A White Tomorrow [A Team Rocket Fanfiction]

Chapter 17

Not long after, Ash challenged the Viridian Gym. Before it felt like a simple task. How different could this gym battle be than the other seven? He asked himself this, but after the battle it felt so much deeper than that. There was something off about it all...

Pikachu's limbs shook as he tried to hold himself up. The dirty yellow pokemon watched as his opponent in front of him fell over first before Pikachu allowed himself to collapse on the Viridian Gym battle floor.

"Pikachu! Are you okay?" Ash cried out and ran to scoop him in his arms. Pikachu let out a soft noise and nodded his head and Ash sighed in relief. A trip to the Pokémon Center and good rest would have him up and ready again. None of that exactly mattered at the moment, though. He had barely won the battle- Pikachu was his last Pokémon and Nidoqueen was his opponent's. Ash took another glance at Nidoqueen. It was a Team Rocket pokemon, he knew that now. Had Giovanni done something to his Pokémon to make them stronger than usual? It wasn't like this the last time...

Ash didn't dare look up at where his opponent was sitting. He wasn't as knowledgeable about Team Rocket as Jessie, James, and Meowth were, but even then, they didn't know much either. Ash didn't move as the silence began to scare him, and eventually he gathered the courage to break the tension and look up at the dark balcony across from him.

"I won," Ash stated. "Giovanni."

Giovanni still sat in his chair, looking over at him through the shadow that always loomed over his face. Until now, when he finally sat up, and Ash looked at the face of the man he'd seen many times before.

"You're smarter than the rest."

"I just happen to know the right people," Ash replied. His face fell into a scowl and he forced himself to keep eye contact with the intimidating man. "And I also know that you shouldn't be a gym leader. You're the leader of Team Rocket."

This wasn't exactly news to Giovanni. He kept a cool face as he looked down at Ash. "And what are you going to do with this information, boy?"

"Whatever I can to make it right," Ash replied quickly without thinking. "Kanto will be a lot better without you and your people constantly breaking it apart. You've done a lot of bad things... you've hurt a lot of my friends. And I want you to stop."

"Do you really think I'm going to listen to a twelve-year-old boy?"

"Ten," Ash corrected. "You're making a big mistake Giovanni. If you won't listen to that at least, then I have one more request. Forget about Jessie and James. You won't gain anything from scaring them!"

"You do not know anything about the real world, boy," Giovanni said. "You're naive. You haven't learned that the only way to get revenge is to force it upon those who-

"They haven't done anything to you!"

"You don't know that!" Giovanni exclaimed, slamming a hand down on the balcony. The noise echoed throughout the big empty gym. "They have constantly been a headache to me, and they have constantly been a headache to you too. I don't understand why you're so fond of them."

"Because they're my friends."

The man raised an eyebrow. "Oh, are they now?"

Ash nodded his head determinedly. "And I just want to make sure they're safe."

That quieted Giovanni for a moment. "I've been looking for them for a long time now. You know something about them."

Ash opened his mouth and gaped at him for a moment. He didn't expect that. He fully realized his mistake. "N-no, I-I don't."

Giovanni obviously didn't buy it. He picked up something in his hand and threw it down to the boy's level. "Take your badge, and remember this. You may have won, but in a way, you've still lost. I'll always find a way to be stronger than you. Even if I don't have the skill you have, I have resources that will one day demolish you and your pesky little pikachu. I don't know how much you know about those three idiots, but I'm going to get them back. They are going to get what they deserve." Giovanni turned around to walk back into the shadowy balcony that had the faint outline of a door in it, and he slightly turned his head back to look at him out of the corner of his eye.