I don’t want to be Champion

The trio began walking down the mountain with Machamp holding a knocked-out Cliff, Ash got a few answers from him, obviously, he was not too keen on answering some, but nothing a bit of Aura couldn't help.

Green and Gary didn't actually know how to process what Ash was doing, so as any reasonable person would they chose to ignore it.

As they were walking suddenly they collectively heard, "Pika!"

Turning back they saw Pikachu running back and jumping into Ash's arms.

Green came over and gave the mouse a pet as Gary looked up at where he came from, "Where did that Pikachu come from? I don't even remember him leaving, we were just running up this volcano and then he disappeared."

Ash looked at him and put his finger to his mouth, "Don't worry about it. (^ᴗ^)"

But Gary immediately slapped his hand, "Fine, just never do that again!"

As Ash and Green laughed they kept walking down until they got back on the road they saw some familiar faces approaching, Brock, Misty, and Yellow on top of Dody.

They quickly met up, immediately noticing that Yellow was sleeping, "What happened to Yellow?"

"Err, long story, but what happened?" Brock asked, noticing Green and Gary, "You all just went missing and when we looked for you the Police showed up."

Gary crossed his arms, "Well we also got caught up in something, remember those admins we met back on the ship." Then he pointed towards Machamp, "We had to take care of them."

 "Yeah, we had to get out and get back!" Ash said slapping gAry on the back and acting like it was no big deal, "I'm just sad we only got this old guy."

They could have sworn it but despite Cliff being unconscious he mumbled, "mm nt d (I'm not old)"

Misty was not as understanding of Ash's choice of words, "W-why do you say it like that, that's an Admin, and you 3 fought all of them and won?!"

"Yeah, I don't see what the big deal is," Ash said with his finger in his ear

"It was just some dudes and this old granny," Green added.

Misty's eye twitched as she looked at Green, "I thought you were the normal one."

"Womp womp we are all freaks of nature you can cry about that later," Ash said

"Hey don't group me in with you two!" Gary yelled.

"First I was referring to the 6 of us, and second yes you are and you can't deny it, or should I bring up 'The Picnic incident'-" Ash said as immediately Gary covered his mouth

Then before anyone could say something else they felt a gust of wind blow from the air when they looked they saw a Charizard fly down with 2 people on its back, Lance and Blaine.

As soon as Charizard landed Lance jumped down and approached the group, most of them were completely shocked to see the Champion there.

But Ash raised his hand saying, "Yo!" 

This made most of the group want to hit him but before that, they saw Lance smile and wave back, "Why I didn't expect to see you all here!"

'Ehhh! Σ(°△°|||)' everyone thought collectively as Lance walked up and saw Cliff.

"*Whistle* Seems like you guys were busy, an Admin huh, quite impressive considering your ages, I assume you 3 did this."

Green snapped out of her trance and grabbed Ash and Gary and brought them close, "Yep we managed them out!"

Gary pulled himself out of the hug, "Yes… we actually managed to take down 2 more but they managed to escape, unfortunately."

Lance nodded, "Well still, quite impressive, and to think you 3 started this year, you keep this up and maybe one of you will take my place, haha."

Ash looked up, still in the hug since he didn't try escaping, "Na, I don't want to be Champion."

Immediately everyone looked at him not believing what he just said, "What, I don't think any of us want to."

"W-well you're not wrong but you didn't have to say it," Gary said looking away

"I mean, maybe if the pay was good, buuuttt, I dunno seems pretty boring," Green nodded.

Brock and Misty looked shocked and seemed like they wanted to say something until Lance started laughing, "Hahahah, Wow it seems like things just keep getting more interesting, well I look forward to seeing what you end up doing."

"Sooo, anyway, back to the topic at hand." Green cut in as she pointed at Cliff, "Is there a bounty for him."

Gary looked like he was about to scold her but Lance thought to himself for a moment, "Well usually an Admin would probably have a bounty around 5 Million, but this one apparently was on the S.S. Anne, so I could probably get you about 10 Million."

Green's eyes turned to dollar signs, "So can we give this big guy to you!"

"Well normally you would go to the police for this, I don't particularly have much to do with this besides authorizing the bounties, but if you want I can take him and just wire the money to three."

Green looked back at the boys, "Heyyyyy, you guys wouldn't mind if I take your share,"

Gary scoffed, "Sure take mine I don't care."

Then she looked at Ash, "Does this count as my favor?" to which Green shook her head, "Then no."

"Well I still get 66%, I'll take it," Green celebrated.

"So do you 3 want credit for taking this Admin down?" Lance asked as Machamp handed Cliff to Charizard.

"No"

"Na"

"Absolute not"

They all said in unison, Lance nodded, "Alright we'll keep it a secret between us, I'll go talk to the Police, I see they are already taking care of most leftover members of Team Rocket."

Lance hopped on Charizard and waved at the group, "I hope we can meet again!" Then he flew towards the center of town.

As they watched him walk off they heard someone clear their throat, "*ahem* A moment of your time if you would."

The man in question was Blaine who stayed behind, "I hear you 3 are participating in this year's league, am I correct in assuming you are here for the Cinnabar Gym?"

"No you're right on the Money," Ash said, acting clueless about who this was, the only one other than him who recognized Blaine was Brock, and even then it was with a hat.

Blaine nodded, "Then I can help you, for I am the Gym leader, Blaine, usually I would give a riddle but I think these circumstances are rather…unique,"

—

Looker and Anabel came back with Cole in handcuffs, immediately and reasonably. People started looking at them with suspicion demanding an explanation.

But after some yapping from Cole, Anabel pulled out the recording with all the incriminating evidence, including some stuff they had from before.

It didn't take much after that for some assault team Members to take him away to be put in custody.

The Commander looked at Looker specifically and gave him a bow, "I apologize for putting you in danger, If you had not been able to see through his deception I fear the worst."

Looker waved it away, "There's no need for that, both I and Anabel have been looking into Cole for some time, I know what I was getting myself into, you don't have to apologize for anything."

The Commander in question nodded, "I assure you we will not let this go unpunished, but for now, we should focus on finding what Team Rocket's Goal is here."

"There's no need for that!" A voice came from the sky as Lance started descending on top of his Charizard, who was holding a big man in a Team Rocket suit.

The Commander almost as if on instinct saluted, "Champion! What brings you here?"

"Isn't it obvious, Team Rocket," Lance laughed looking at the nervous police force member, "Anyway, my team and I have found Team Rocket's Goal, I have personally gotten rid of it and have a High-rank Admin in my Possession."

Some of the new members of the force immediately clapped with stars in their eyes, imaging Lance battling against hordes of Rocket and capturing an Admin.

The Commander nodded, "Then can we assume that everything is finished here?"

"I can't be sure, my Team is investigating where we think their base is at, I'll get back on that."

"O-of course, but we won't slack off just because you're here," he said saluting.

—

{Pokemon Mansion.}

Spark, Candela, and Blanche made their way back to the Mansion they were originally at to look for any leftover members of Team Rocket.

If you look closely at Blanche's hand you would also see that Articuno's mark was back, indicating that they managed to recover Articuno.

Although it wasn't as pretty as when Candela did it since Blanche wasn't going full power of friendship but in the end all that mattered was that they recovered Articuno.

They came here instead of meeting up with Lance again because he already contacted them, saying that he and Blaine had already taken care of Zapmolcuno, so they should look for stragglers.

When they arrived they found most of the Mansion almost completely destroyed, but thanks to that they saw a secret underground room that they made their way down.

It took a minute but using their Pokemon they all made it down, and looking around they found all of…nothing.

The place looked abandoned, if not for the fact that there were some fresh documents on the floor and tables they would have thought this place wasn't even used.

Blanche walked over and picked up one of the documents as Spark and Candela went looking around, there were some machines and some tubes with Green liquid, but after Blanche read through the documents it was clear it was just some goo called Bacta.

Looking further they found what appeared to be the room where Zapmolcuno came from, in the center a large tank was broken and around it looked like People left in a hurry.

As they looked at the tables Blanche found some more documents about the project, the people involved, and even the process of making Zapmolcuno.

Candela walked in from another room, "I don't think there's anyone here."

Spark also walked in, "Yeah I looked around but I can't even find any Pokemon, I think they left this place."

Blanche nodded, "That is my theory as well, very well we should report this to Lance."

Candela and Spark showed no opposition to that so Blanche used the communicator to reach Lance, "Champion, we searched the location, and there is no sign of any more People, they likely evacuated after the monster was released."

Then from it, Lance's voice was heard, [Copy that, return to the League building we can talk more then, I will take care of the rest.]

—

{A few hours later}

Lance was overseeing multiple Team Rocket Members being taken away as all citizens were returned to Cinnabar Island, and some members of the Press also came for an 'exclusive' interview.

Things like

"Champion what happened"

"Champion are you behind this raid"

"Champion how did you find out about Team Rocket's plan"

"Did you capture the Admins"

"Do you think those Johtonians are behind this"

"Ect."

Of Course, Lance kept the answers as vague as possible and straight up denying things, but as a just it boiled down to him saying that his Team had been working hard to make sure another incident didn't happen.

And that he could not disclose any information at the moment, but once everything is over they will receive answers.

Of Course, some people weren't happy with just that, but Lance didn't answer any more questions.

From a nearby diner, the 6 were sitting down and watching everything, Yellow finally woke up, and surprisingly she didn't actually remember much of what happened.

To her after 'the Scientist' talked about Friendship being worthless she blanked out, and she woke up on top of an evolved Dody.

Anyway, they didn't bother prying since they got most answers from Brock and Misty, and as for what happened with Blaine, he invited him to his Gym and told them where it was.

But at the moment they were laughing watching the reporters trying their hardest to make Lance say something for publicity.

"Well at least it looks like the League will get some reputation back," Ash said.

"Not if they can make him admit he is protecting those 'Filthy Johtonians' and behind everything," Green jokes

"You know you joke about that, but I wouldn't be surprised," Gary said, taking a sip from his drink.

"Anyway Gary, I've been meaning to ask," Ash said looking serious.

"What?"

"Where are your cheerleaders?" Ash said, making Gary fall out of his chair, and Brock nodded like it was an important question.

---

Important question, do you guys want Ash to battle Blaine, because it would be completely reasonable for Blaine to give all 3 of them a badge for beating 3 Admins, I can still do it if you guys want, just a thought.