Richie narrowed his eyes at the man who sat before him. "Blaine, I will not remove Lorelei from her position at the Elite Four because she insulted your arcanine." A bald man glared at him from across his desk. "I'm sick of her thinking she is better than everyone else." Richie sighed. He was tired of having to deal with trivial problems and personal squabbles. He had more important things to do than to solve arguments between trainers. "Blaine, you and Lorelei need to work this out on your own. Don't keep dragging the League into it." Blaine stood up, and even through his dark glasses, Richie could see his eyes narrowed in anger. He began to walk to the door mumbling to himself. Unfortunately Richie heard him say, "Ash was a better Master than you even when he was fourteen." Richie stood up, his fingertips pressed against his desk. "Excuse me?" Blaine turned, his expression guilty, knowing he was in trouble. But Richie never had a chance to chastise Blaine. A bright flash caused him to shield his eyes with his arm. When the light subsided, Richie saw a tall man standing in front of him, glaring down at him. "Hello, Richie," he said, an evil grin spreading across his face. Richie looked carefully at the man before recognizing him. "Gary?" "Ah, so you remember me," Gary said, his gray eyes flashing as he advanced on him. Richie backed away; he was uncomfortable both by Gary's expression and his sudden appearance. "Hey!" a voice cried, distracting Gary from Richie. Blaine was standing behind them, a pokeball in his hand. Gary frowned. "An unexpected guest. How unfortunate. I'll have to kill you both then." Blaine threw his pokeball and in a flash an arcanine was growling visciously at Gary, it's teeth bared. Gary smirked as he raised his hand, which began to glow a bright silver. The arcanine suddenly turned and began to growl at Blaine. Blaine's eyes widened and he began to back away from the slowly advancing pokemon. The arcanine leapt at him and Blaine fled the room, his pokemon hot on his heels. "Confusion," Gary said, his eyes fixed on the doorway Blaine had just run through. "What a great power." He turned his attention back to Richie and began to power up, but was once again interrupted. "Master Hiroshi? What's going on? Blaine just ran-" May stopped when she saw Richie backing away from an unknown man. "Jesus Christ," Gary said, obviously annoyed. "It's like a frikin circus in here." He turned to see the newcomer and faltered. "May?" he asked. Her eyes widened when she saw his face. "Gary?" They regarded each other for a moment before May said, "Where have you been?" He considered her before saying, "We can have a family reunion in a minute, May. I have to kill your boss right now." With that he powered up. May watched, helpless and bewildered, as a silver glow formed around Gary. Richie saw Gary's eyes snap open, but something else caught his eye. A blur of black had just flown into the room, and before anyone knew what was happening, Gary had been tackled to the floor. Richie realized the blur was actually a person, dressed in a black trench coat. He watched as Gary's eyes lit up in recognition and he screamed, "Damn you!" Richie quickly moved over to where May stood in the doorway and was surprised to see two other people standing on either side of her. He recognized them instantly. "Misty, Brock, what are you doing here?" he asked, obviously confused. "We're with him," Misty said, pointing to the man in the trench coat, who had just done a roundhouse kick to Gary's stomach. Richie watched as Gary stumbled backward, then began to glow. "Watch out!" Richie called. "He has some sort of powers." "No kidding," the man grunted as he flipped away from a psybeam. He stood up and, to Richie's complete surprise, a golden glow began to form around him. Richie watched in fascination as the man raised his arms and the glow began to crackle with energy. Gary's eyes widened as the attack was released. In a bright flash Gary teleported, causing the attack to miss it's target and hit the walls of Richie's office. The man looked around, obviously expecting Gary to reappear. When he was satisfied his enemy was gone, he shook his head. "What attack was that?" Brock asked, looking around Richie's office, which was now charred on almost every surface. The man walked over to the burnt remains of the office's satin blue curtains and blew out a small flame before replying, "Thunder wave." " was a thunder wave?" Misty said. When he nodded she muttered, "I'd hate to see a powerful attack." He looked around the office. "Did Pikachu come back yet?" As if on cue, a pikachu scampered between May's legs. She gave a startled cry as the pikachu ran to his master's feet. "Pika pikachu," he said looking around. The man shook his head to answer the question only he understood. Richie walked over to the man, who was still looking down at his pokemon. He extended his hand saying, "Thank you, you saved my life." The man glanced up saying, "What?" After realizing what Richie had said, he distractedly answered, "Oh, sure. No problem, Richie." He then returned his attention to his pikachu. "Did you stop that arcanine?" Richie blinked then lowered his hand, which the man hadn't shook. He was completely caught off guard. Not only had the man basically ignored him, he had called him Richie. "Do I know you?" Richie asked. The man didn't look up, but he said, "Only since we were eleven." Ash was trying to be polite, but listening to people inside and outside of your mind at the same time was very difficult and he needed to find out what had happened to Blaine. They had been taken by surprise when Blaine had come barreling down the hall, his own arcanine chasing him. *Sorry Pikachu,* he thought. *What happened?* *The arcanine had just caught up to Blaine, so I did a thunderbolt. It was out cold,* Pikachu informed him. "So where's Blaine right now?" Ash asked aloud. "Right here," a voice answered. May moved aside from the doorway allowing Blaine to enter. He was pale from the recent events, but his expression remained stern. He looked Ash up and down before saying, "It's good to see you alive, Ashton." May's jaw dropped and Richie raised his eyebrows, his suspicions confirmed. "That was the quickest anyone recognized me," Ash said, impressed. "How did you know?" "Only your blasted pikachu could take out my arcanine with one thunderbolt," Blaine told him. Ash smiled before turning back to Richie, who was staring at him intently. "You're alive," Richie said. It was more of a statement than a question. "So everyone keeps telling me," Ash said sighing. Richie smiled. Ash looked at May who was being unusually quiet. She stood next to Blaine, staring at the floor. "May are you okay?" he asked. May looked up slowly. "Gary left home about four years ago," she explained sadly. "I knew he had never been the same after he lost in the league, but I hadn't realized he had become so... evil." She looked at Richie. "He was going to kill you." Richie frowned. "Why he trying to kill me?" "To eliminate the threat of you rallying other trainers against him," Ash explained. May looked at Ash, Misty, and Brock as if she had only just noticed them. "How did you get in here?" she cried. Ash cast a glance towards Blaine before saying to Richie, "That reminds me, Zippo's going to need some potion." Richie looked at him in disbelief. "What did you do to him?" he cried. "Relax," Ash said, raising his arms in defense. "He's only asleep." Richie furrowed his eyebrows as he said, "What pokemon did you use to put asleep?" "Pikachu," Ash said matter-of-factly, gesturing at the yellow pokemon that stood at his feet. "Pikachu knows a sleep attack?" Richie said skeptically. Brock snorted. "Pikachu knows a lot of attacks." "Sir, you won't believe what has happened!" A man no older than thirty five ran into the office. He was slightly soft around the middle and clad in a blue security uniform. His breath came in short gasps and he clutched a stitch in his side. All six of the people in the room turned to gape at him. He slowly regained his breath and looked around the blackened office in bewilderment. "Well, what is it?" Richie asked the man, a hint of impatience in his voice. The security guard straightened up and used his sleeve to wipe the beads of sweat off his forehead. "Team Rocket has left the entrance of Victory Road, sir," he said excitedly. Richie furrowed his eyebrows. "Why would they suddenly leave after two years?" he pondered aloud. "Gary's rounding up his forces," Ash said, his expression grim. "I thought Team Rocket was destroyed," Misty interjected. "He's looking for whoever is still loyal to him. He's going to try to build up an army," Ash explained. "Just because they disbanded, doesn't mean that most of them wouldn't jump at the chance to rejoin him, especially now that he has powers." "Sir!" another voice said, causing them all to look at the door. Another security guard entered, this one in good shape, and he wasn't out of breath. "We caught two intruders. They apparently got stuck trying to crawl through the air ducts." At this, two more security guards entered, one restraining a very angry Jessie, the other holding onto a struggling James. "How dare you!" Jessie cried, wriggling in an attempt to free herself from the grasp of a man twice her size. "Do you have any idea who I am?" Richie narrowed his eyes at the pair. "You two!" he exclaimed. "You were the idiots who kept trying to steal Ash's Pikachu." Jessie pursed her lips at this. "If you had any idea of what you were doing you would release us immediately," she said through gritted teeth. Richie looked at her in loathing before saying, "Put them in jail until I can think of something better to do with them." The two guards began to pull the enraged Jessie and the distraught James out the door when Ash said, "Wait! Let them go." The guards stopped and looked inquisitively at Richie, who was staring at Ash in surprise. "Thank you, Ashton," Jessie said with a haughty air. Richie raised his eyebrows. "You want me to let them go?" he asked, looking doubtfully at the pair. "Trust me, Richie, they aren't with Team Rocket anymore." Richie studied Ash for a few moments before saying, "Release them." The guards looked dumbfounded. "But, sir-" one began. Richie interrupted him. "If Ash says we can trust them, we can trust them," he said firmly. The guards reluctantly loosened their grip on the two ex-Rockets. Jessie wrenched her arm away, while James rubbed his wrists gingerly. "What is it?" Ash asked, taking a step towards them. Jessie looked warily around the room at the throng of people before saying, "Gary is putting Team Rocket back together. He told Persian that he is going to try to convince gym leaders to join them with the promise of getting them powers." Ash narrowed his eyes and Richie looked alarmed. "If he gets leaders fighting alongside him with powers-" Richie began. "He won't give them powers," Ash interrupted. "That's an empty promise. But if he gets some leaders to fight with him..." he paused for a moment. "We could be in for a very bloody war." A/N: Sorry this is taking so long.. I'm doing my best, but school is really cutting down on my free time. Don't worry I'm still working on it, hopefully the next chapter will be out in about a week or so. Please review. Thanks.