88 After the S.S. Anne

"And that's pretty much it," Ash said after finally finishing the story. It obviously left a few parts out but it covered the important things.

In the room were Gary, Green, Yellow, Misty, Brock, Tempest, Janine, and Damian. Darwin needed medical attention since he was beaten badly, not to mention his Nidoking, so he was in the other room.

"So let me get this straight, you have some weird power that lets you do random stuff," Gary asked.

"Yes and no, I know I can do specific things, I just don't know everything I can do, I might become stronger, or I might have peaked," Ash said.

"Ok but that electricity thing, what was that about, can you like to make other elements?" Tempest asked.

"If I can, I haven't found out how to do it."

"Ok, then what about your arm then, you don't have your cast, and yet you're moving it around like nothing happened," Brock said.

"Ok I'll have one last rundown on everything I can do but this is the last time; I can heal, sense things, make electricity, and make small enhancements to myself, along with Barriers," Ash said.

"OK so your healing, how much can you do? And how much can you enhance yourself?" Janine asked.

"OK it's not healing as much as it is speeding up the natural healing process, I can't heal broken bones or do anything about any sickness or disease, as for the enhancement, it is barely noticeable, I can't make myself strong enough to like pick up boulders, it is a minor boost at best."

"If you want healing like that you'd want Yellow over there," Ash said pointing at Yellow with his thumb.

"Yeah I've been meaning to ask about that, that thing I saw on Mt. Moon, I didn't forget about it. I was just waiting how long you would take to tell me." Brock said.

"Sorry, we wanted to keep it secret until a moment came up," Yellow said.

"Yeah but pretty much she is different from me, where I can control Aura, the natural life force in everything. She is a psychic, but not in the way you'd think."

"How so?" Damian asked.

Ash looked over at Yellow and made a head movement and she nodded so Ash shrugged, "So basically as far as I know she had minor Telekinesis, can communicate with Pokemon, and can heal, but like heal heal, actual healing."

Everyone looked confused and surprised, then Green thought of something, "Wait so I saw Ms. Lorelei do something, she made a doll of ice with Lapras, then she used a marker to draw on them, and that made the grunts lose movement in their bodies. Can one of you do that or is that something different?" 

Ash acted like he was thinking then pointed over at Damian, "Seems like that is his area of expertise, after all, he is a Hex Maniac."

Everyone looked over at Damian shocked, "You didn't have to expose me you know, you could have just said you didn't know, *Sigh* before you ask anything basically I can do things that Ghost types can do in the form of curses, as for Lorelei, I have no idea, the first thing Lance told me when I met him was to stay away from her."

Before anyone asked any other questions Darwin stumbled into the room, "Hey I got into contact with Lorelei, she wants to talk with everyone."

Everyone looked confused but still went over to the other room, where there was a monitor with Lorelei on the other side.

"Oh good you are all OK, how was it, did anything happen?" she asked, looking at everyone.

"We're all fine, more or less, but where are you?" Tempest said jumping in front of everyone.

"That's good, I am on a series of islands called Porta Vista, we made a stop so we can get a proper ship and make it back to the mainland."

"Though things seem fishy around here, they are making a park that is breaking all sorts of codes, and the first thing that I got when I got here was a contract to exterminate the Tentacool population."

As soon as Lorelei said that Misty jumped right to the screen, "What! No, why would they do that, the Tentacool are innocent creatures. How could they want you to do something so horrible!"

Lorelei smiled seeing Misty's concern, "Relax I turned it down, basically they claim it is because they are destroying and delaying ships, but I have reason to believe that something different is going on, anyway until we sort things out here all the passengers are here with me, we should get back by the day after tomorrow."

Misty sighed in relief as in the background Ash was using Yellow's Pokedex to show her what Tentacool was.

"Anyway I wish you all the best, and I hope we may see each other again goodbye," Lorelei said as she hung up.

"Well that's something," Gary said

"I'll say, your cheerleaders are stuck on another island so you need to stay here until they come back, serves you right for traveling with like 7 other people at one time." Green jokingly said whale elbowing Gary.

"Well anyway, what are your plans?" Ash asked

"Oh I was planning on going to Fuchsia, I need to prepare some stuff for something," Green said with the Anya smile.

"Well that's not ominous, anyway I was going to go to Saffron, since the gym leader has no public information out on them, might as well get it out of the way with a weaker team."

"Ok, that's perfect, cuz I was going to make a pit stop in Saffron then go over to Celadon to challenge the gym there," Ash said

"Neat, so we might not see each other for a bit, alright then let's see who can get their badge first, winner gets to make a request from the losers," Green said mischievously.

"Sure"

"I'm game"

"This time you won't beat me, I will win", Green said, poking Ash's chest.

"Not before I do, our battle on the ship was a fluke, just wait until next time I'll beat you."

"Ha, you'll never beat me, after all, I alone am the honored one," Ash said raising one hand over his head

"...You wanna take that back bud" Gary asked, staring at Ash.

"Nope, I said what I said and I'll stick to it."

—

In Team Rocket's main HQ

When Proton and the admins returned to the main base they walked to meet with Archer, meanwhile the grunts that were with them would leave for their quarters to rest until their reward or punishment would be given.

When they all reached Archer he looked at them with an amused look then at Proton and walked forward, he gave his cheek a light slap not intending to hurt him more to get his attention, "Admin Cliff, Sierra, and Arlo will be with me, Executive Proton the boss wishes to speak with you directly."

Proton was surprised on the inside but didn't show anything outside, he simply nodded, "It shall be done." before walking out of the room and making his way to Giovanni's office.

Once Proton reached the room he took a breath and held the stone in his pocket, his only lifeline if things got out of hand, then he knocked on the door.

"You may enter." Giovanni's impending voice called out as Proton entered.

From the room, he saw Giovanni sitting down with his Persian on his lap, debatably only his 3rd strongest Pokemon, he had a brand new Black suit on that probably cost him a few grand.

"Well hello Proton I see you finally decided to join us, I must say your work was impressive you outdid my expectations on this mission, I half expected most of the grunts to have been taken in, but instead you even managed to damage the public's trust in the League. HaHaHa."

Proton remained silent, "You praise me too much, I only did what I could, and I even made mistakes."

Giovanni looked at Proton and smiled, "Yes, you even failed to arrive on time, but I assume there is a reasonable explanation, after all, you may be new but you aren't stupid," Giovanni said as the atmosphere became heavy.

"Yes, a member of the International Police, I believe a senior member showed up and delayed our exit, but we managed to take care of him and even brought a prize," Proton pulled out the keystone from his pocket and held it out for Giovanni.

Giovanni looked surprised then took it to have a closer look, "If they had this it's no wonder you were delayed, the fact that you even came this early is quite impressive, very well you are forgiven and will be rewarded accordingly."

"Yes sir, you are far too merciful," Proton said.

"And you are too humble, not even Archer produced such results during his first mission, you will go far, you are dismissed, and have your report on my desk by the end of the day."

Proton nodded and exerted the room.

—

Ash was currently in a clothing store alone, he went alone to get new clothes after they were damaged, thankfully Surge went back to normal and sent him to a store that had just gotten a shipment of clothes from Unova.

After looking through the options he picked out a white and red hoodie, with a black red and white hat, he also got a long sleeve black shirt to put under the hoodie, since it wasn't cold yet he kept it open but it had a zipper so he could close it when it did. And he got shoes to match.

He also got a new pair of gloves, with the fingers, originally he grabbed some winter gloves to try them on, but when he put them on the ring phased through the glove and appeared on the outside of the glove, he tried taking it off and it did easily, so he grabbed a pair of black gloves.

He grabbed a few of the same pair of clothes and checked out, he also went ahead and saved his old clothes for something later.

After waking out he thought about what to do, everyone else was at the center healing their Pokemon, Pikachu was there too, but he wasn't since his Pokemon were fine, so as he was walking he went past the Cerise Laboratory and saw that Chloe and her mother were standing by the door, and in the frame was her father Professor Cerise.

Ash looked at his non-existent watch and got an evil smile, "I have time."

He walked over and sneaked up, on his way he saw the chubby little Yamper, but with a treat bribe his cover wasn't blown.

.

When he got close he put his hands over Chloe's eyes, "Guess who."

Chloe was startled but when she heard the voice she calmed down, "Ash do you mind."

Ash let her go, "Aww seems like you're becoming immune to my charm, what a shame."

"Hello, may I know who you are?" Cerise said, not in a hostel tone since he could tell that he and Chloe were friends.

"Yeah I'm Ash, Chloe told me about you Professor nice to finally meet you." Ash shook his hand with a goofy smile.

"Oh Ash, yes Chloe told me about you as well, you ranked top of your class, quite impressive, you would have been a gift for us researchers, but I can respect the drive to become a trainer," Cerise said reminiscing.

"Hello Ash it is nice to see you again how have you been, I see you had a change of wardrobe, I must say it suits you," Chloe's mother Talia said.

"You flatter me, Talia, I just threw something together. It's nothing special, but you're looking as beautiful as always." Ash said, doing a bow, making Talia and Cerise chuckle a bit.

Chloe looked embarrassed, "OK so what are you doing here I thought you left a while ago."

Ash smiled as Chloe fell right into his trap, "Of course I came back to see you, every day there was a pain as my heart sank being away from you." Ash said doing an over-dramatic pose.

Talia and Cerise both immediately caught on to the joke and played along, "Oh, and why is that?"

"Isn't it obvious," Ash said as he put his arm around Chloe and pulled her in close.

Chloe was beet red, "W-what are you doing!?"

"I'm sorry Chloe. I know we said we would keep our relationship a secret but I couldn't hold it any longer."

"Oh what a shame it is to see a daughter be taken away by a boy, but if it is you I suppose I can let her go, just be sure to take care of her," Cerise said.

"W-dad aren't you meant to be against this kinda thing, wait never mind that what are you talking about we don't have a secret relationship."

Ash let Chloe go and held his heart, "Oh I'm hurt, and after everything we did together, I gave you my heart and you just ripped it apart, oh the agony." Ash said, putting one hand over his head.

Then Ash fixed himself, "Well It was a pleasure meeting you but I need to go, if I don't hurry I might not get into this year's league, goodbye!"

Chloe was still red as Talia and Cerise waved him off.

As Ash walked back to the center he finally met up with his friends and Pikachu jumped on his shoulder again, and seeing a hood he snuggled inside and used it as a hammock.

"Alright let's get back on the road." Ash looked at his friends.

"Wait just a moment!" a voice came from behind them, when they looked back they saw a man with a trench coat that Ash knew as Looker.

When Looker arrived he took a quick breath, "Thank goodness you are still here, I already talked with the others but you all were missing, my senior told me what happened on the S.S. Anne, due to all of your assistance there have been no confirmed casualties, so we wanted to give you all a reward."

He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small sack and handed it to them, "We weren't sure what Pokemon you all had so we brought a few, you may all choose one, we may have a few at the base, but we still only have a limited amount."

When they all looked in the sack they all saw a variety of different stones, mega stones, even ones Ash didn't recognise.