A White Tomorrow [A Team Rocket Fanfiction]

Chapter 9

It was a surprise to nobody when Brock's last Pokémon went down. The judge waved his hand out to cut off the battle, and a smile spread across Ash's face before Flint even said anything.

"Steelix is unable to battle, Ash and Dracovish are the winners!"

"ONE BADGE CLOSER TO THE KANTO LEAUGE!" Ash cheered happily as he spun himself and Pikachu around like the 10-year-old he was.

"He already won one of these, didn't he?" Jessie asked as everyone else watched Ash grab his badge. "He's acting like this is the first badge he's ever gotten."

Misty sweatdropped. "That's Ash for you. He's been like this since day one. It never gets old for him." She sighed and shook her head with a smile as she watched Ash who was still celebrating. "We better go back down there to get him to focus; I'm not exactly sure what his next move is. Either Ash will hang out in here for the next week, or he'll want to get to the next city within the next hour."

"Aw, no. Just da t'ought makes my legs ache," Meowth muttered. He climbed back onto James' shoulder because in his world clinging onto a jacket took less effort than walking.

The four were almost trampled by Brock's siblings when they started to get down from the balcony, leading to the poor teen getting mobbed by his nine pairs of running feet who each sounded equally disappointed by their brother's loss.

Ash was about to talk to him, but now deciding that later was a better time, Ash walked over to the other four of them.

"Look, it's the champ, Ash Ketchum. Don't get too swallowed up in your pride."

"And why not?" Ash asked. "The Pokémon League is still a long while away and I'm already doing great! Just imagine how good I'll be by the time I enter!"

"Not good enough if we hang around here too long!" Brock called out. He managed to shake off most of his siblings pretty quickly, and he ruffled the hair on one of the younger ones who was still gripping onto his pants.

"Is this just an excuse to get away from your parents again?" Misty asked jokingly, to which Brock nodded to without much hesitation.

One of the lights in the corner of the gym flickered, and Meowth flinched before sheepishly grinning at the rest of the gang. "I agree wit' da tall twoip, can we get outta here? Dis place is gettin' creepiah by da minute."

Brock looked around the room as if he was trying to see Meowth's point. "It sets a tone," he defended as he was the first to make his way toward the exit. "It wouldn't feel the same if the place was lit and cluttered with streamers."

"True," Meowth said warily as they all started walking.

"Bye, dad! Bye Forrest, Salvadore, Yolanda, Tommy, Cindy, Suzie, Timmy, Billy, and Tilly! Sorry we're leaving so soon, but we're on a time crunch! I'll make sure to come back and visit soon!" Brock called out as he walked through the door.

It was a joy for most of them when they were all finally out of the gym.

"So where to now?" Brock asked, stuffing the new map he got into his bag. "Cerulean and Viridian, which one are you going to challenge first-?"

"Cerulean," Jessie, James, and Meowth all answered at once with slightly alarmed looks on their faces.

Ash turned to them with a confused look to match theirs. "Viridian's closer though."

"Well- well if you go to Viridian first, then it would be a long way back to Cerulean!" Jessie objected, shifting her eyes nervously which told them that wasn't her real reasoning.

There was a moment of awkward silence before James leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Technically it'd be the same way if we went to Cerulean-" he was cut off when she pushed him away to silence him.