95 There's nothing we can do

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—

In the village with the three old men, the second one with slightly red hair in his beard returned and told them about what he heard.

"Are you sure?" the oldest man said with a serious expression.

The man with slightly red hair in his beard continued, "Yes, if it was just them I wouldn't have believed it, but Sabrina herself confirmed it."

The third quiet man also spoke up, "You don't think it's her do you?"

"It isn't, it can't, right?"

"It very well might be, but we can't be sure nor do we have a way to confirm or deny it, so there isn't anything we can do."

"But what of the young ones, if she met with them what will happen to them? Can't we do something?"

"There's nothing we can do."

The three could only grit their teeth and hope their suspicions were wrong.

—

In Johto

"Alright I get it," said a red-haired man holding a phone, it was Lance, "Ok we'll get what we can here, continue the investigation."

Lance hung up and then broke the phone in his hand, "Damn it, we were set up."

He just received a call from the international Police telling him about the situation with Team Rocket. He tossed the broken phone and walked over to his team which involved some members of the international police and Koga.

In the middle of the circle was a tied-up purple-haired man, it was Petrel, when they found him they had to make a choice of him or a dozen grunts to chase, obviously they focused on him but still sent a few men to follow the grunts.

Lance walked next to Koga and asked him, "Has he talked yet?" to which Koga just shook his head.

"Nothing of value."

Petrel was sitting there with a stupid smile and his arms bound to a chair, "Hahaha seems like you are a failure isn't it, we separated your attention this much."

Lance walked up to him and put his hands on the arms of the chair to push it back a bit, "Well then if we are failures then what does that make you." he said trying to provoke him.

"Nonono, I didn't say you all are failures, I said you are a failure, you got tricked by some grunts and what did that get you, a temporary victory I'll be free by the end of the day."

Lance frowned and Koga stepped in, "No you are captured and there isn't anything you can do to escape, and we will get every piece of information your pathetic head has."

Petrel chuckled to himself, "Koga Koga Koga, the previous admin who abandoned Team Rocket turned Elite 4 member, you want to know the only problem with that."

"Oh then enlighten me because last I checked, I've been in your head before, I know how you think, I am the only one who can contain you."

"It's quite simple, I'm already gone hahaha," Petrel said as he started laughing like a maniac and he started melting and turning purple.

Koga reached his hand out to grab at the slime only to grab a handful of slime and a Ditto took its place before breaking apart into small parts and scattering, the sounds of Petrel's laughs echoing from each of them.

"Heis in the walls- *Cough**Cough*, I mean don't let the Ditto escape, we need anything we can get!" Lance yelled out.

But the attempt was useless as it all went down a drain, Lance could only watch as his eyes went dark and he punched a nearby wall, leaving a fist imprint in it.

He pulled it out and rubbed his fist then started walking, "Contact the League and send a report, I need to get to Vermilion City to find anything I can."

Koga put his hand over his chest and bowed, then, in one swift motion he disappeared, meanwhile, Lance sent out his Aerodactyl and hoped on to fly away.

—

A few hours later Gary was waiting on the beach, the ship with everyone hadn't arrived yet and it had been a few days, over the time he had done some training and research in whatever he could find about the gym and any counters he could come up with.

He learned his lesson with Surge and didn't want to throw darts to the wall until something stuck, but currently, he was bored, he was wondering why he agreed to have so many cheerleaders follow him around, he didn't even like any of them, he did have a type and none of his cheerleaders fit it.

As he was contemplating just leaving he finally saw the boat with all the people and Lorelei leading the way he mumbled under his breath and prepared everything.

Over on the side, the international police were still performing an investigation waiting for the men who went scuba diving to try and get inside the S.S. Anne.

He was going to leave when he suddenly saw a shadow pass by him, looking up he saw an Aerodactyl, and on top was the champion, Lance.

He jumped off and walked up to Looker to discuss the incident, eventually the conversation caused Lance to look at him, making him strengthen up as he walked up to him.

"Hello, Gary Oak right? I hear you were on the S.S. Anne, would you mind answering a few questions?" Lance said.

"R-right yes, I mean I'll tell you what I can!" Gary said almost saluting.

Eventually, when he told him about Team Rocket he was cut off by Lorelei jumping in, "Hey what you boys talking about?"

Lance shivered, "Hey Lorelei fancy seeing you here hehe."

"Oh I do hope you didn't think of avoiding me that would be quite mean don't you think, after all, I was also on the ship so shouldn't I also be questioned," Lorelei asked, giving a malicious smile.

Lance tried to escape but was grabbed by the cape by Lorelei and dragged away.

Gary breathed a sigh of relief and looked at all the People coming back, there were quite a few boats and most of the People as soon as they got back on land they just left since most of them were not native to Vermilion.

The only interesting thing he saw was that girl Jeanette seemed to decide to tag along with Samurai and A.J. Gary also saw them walk over to Surge's gym and almost immediately Surge picked up the two boys and dragged them in.

Gary didn't even want to think about that torture, every time he lost, Surge would put him in an exercise plan so he knew the pain.

But Gary decided not to dwell on it and made plans to finally get moving.

—

In the main Team Rocket base Giovanni was holding the purple ore he received from Archer, a lot of things seemed to be going his way as of recently, and hey he isn't one to complain.

He finally called the Executives and Cliff, Sierra, and Arlo.

"Very well now that you are all here it is time to address the order of business, firstly the operation went even better than I hoped for we were able to spread our influence and break the public's view of the league, but besides that in the Johto branches have provided exceptional results therefore I have decided to allow Petrel to return to base, with some stipulations of course."

"But now is the important part, we have what we need so now we just need a way to make them ourselves efficiently or force Silph to submit, but that is another reason as to why I decided to allow Petrel to return, we don't have to sweat those details."

"But now it is time for the meat and potatoes, according to our scientists Project Mew is nearing its final stages, however there is no guarantee that we will be able to make it submit, now we have two options and I really don't want to do the second one, so we will be doing the first."

Giovanni then turned to the three Admins in the room with him, "And that is where you three come in, it is time we restore the legendary bird operation."

Most of them were surprised by that, Archer spoke up, "Sir forgive me but why, we have tried the operation and it has fallen."

"I don't blame you for thinking that, but this time we need the original ones, not the clones flying around."

It wasn't common knowledge but most legendaries had 1 main body that all the rest come from, so there would be multiple weaker clones of them while the main bodies were somewhere else. In the case of the legendary birds, although there was a trio in each region no one knew where the main body was.

"And like I said that is where you all come in, our spies tell us that they are back in Kanto, so your mission is to gather them."

He was talking about Blanche, Spark, and Candela who had a connection with the Legendary birds and as such were the only ones that could bring the Legendary birds to them, and Cliff, Sierra, and Arlo each had a history with them.

Sierra spoke up, "It shall be done, do we have a time limit."

"Yes before the end of winter, any more than that and people will become suspicious," Giovanni said as the three were dismissed.

"As for the rest of you, I will be personally taking a visit to Silph, Ariana you're with me, Archer, Proton you're in charge and inform Petrel of the plan."

"Yes sir!" x3

—

Back with the group they were back on the road after parting ways with Sabrina.

"Why didn't we ask her if she could teleport us over to town," Misty complained.

"Don't be lazy, if you're tired call out your Gyarados and ask her to carry you." Ash said, " Besides, Saffron is literally in the next turn."

"When I call her out and there isn't a battle she jumps on me like a Puppy," Misty complained, "Hey question, Yellow can't you also teleport? You're also a Psychic right?."

"Uhh I don't know, I never tried," Yellow said, then she closed her eyes and started concentrating and trying to push something.

Ash took her straw hat and gave her a light knock on the head, "Don't do that you'll give yourself an aneurysm, If you want to know how to do it go ask Sabrina."

"But we don't have her number, she just left after you told her you weren't going to go to battle her right now," Yellow complained, slightly rubbing her head and taking her hat back.

"Oh yeah, well then talk to Abra," Ash said pulling her out from under his jacket.

Yellow gave a slightly nervous forced laugh and said, "That's ok I don't need to know how to do it I'm fine." since she knows how Abra talked.

Ash shrugged and let the fox thing back into his hoodie bumping into Pikachu who was sleeping in the hood like a hammock.

"Hey guys, we're here," Brock said, making everyone look over and see Saffron.

Saffron was undoubtedly the biggest city in Kanto, and also probably its most famous, the Gym towering above most buildings with the Silph building.

Next to it was a second building the Contest Hall that looked to be getting set up for something but obviously not the Contests since the ones in Kanto were canceled this year for the build-up of the new Elite 4.

Across town, there was a large complex that Ash recognized as the Fighting Dojo, not the game Fighting Dojo, but Journeys' Fighting Dojo. Instead of the small building, it was an entire facility with multiple People and Pokemon both training.

"*Whistle* Wep now that we're here, what should we do first?" Brock asked, basking in the city's light.

"Well I wanted to look through the shops around here, so how about we go shopping then go for dinner?" Ash suggested.

"No arguments here, but do you guys mind if I apply for the breeding competition, we missed the first one since we were on the S.S. Anne but There is the one being hosted here for tomorrow," Brock said.

This made them confused because he doesn't about being a Breeder all that much so Misty and Yellow genuinely forgot that was his dream, Ash was just confused since as far as he knew breeding competitions weren't a thing.

"Sure go for it I won't stop you, I'll even help you prepare if you want," Ash said, turning over to the girls who both nodded and smiled.

Brock also smiled and almost teared up, "Thanks guys I promise to do my best for tomorrow, but for now let's have fun in the city!"