saying goodbye to the family we continued our last journey through the Kanto region because after our last badge we decided to dedicate our time to training and after the Indigo League... I have a couple of things planned, but we will have to wait and see.

Anyway, we decided to take a walk to Viridian City, although I honestly did not remember that the road was so long, I would swear that the first time it did not take so long.

"Isn't this when you were attacked by a flock of Pidove and Pikachu and you fell into the river and met Phione and Nancy?" – asked Koharu.

As they are practically my wives, I told them the whole story before I met them except for my childhood because I didn't remember anything, I only remembered Leaf, but they already found out about that during the event with Mewtwo.

"Yes, I was already wondering why I was getting the road longer than the first time" – I nodded.

"It may be that the river shortened more than half of the way" Verity said.

"It can be" - I nodded.

"Although I did not like that those Pidove attacked you, I must also thank them because thanks to them we met" - Nancy said.

"I would have met you sooner or later but I can not assure you we would be dating" - I said.

"Of course yes, obviously it would have taken a little longer, but eventually we would have fallen in love and we would be where we are now!" - said Nancy.

"Yes, but in that case I would have become Ash's girlfriend before you" - Verity commented.

"No, he would have fallen in love with me before, I'm sure!" – Nancy denied.

And so, we continue our journey to Viridian City.

...

Hours later.

We had already traveled almost 100% of the way and we only had 10 minutes to arrive, even so I must say that I was not tired at all like the girls, it seems that touring the entire region on foot has paid off and improved our physical endurance as it did with the original Ash.

Back to the subject, 10 minutes before arriving I received a call from my Rotom Dex, the problem is that it was a hidden number.

"It sure is Looker, take it" - Nancy said.

Last time he did the same thing so I picked up the phone and it was indeed Looker.

"Good afternoon everyone!" - said Looker.

"Good afternoon to you too, did something happen, was there any movement from Team Magma or Team Aqua?" – I asked immediately.

"No, it's not that, we've discovered something much more incredible than that" - Looker denied.

"Is it something serious?" - asked Koharu.

"Quite a bit, we've discovered that someone actually instigated certain companies to change their plans to unethical things, that's it, they contributed to the creation of so many evil teams" - Looker replied.

"Is that true, is there really anyone like that?" – Nancy asked bewildered.

"Yes, and you are not going to believe who they are" - Looker said.

"Who are they?" – I asked.

"We can't talk about this on the phone, we have to meet immediately, by any chance you are near Viridian City?" – said Looker.

"Yes, we are about to arrive, we are going to get our eighth badge" – I nodded.

"Just in time then, I will be in the Pokémon gym, come there and I will explain you this subject in greater depth!" – he exclaimed.

"Ok, we'll go there when we arrive" – I nodded.

"See you in a while, goodbye" - Looker said.

And then he just hung up.

"I'm shocked, I would never have thought that there was someone so vile and cruel" - Nancy exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes, what do they win from all this? All they do is to create problems" - Verity agreed.

"Still I can't help but think there's something else, after all, why create so much chaos without a goal?" – Koharu said.

"No idea, it's possible that they're a bunch of psychopaths" - I suggested.

Actually, I have no idea who may be behind all this, in the anime the subject of evil teams was not discussed much and in video games your goal was to thwart the plans of the leader and dismantle the team, there is no talk of anyone similar.

"I don't know... let's hurry up, I'm curious now" - Nancy said.

Latias and Pikachu also nodded so we quickened our pace.

...

10 minutes later.

Because we quickened our pace, it only took us about 10 minutes to get to the Viridian City gym.

"Here we are" - I said.

"Yes, let's go in and look for Looker" - Verity nodded.

But first of all we knocked on the door, it is impolite to enter without knocking, after all this is not a video game.

"Sorry, the gym is closed today" – said a voice behind the door.

But for us it is a well-known voice.

"It's us Looker, we've come as you asked!" – I exclaimed.

"It's you, quick in, there's no time to lose!" - said Looker.

Since we had permission we entered and as soon as we entered we saw Looker in front of the typical counter that all Pokémon gyms had.

"First of all thank you for taking the trouble to come so soon" - Looker said.

"You're welcome" - I said.

"It's okay, plus we're curious now" - Nancy nodded.

"It's normal but before explaining everything I have to introduce you to someone you may already know" - smiled Looker.

"Who could that be?" – I asked confused.

"Me, but I think we already know each other, I think the last time we saw each other was in the Safari Zone" – said a voice.

When we looked closely, we saw that it was actually Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket.

"Looker, you..." – I said pulling out my Pokéball.

The girls quickly did the same, however...

"Stop, he is not what he seems, he is not who you think he is" - Looker said.

"Okay... We hear you... for now" – I said putting away my Pokéball.

The girls also did the same.

"Very well, first of all, I will introduce you, although from what I see you know who he is, he is Giovanni the leader of Team Rocket, Giovanni they are the young people I told you about" - said Looker.

"It's a pleasure, but it's better that you explain the situation to them as soon as possible, their hostility is growing more and more" - Giovanni said.

"It's true, guys listen, as I told you earlier on the phone we have discovered that there is someone who is instigating the formation of other evil teams" - Looker said.

"Yes but I don't understand what all this has to do with Team Rocket" - Nancy nodded.

"Watch this video and you'll understand a few things" - Looker said, pulling out a USB drive.

Then he picked up a laptop that was on top of the counter and put the USB in.

"Come closer and look" - Looker said.

We all approached with curiosity and watched the video that Looker put us.

The video showed a middle-aged man with blond hair and eyes of the same color who wore the Team Rocket uniform, what he was doing was stealing the Pokémon from a trainer after he was defeated.

The video was advancing and you could see how numerous people committed the same robberies only in different ways.

"All right, are you understanding something?" - asked Looker.

"All I saw was Team Rocket stealing Pokémon as usual" - Verity said.

Looker nodded.

"Exactly, but take a good look at this..." – Looker said rewinding the video.

Then he pulled it back to the beginning where the blond man was.

"Do you see that man's uniform, don't you notice anything weird about him?" asked Looker.

We all looked at the man's uniform and I must admit that at first I didn't see anything out of the ordinary but when I looked closely at the uniform, I saw that the "R" of Team Rocket was not red like in the uniforms I saw previously of the trio, but was rainbow colored.

"A rainbow-colored 'R'?" – Koharu mentioned.