I did have an idea…

Disclaimer: NOT mine.

Notes: ** for thoughts, <> for telepathy, this for pokemon speech.

Ash is 14, and Charlotte is 15

Dragi – thank you!

Star’s Dreams – hehehe, thanks!

Takuya – I know. ^-^

Luccamajere26 – I love secrets!
Link Masters – well, we still have Lance, although she’s not showing up for a few more chapters.

SS2 Megami-sama – muses rule! ^-^

Tmp – you’re good at guessing the future. ^-^ Lance has her own part to play later, but she’ll wait.

Aragorn the Ranger – thanks! He does keep a little of his dense nature, doesn’t he?

Chapter 6: Burning the roots

Charlotte and Ash looked at each other. “So, what can we do to help?” Ash asked. Giovanni smiled.

“Well, Ash, tell me, what is one of the largest pokemon storage areas?”

“Um…” Ash thought for a minute. “Professor Oak’s lab, Pallet Town.”

“Correct.” Giovanni said. He called up a Power point presentation. “This is the inside of Oak’s lab.” The map showed professor oak’s living quarters, the kitchen, the enormous storage rooms, the two laboratories, one for pathogenic study and one for item study.

“Now, here’s a close up.” Giovanni continued. The two watched raptly. This shot was more detailed, of the storage room itself, showing the eight switches that would activate traps, the locations of the security cameras, and the main switch that would close the shelves inward, preventing access to the poke balls.

“And now, Ash, answer me one more question. Suppose these pokemon were in the hands of team rocket. How would that affect our operation?”

Ash smiled. “Well, it was increase the chance of success a hundredfold.”

“Very good.” Giovanni said. “All right, it is your mission to get those pokemon in our hands.”

That night, Ash and Charlotte were preparing the air transport. Coming along with them was Catherine, the backup member and the one who would actually drive the transport. She was twenty-four and disliked bowing to two children.

“Nervous, Ash?” Charlotte asked as she double-checked her poke belt. Then, she put on her light gray, sleeveless, Kevlar coat that fell to her knees. There was a bright red ‘R’ on the front. Her poke belt went over, all the poke balls securely fastened on.

“Only a little.” Ash said. * It’s time to pay Professor Oak back for what he did to me. * He was wearing a black Kevlar vest and pants, poke belt secure. He made sure that he had the knockout gas and nets before he nodded.

“All right. Let’s go.”

The two climbed into the transport. Catherine scowled, but started the engines and drove off.

Soon, they were above Oak’s lab.

“Let’s go.” Ash said. Charlotte nodded and they began slowly levitating themselves down onto the roof. Ash made sure they were shrouded in Smog. They quietly dropped onto the roof.

“Anything yet?” Ash whispered.

“No.”

“All right.” Ash quietly released his Flareon. “Make a small cut through the roof.” He whispered.

Flareon nodded and created a hole just big enough for the two agents to drop down into.

Charlotte’s Mantine finished his echolocation. Nobody is in. I’m guessing that Professor Oak is out of town. Looks dusty.

< Thanks. > Ash sent. < All right, let’s go. >

The two agents dropped down quietly. They were in the lab area.

< Storage room is that way. > Ash said. They walked in. Charlotte released Bellossem, who nodded and used Sleep Powder. The spores revealed two traps in the ceiling almost directly above them.

“Electric traps.” Ash said softly. “Sneasal, can you cut them?”

Of course, Sneasal said softly. After all, I am a pokemon. Within moments, the security cameras and traps had been disabled. The two walked inside. There on the shelves lay hundreds of poke balls.

< Bingo. > Ash said. < Let’s start packing. > Charlotte and Ash linked their Rocketdexes together and activated the transport function. Then, they began dropping poke balls in one by one. It was a long, arduous process. Four hours later, they were just packing up to leave when Professor Oak entered in a bathrobe.

“Who – TEAM ROCKET!” He said.

Ash and Charlotte looked at each other and simultaneously released Espeon and Flareon to finish packing, then turned to Oak.

“Prepare for Trouble!”

“And make it double!”

“To protect the world from devastation!”

“To unite all peoples within our nation!”

“To denounce the evils of truth and love!”

“To extend our reach to the stars above!”

“Charlotte!”

“Ash!”

“Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!”

“Surrender now or prepare to fight!”

“Ash?!” A horrified voice gasped. Ash’s eyes widened as his mom came in, in nothing more than a blouse. Seeing her and Professor Oak’s tousled state, he put two and two together.

“MOM! I can’t believe you would betray me too!” Ash said.

Professor Oak took advantage of Ash’s distraction to release a Scizor. “Scizor, attack him!”

“Flareon, Fire Blast!” Charlotte called. Flareon paused, dropped the poke ball it was holding, and toasted Scizor before it could hit Ash.

Charlotte grabbed Ash’s arm. “Ash! Snap out of it!” She tossed out another pokemon. “Rapidash, trap them with Fire Spin!”

Oak and Delia were trapped inside the flames.

“Ash, stop this!” His mom pleaded. “What’s gotten into you?”

“Me?” Ash asked. “Professor Oak lied and wouldn’t give me a starter pokemon. But he still had more than one left. He betrayed me first.”

“Ash, nobody has betrayed you!” His mom pleaded.

“Oh yeah? Then why were you making out with Professor Oak?!” Ash demanded. “That’s betrayal of the worst kind!”

“Stop it, Ash! I needed someone to turn to after you ran away, young man! Who are you to order me around? Stop this at once!”

Ash growled. “And do you know why I ran away? He destroyed the only dream I had! But now, I have a new goal in life! And I don’t need you!”

Charlotte nodded. “Let’s go, Ash.” She recalled Rapidash and quickly put the rest of the poke balls in transit on route to TR HQ.

“Yes.” Ash said. “Let’s.”

Delia froze at his voice. It was so cold, like her old boyfriend… and his eyes! His amber eyes had somehow turned into a furnace of yellow flames. And where had the silver streaks in his hair come from?

There was a bright flash of light and the two reappeared at HQ with Catherine and the transport in tow. Catherine gaped at them.

“Very good.” Giovanni said as they walked into his office.

“Thank you, sir.” They chorused.

Giovanni noticed Ash’s preoccupation. “What’s wrong, Ash?”

“My mother has betrayed me also.” Ash said. His voice was flat and dead. “I have no one left.”

“You still have us, Ash.” Charlotte said.

“Yes, Ash, the Team will never desert you.” Giovanni said.

Ash smiled.

A few hours later, Giovanni found his recruits chatting and having dinner in the dining hall.

“Mind if I join you?” He asked.

“Sure.” They chorused.

They earned dirty looks from many of the surrounding rockets. Old veterans and newbies alike disliked the young executives. They were good, it was true, but they were young! Why, there were black rockets almost fifty years old and the two were already gold level, even though they wore black uniforms.

After the meal, Ash and Charlotte headed off to the battling room to train.

“Let’s go.”

Just as they were about to start, a member walked in. He had longish black hair and brown eyes.

“I’m Jake, and I challenge you to two on two battle.”

“Both of us? Okay.” Ash said.

He pulled out a poke ball. “Sneasal, go!”

“Jolteon, go!” Charlotte said.

Jake smiled. “Lunatone, Solrock, go!”

“Jolteon, double kick.”

“Sneasal, Icy Wind.”

The battle was over before it had even begun.

Jake grumbled and paid them. * Maybe they do deserve their status… *

The two shrugged and waited for the next challenge.

End Chapter 6!

Ugh… zero sleep… that’s why I spread out updates…

*DIZZY*

Anyways, please review. *bows* It makes me feel happier and write more.

And… I replaced a fic with ‘Sailor Eevee’, in case you like SM you might want to see.