121 The Manor

Ash and Meowth walked into the building both on edge when they arrived they looked around, the Manor itself was empty and covered in webs, and inside those webs were tons of different Pokeballs.

It was probably all of the Grunt's Pokemon, Ash didn't bother he could grab them on his way out but he was more focused on finding what left the web.

The first room was very big with a grand corridor and an upstairs area that led to a decorated hallway, but everything was dim with hardly any light, the windows themselves were boarded up, and so were most of the doors.

Ash looked around with Aura and sensed a lot of different things in the building, most of them were the same but he did sense one outlier in a central room.

As he was inspecting the room he heard the sounds of a squeak, turning to where the noise came from he saw a Rattata, who came out, looking a bit sluggish and malnourished with its ribs clearly visible.

Its eyes were dull, almost like a doll. Just from a glance, he could tell that something was controlling it, but when he looked further with Aura he saw nothing.

The Rattata looked at Ash and started moving in an unnatural way that seemed painful for the poor rat.

Meowth didn't even receive an order before jumping down and delivering a light scratch, which seemed to knock it out.

Ash sighed and was going to inspect it some more to find out more information when suddenly something happened.

The stairs began to shake slightly, and countless footsteps came from above, accompanied by a large number of "squeaking" sounds.

When he looked over he saw a single Rattata, then another, and another, and another until an entire army of similarly weak Rattata charged at him, and from behind even though the first Rattata was unconscious it got up and aimed to attack Ash.

Ash managed to grab it as it was trying to take his fingers and threw it over to the wave of rats coming at him.

"Looks like this will be harder than I thought," Ash mumbled as he started going for the Grimer on his waist, and potentially the army he caught in the Power plant if it came down to it.

But before anything he heard a familiar voice, "Nidorino Blizzard now!" 

Suddenly a large rush of cold air came in and created an ice wall blocking of the path for the Rats, looking back it was Aman, and standing next to him was a tired Nidorino, and some Grunts pulling Pokeballs off the webs.

"Kid we couldn't let you do this alone, we may not be able to win but we can hold them off long enough, so go find out who is doing this!" Aman yelled out, holding out his arm and looking at Ash.

Ash took a second to process this but shook his head and nodded, "Fine give me a few minutes I'll try and stop this!" Ash said as he started running.

Aman looked back at the Grunts, "OK men, these rodents may have gotten us before, but as long as we continue fighting, we will not be defeated!!"

"Yeahhhh!!!" all the Grunts yelled out as they sent out the Pokemon they had/pulled out of the webs.

Ash was running through the halls of the building, it was extremely large and he couldn't really get a grasp on everything, he didn't actually know where he should go but the different thing he saw would be a good place to start.

As he was running two Beedrill appeared out of nowhere and tried to stab him with their stinger, Ash Dodged the first and grabbed the second as they tried using their hand stingers.

But Meowth took care of them with a cheeky Power Gem, but yet again they got up this time they went flapping their wings just floating there as they tried for another stab.

Ash managed to dodge and continue running, the Bees' movements were much more rigid so they couldn't give chase to him which was very nice considering he didn't have a good way to immobilize them.

As he continued running he eventually got to the place he was after, a quick look at it and one could tell it was effectively a broom closet. 

When he opened the room the first thing that he could tell was that, unlike the rest of the Manor, this room was spotless, there was also a single light in the corner of the room, the only lighting he had seen since he got here.

Sitting there in a corner was a figure, it looked round but also malnourished with a Yellow and Brown colored body and a weird snoot nose, it was a Drowzee.

Immediately it seemed like Drowzee either didn't notice him or was ignoring him, he was leaning towards the ladder.

But what was most surprising is that Drowzee was holding a book in his hands.

The book itself didn't look all that impressive, it was a small children's book, but Drowzee seemed to enjoy it.

Meowth chased and looked ready to pounce but suddenly a voice talked to both of them, [Let..me finish, I can call off Pokemon.]

It was Drowzee, and although Ash was confused he still nodded and held Meowth back.

Almost immediately he could sense something being released and over by the entrance he saw emotions going from exhaustion and slight fear, to shock, then Immediate joy.

–

All the grunts were holding back the rats, but they were surrounded. Their only hope was that kid since unlike them his Pokemon were healthy and good to fight unlike all of them.

Even Aman's Nidorino was running out of steam to keep fighting when suddenly everything stopped.

About half of the Rats fell unconscious and the others that were awake scattered like that seen in Ratatouille.

Immediately everyone was filled with shock for a few seconds before they all started cheering like mad men and chanting.

"That Kid did it!" "We won!" "We can go back!" was being chanted by the grunts there.

Aman laughed to himself seeing all of this, so he raised his arm, "When we get back, drinks are on me!"

"Yeahhhh!!!"

–

Ash pulled up a random box and sat down watching Drowzee, he could tell he was enjoying it due to the raised corners of his mouth and the constant swaying of his ears.

The fact that Drowzee liked reading was bizarre itself, most Pokemon couldn't even understand writing, but Drowzee went out of his way to read a book.

Eventually, the silence was broken with Drowzee slowly closing the book, carefully placing the book in the box in front of him, and fitting the corners of the book with the corners of the box perfectly, smoothing out the slightly folded corners of the book.

Then Drowzee looked back at Ash, [You were sent by them, thank you, let me read the last story, I am ready, you can do it.] 

He stumbled on his words a little but it was still understandable.

Ash frowned, "What happened here, why are you here?"

Drowzee shows no signs of resistance, [Bad..People, they did experiments…We defeated them.]

"You mean the Rattata and Beedrill?"

[Yes, but also..other friends who left..]

"Do you mean they died or the left somewhere else?"

[Yes] Drowzee said not giving a clear answer.

Ash sighed and looked back, "And what about you, why are you still here?"

[Someone, Psychic, Blockade, City]

Ash frowned, the first thing he could think of was Sabrina but that didn't add up, he looked at the book he was reading, "You like reading right, why?"

Drowzee turned and stretched out his three-finger hand, carefully stroking the book, which was clearly old, [Back then, I only had books. I like books too.]

Drowzee then looked back at Ash, [You are the first person to patiently wait for me to finish the story. You are a good person.]

"You said you are ready, but what if you didn't have to die," Ash said, putting Meowth down and getting up.

[Hah?] Drowzee said, tilting his head.

Ash held out his hand, "Become my Pokemon, I will protect you and make you strong, and I will give you all the books you want."

[You want me to be your Pokemon?] Drowzee said, this time completely clear.

it seemed like he was on the verge of breaking mentally as his eyes glowed purple and energy started pulsing through the room.

Ash saw this but didn't panic; he slowly started waking forward much to the dismay of Meowth, and when he got close enough he held out his hand and rubbed Drowzee's head.

"There, there, it must have been hard, living through all of that, then being so lonely, don't worry it's all over."

Drowzee stopped, the energy started dispersing and the room stopped glowing purple, Drowzee stood there before finally breaking down and crying, after so long this was the first time anyone showed him kindness.

Ash stood there and let him let out all of his pent-up emotions until he was fine enough to look back up at Ash.

"So is that a Yes?" Ash said smiling, 

Drowzee just nodded, So Ash pulled out a Pokeball and bumped the tapir Pokemon, he went inside and it closed immediately.

Ash was about to get his dex when he heard someone, "Hey kid are you here? What's taking you so long we won." he could hear Aman and probably 2 other grunts looking for him, so he waited for now.

Ash left the room and found them trying to pull off the boards of the other rooms, but they stopped when they saw him.

Aman approached him and put his arm around Ash, "You did it kid, not bad for a rookie"

Ash kept a monotone voice, "Yes I suppose so, how many Members were you able to find?"

"We found everyone, but we sent the heavily injured ones back to base, everyone else came with and are currently collecting everyone's Pokeballs," Aman said looking back at the room.

"This entire place was a bust, all records were already destroyed so we almost died for nothing."

Ash nodded, "I see, I suppose it can't be helped, sometimes that's the result, but we should return to headquarters to make our report, I need to speak to Admin Sayoko."

The Grunts in the back got the wrong idea and gave knowing smiles, "Going big I see, go get her kid you got the support of our Branch!"

Ash's eye twitched as he ignored them and started walking, meanwhile, Aman walked up next to him as they continued walking, "Sorry about them they can get presumptuous, I assume that she is the one who sent you to come for us."

Ash nodded so Aman continued, "Well whatever your relationship with her is, let me give you some advice and let this stay between us."

Aman then leaned in closer, "I wouldn't recommend actually pursuing a relationship with her, there is something not quite right and it rubs me the wrong way, just take this as some advice but strange things have happened to men close to her."

Ash remained stoic on the outside but was completely surprised on the inside, but he remained quiet as everyone gathered and they made their way back to base with Aman yelling out, "Let's get Burgers on our way back."

"Yeahhhh!!!" all the grunts yelled in unison.

—

[In the main Rocket Base]

Giovanni returned from his 'meeting' with Silph, he kept one of the familiar purple balls on his desk and gave the others to Ariana to deliver to the Admins.

Speaking of which he got a report that they successfully executed the first phase and are ready to begin the next once they receive the Pokeballs.

He smiled as he read the reports on his desk, each telling of a successful mission in a different part of the region, with Lance occupied with backlash and the Elite 4 on a leash they had free rein to do whatever they wanted. Even those worthless grunts were picking up the slack.

Then his computer buzzed, when he answered Admin Sayoko was looking at the screen with an amused expression.

"Admin Sayoko, do you have something to report," Giovanni asked, looking unamused at her careless smile.

"Come on boss man, why so formal? It's just a little old me~" Sayoko said playfully.

Giovanni frowned, "You will refer to me as Boss or Sir, now say what you want to say or I'm hanging up."

"You're no fun, well whatever, I have received word that the team we sent out has been successfully rescued and everyone is accounted for."

Giovanni raised his eyebrow, "Impressive, to succeed and bring back everyone is worth Praise, so I assume it wasn't you."

"You're so mean, but you're right, I sent the winner of our little Grunt recruitment, and he successfully dealt with everything."

Giovanni nodded then looked at her eye, "Do you think he is worth keeping around."

Sayoko smiled and moved the hair off her eye, "Well he certainly has potential, and his motives are unclear but I can be sure due to his reasoning he won't be too willing to betray us"

Then the eye that was hidden under Sayoko's hair glowed a deep purple, a few shades darker than her other eye, "And I can't 'See' anything that would make me get rid of him,"

"I see, it's good to see you putting that 'gift' to good use, as for our man of the hour, give him my regards and a 2-week break, I hear he led the heist on the bike shop."

Sayoko nodded and hung up the call while Giovanni sat back in his chair and stretched.

Just then a buzzer came from his phone and out came the voice of his assistant, "Sir, Blaine is here to see you."

Giovanni pushed a button, "Let him through."

Blaine slowly walked into the room, his bandaged arm was hidden yet still visible from under his lab coat, and he had an angry expression walking in.

Giovanni put on a smile, "And to what do I o-"

But Blaine cut him off, "Cut the Crap, I'm done, so let's end this little deal so I can do something worth my time."

Giovanni smiled, "Good, good, and you're sure you don't want us to do something about that arm of yours?"

"I can fix it myself, I don't know what you want to use 'that' for, but at the same time I don't really care, so let's end this now." 

Giovanni smiled and purposely held out his right arm, which was the same arm that Blaine had bandaged.

Blaine slapped the hand, "Enough with your sick jokes."

Giovanni chuckled, "Very well, from this point forward you are no longer under the employment of Team Rocket, I'd say your friends and family will stay safe, but we both know you have neither."

Blaine grunted and walked out saying, "Good riddance."

Giovanni watched him leave and smiled, he pushed a button on his desk and called in any available scientists.

Once they arrived Giovanni pulled a jar out of a safe, inside the jar was a strange liquid and a familiar purple eye.

"Blaine has completed the project, begin the human cloning experiments."

--

I hate life, I'm probably going to fail that test, (T^T) 

How about some stones to drown my sorrows.