The Press

{With Ash}

The P-1 tournament has been going on for quite a bit and now it is finally coming to an end.

"There have been many battles but it all leads up to this!" An announcer said as the two finalists walked up.

On one side Anthony with Hitmonchan, and on the other Giant with Hitmonlee, though Giant somehow looked kinda traumatized, which was strange seeing such a big man act that way.

Immediately Ash's friends and Pikachu shot him a glare as he looked away while whistling.

The announcer raised his arm as he announced the final match.

—

{With Ashtwo}

Ash was banging his head against the wall after reading what his reward Was.

[Reward chosen: Able to see conditions and how to fix them.]

After a few seconds, Ash gathered his thoughts, "Maybe it's not too bad, maybe I can…" Ash pointed his Pokedex over to Meowth.

-

[Meowth (F)]

[Conditions: Slightly hungry]

[Solution: Feed Sour flavored Pokeblocks]

-

"Nope it's useless, of course, no wait maybe I can," He quickly released Drowzee and did the same

–

[Drowzee(M)]

[Nature: Relaxed (+Def, -Spe)]

[Ability: Insomnia, Hidden Ability: Inner Focus]

[Current moves: Barrier, Light Screen, Reflect, Hypnosis, Thunder Wave, Disable, Confusion, Headbutt]

[Blessed by Hypnos]

[Conditions: Malnourished, with unknown chemicals in body]

[Solution: Prepare an easily digestible diet and perform a special training regiment → {Doc-guide}]

–

"Ok that's a little better actually, but I already knew that, so also kinda usle- wait no, one more chance, Please be useful," Ash said as finally, he started scanning all the eggs that he got.

–

[Egg(Larvitar)]

[Conditions: Dead]

[No Solution]

[Egg(Duskull)]

[Conditions: Rotten]

[No Solution]

[Egg(Tangela)]

[Conditions: Unfertilized]

[No Solution]

[Egg(Skorupi)]

[Conditions: Dead]

[No Solution]

[Egg(Finneon)]

[Conditions: Rotten]

[No Solution]

Ect….

-

Ash kept going, seeing a variety of different Pokemon that he could have had but with no way of helping them, making Ash slouch as he kept scanning, "That's it, this thing is completely useless, why me, why couldn't have been anything else." 

But then he got to the final two eggs, both of them had a visual crack on them so he didn't expect much until.

–

[Egg(Pichu)]

[Conditions: Damaged(Dying)]

[Solution: This egg has almost no hope. If you want to save it you must soak this egg with medicine water from several medicine plants → {Doc-guide}]

[Egg(Houndour)]

[Conditions: Damaged(Dying)]

[Solution: This egg has almost no hope. If you want to save it you must soak this egg with medicine water from several medicine plants → {Doc-guide}]

-

Ash almost cried seeing that it wasn't completely useless, although that Larvitar would have been nice but that just means there is more fodder for later.

For now, at least he would go and make all the medicine water so that the eggs don't die, so he put all the eggs in his storage and made it go as slowly as he could make it.

He returned Drowzee and Meowth jumped back on his shoulder as he started walking.

–

{Rocket Trio}

"Meowth this is the last straw you have gone too far this time!" James yelled at Meowth who was currently holding a white bag in his hands.

"Hey now Jimmy, we can talk about this. It was an honest mistake," Meowth said, trying to de-escalate the situation.

Since we last saw the 3 musketeers they have been doing their job, and doing a decent job at it, they needed a lot if they wanted to afford some giant robots and they managed to gather a lot.

Recently, they managed to find this goldmine of Tentacool, and they managed to 'legally' catch them with no one stopping them, so after getting back and handing them over they were pretty loaded so they stopped to celebrate.

Jessie was off, probably doing her hair or buying a new dress with her Cubone, leaving James and Meowth to go get lunch.

But this is where Meowth did something unforgivable.

"This isn't the Chicken and Bacon Ranch Melt Meowth! I told you I wanted a Chicken and Bacon ranch and you got Fish!"

"What do you take me for rich boy, a cat that can make money out of thin air? These things cost more than your fancy bottle cap cases."

"You're a Meowth! Your signature move is Pay Day and we're members of a criminal organization that is literally all you do!"

"Is that how you think it works? Do you really think the economy would last a day if a bunch of drunk toddlers walked around spamming it?"

"Thatsss… actually a really good point, but that doesn't change the fact that you got my sandwich wrong!"

"What's the problem? We've eaten fish before."

"I have a Magikarp now! Did you seriously forget?"

"Oh you were serious, I still thought that we were going to eat it."

This entire conversation was taking place in the cafeteria and people were used to the infamous talking Meowth, so none paid them any mind.

"Ok, ok, let's do this." Meowth said, "Why don't I just go buy another sandwich, and I can ju-"

But Meowth got stuck on his words, from across the cafeteria he saw a single female Meowth sitting down on the floor and just waiting.

Meowth stood there in silence and James swiped his hand across his face, "Meowth, earth to Meowth, are you there? What's wrong with you?"

Meowth disappeared from James' sight and appeared in front of the female Meowth with a bouquet of roses and hearts in his eyes.

"What a beautiful specimen, What's a pretty doll like you dining in a place like this?"

Meowth just looked at him then looked away uninterested, "Nyā"

Meowth jumped to the other side, "How about it baby, let's ditch this place."

The Female Meowth just looked away giving another, "Nya"

Meowth, a little more desperately, jumped back in view, "Come on Baby don't say maybe."

But Meowth just ignored him again, making Meowth fall to the floor.

At this point, James finally caught up, "Hey, Meowth what's wrong with you?"

Suddenly Meowth appeared at James's feet and started groveling, "Jimmy you gotta do something!"

James was taken aback by Meowth's behavior, "What do you want me to do?"

Meowth jumped onto James and grabbed onto his shirt to hold on, "You're a human, can't you catch her or something, just don't let her get away!" 

As Meowth was shaking James, suddenly someone walked into view from behind, as he got close he only said, "Come on"

Meowth jumped into the air and landed on his shoulder, then started snuggling inside the scarf that was covering his face. It was Ashtwo, and he just finished buying a bunch of stuff that he needed.

Then without looking at the two, Ash started walking away, as Meowth kept shaking James begging him to do something, and by the time that he noticed, the Female Meowth was nowhere to be seen.

Meowth fell onto his knees and fell onto the ground, "No, how could this be, just when my heart finally feels love again it is torn from me-Meowth"

James' eye twitched as he grabbed Meowth by the scruff of his back, "Don't be so dramatic, you have a new crush every week, you'll get over her like you did with the last 15."

Meowth tried to get out of James' grip, "You don't get it, this time I feel it, that Meowth was more beautiful than my first love Meowzie, I must find her again!"

"Yeah, shuuuurrr, anyway, we need to prepare to leave. We got a request for a job."

"I can't leave now, not after seeing that beautiful specimen, just go on without me."

"Alright," James said as he started walking away.

"Wait I wasn't being serious, wait for meeeee!" Meowth said as he started running after James.

–

"That was weird," Ash said as he was watching the duo run off, he didn't expect to run into them like that, but the idea did cross his mind.

Anyway right now he had all the things he needed, the hardest part was probably the fact that he needed a Revival Herb, which he did find, but it cost a pretty penny but in the end, he still got it.

He went over to an empty room for privacy as he started preparing everything, he wasn't too proficient with making medicines but the doc that he was given had a pretty detailed guide so there were no troubles.

Soon the liquid was ready, it looked weird, even though most of the herbs were vibrant colors and he added very little water the liquid was clear.

He put the two eggs in the water and then put the whole thing back in his storage to speed it up, unfortunately, due to the nature of what he is doing he can't reuse the liquid after this but it is a good thing to keep in his back pocket.

By the time he finally finished it was near night time and Meowth went to sleep with her belly full of the food that he was meant to have.

Ash sighed and released Drowzee to start helping him recover.

–

{At the League building}

Lance was standing on a podium surrounded by countless reporters flashing lights at him and bombarding him with questions. But the ones that he heard the most often were.

"Mr. Champion, how do you feel about your failures in this matter?" "Mr. Champion, are the rumors about your conspiracy true?" "Mr. Champion, what is your view on the people of Johto being behind this?" "Don't you find it weird how Mr. Champion went to Johto instead of staying here, I'm just saying.." "Those filthy Johtoian people are ruining this country, we should run them out," Ect.

Lance was trying to keep his calm, the entire Johto debate had been going on for a long time, originally many years ago Kanto and Johto were as separated as Oil and water.

But then they formed an alliance he wasn't the one who started it but him becoming Champion was the nail in the coffin.

But a lot of people weren't exactly happy, you see Kanto is more technologically advanced than Johto and when they merged a lot of resources were put into improving Johto, which made people mad.

They were using resources to help the second most backwater region and what do they get, culture? What a joke, at least that's what most people thought.

In fact after that the members of Team Rocket flourished exponentially, filled with people who wanted Johtoians out of Kanto.

"All allegations made about the integrity of the League or loyalties are baseless and politically motivated by people who would benefit," Lance said keeping his composer

Reporter 2 spoke up, "But Sir. Champion, there's substantial evidence—"

But Lance cut him off, "I've already addressed this matter in my previous statements. Next question, please."

Another reporter stepped up, "Champion, your constituents demand transparency. How do you justify—

"My record speaks for itself. I've served as Champion for two separate regions, and we have kept the peace,"

"But sir what over the recent activities of Team Rocket, they have started becoming more bold since the S.S. Anne."

Lance had to take a breath, "The truth is we have not been able to take action due to the complexity of the situation, Team Rocket went into hiding 10 years ago and suddenly they reappeared, how could we have been ready."

Another reporter spoke up, "But sir, experts say that this situation is causing suspicion, how do you think the Trust bet-"

This time Lance finally snapped, "Trust? Trust what, exactly? The biased narrative perpetuated by the media? I'm accountable to the people, not to your insatiable thirst for scandal!"

The room erupts into a cacophony of questions and camera clicks, as everyone starts trying to make Lance say more

"No, let me ask a question this time," Lance said making the journalists stay silent, "How many of you actually care, no matter what I say I will still be painted as a corrupt official, none of you realize what is happening, you just care about getting your 15 seconds of fame by making me look worse, well guess what I don't care anymore, This interview is Over!"

Lance began marching out of the room as countless journalists started asking more questions in hopes of making Lance spill something else, but in the end nothing.

As Lance walked back into the building Damian was waiting for him with another coffee in his hands.

"Should have accepted that help," he said as he handed the coffee to Lance.

Lance took it, "Not like it would have mattered, but so what a news story about the Champion losing its temper, yeah big whoop how original."

Damian chuckled, "Wow he is affiliated with Johto, Daring Today, Aren't We."

When Lance finished the coffee he finally took a breath, "Why can't these things ever be easy"

--

-