Lucas took a big bite of his burger and chewed it happily. Around him, the rest of the group were sitting around a table and enjoying their lunch. Dawn had even quickly run off again to change back into her usual outfit before joining them.
Barry, meanwhile, still had his head on the table dejectedly because he didn't get his battle.
Lucas glanced over at him while chewing, then took another bite.
Barry slowly lifted his head just enough to look at him, "How are you eating right now?"
Lucas swallowed his food, "Because I'm hungry."
"I was supposed to battle Roark!"
"Yeah."
"I came all the way here!"
"Yeah."
"I trained for this!"
"Did you?"
Barry slowly lowered his head back onto the table and muttered, not eating his fries. So, slowly, from behind him, his Chimchar reached around and pulled them off the table before running away with them. Meanwhile, Lucas slowly took the chance and also stole Barry's burger, as he started eating that one too, and Barry didn't even notice or care.
Dawn laughed from across the table, "Come on, Barry. It's not that bad. You can just battle him another day."
"But I wanted to battle him today!"
"Why did you just get here? You left like two days before us, and we stayed for Dawn's contest, which, by the way, she killed it," Ash said, making Dawn nod happily.
Lucas looked up and gave a thumbs up, "Oh, cool! You won. Congrats."
"Thank you," Dawn said, putting her nose in the air and her hands on her hips.
"Anyway, you still haven't answered my question," Ash reminded him.
"Oh yeah." Lucas swallowed, then grabbed a milkshake, "We got lost."
"Hey, we didn't get lost...We just...found a clan of pack of Luxray and decided to take a detour to...make them appreciate the humor in life," Barry said defensively.
"Which is slang for they chased us into a tree," Lucas said before taking a sip of his milkshake.
"Well, now hold on there. I wouldn't say we got chased," Barry said, trying to salvage the situation.
Lucas looked at him, "You screamed."
"I did not scream!"
"You screamed so loud the Luxray ran away."
"That was a battle cry!"
Ash snorted from across the table, "Sure it was."
Dawn covered her mouth, trying not to laugh, "So let me get this straight. You two spent two days traveling here, got chased by a pack of Luxray, climbed a tree, and somehow still managed to arrive after all of us?"
Barry crossed his arms, "It was a very complicated situation."
Lucas nodded seriously, "Very complicated."
Barry pointed at him, "You were the one who suggested we climb the tree!"
"Because you told me to run faster."
"You weren't running!"
"I was conserving energy."
"For what?!"
"Lunch."
There was a brief silence.
Ash slowly looked at Lucas.
Dawn slowly looked at Lucas.
Barry slowly looked at Lucas.
Lucas took another bite of his burger.
"Honestly," Ash said, "I can't even argue with that logic."
Dawn laughed, "So, Barry, what are you going to do now?"
Barry got up and raised his hand to the roof, "I'll just challenge him first thing tomorrow!"
"Actually, he works on scheduling the battles ahead of time, and it looks like the next time he is available," Ash said as he checked his phone, "is the day after tomorrow at 4."
He said it, making Barry nearly fall over again.
Barry nearly fell over again, "THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW?!"
Ash nodded, "Yep."
Barry grabbed his head with both hands, "That's two whole days!"
Lucas took another sip of his milkshake, "You'll survive."
"I don't want to survive! I want to battle!"
Chimchar, who had returned to the table after stealing Barry's fries, climbed onto the empty chair beside him and started eating them.
Barry pointed at Ash, "Can't you do something?! You're the one who beat Roark!"
Ash shrugged, "What do you want me to do?"
"Make him battle me!"
"Wah?" Verity finally said something from her silence, "I don't think that's how it works. I mean, how ridiculous would it be if Ash could just ask Gym Leaders for special privileges because they liked him?"
"Ah...yeah, that would never happen," Ash said quickly, waving his hand in front of him. You know, just ignore his relationships with every Gym Leader he's met.
Pikachu and Vee, who were eating under the table, even had to stop and give Ash a look that just screamed, 'Are you serious?'
Thankfully, none of them seemed to pick up on it, and Ash quickly shoved some fries into Pikachu and Vee's mouths so they would stay quiet.
Meanwhile, Lucas reached over and casually took another fry from the pile Chimchar stole from Barry and ate it.
Dawn laughed, "Come on, Barry. Two days isn't that long."
Barry lifted his head slightly, "Easy for you to say. You already won your contest."
Dawn smiled proudly, "True."
"And Ash already got his badge."
Ash nodded.
"And Verity got hers."
Verity scratched her cheek awkwardly, "Yeah...I still can't believe that happened."
Barry looked around the table, realizing that literally everyone had accomplished something except him. He slowly lowered his head back onto the table.
"I'm surrounded by people who got what they wanted."
Lucas looked over at him while still eating Barry's burger, "You got chased by Luxray."
Barry lifted his head, "That's not an accomplishment."
"I think it is."
Then Ash cut in, "Well, look on the bright side. You get to train. I'm sure you'll need it so you don't have to retry in case you lose."
Barry slowly lifted his head from the table, his eyes narrowing slightly at Ash. For a moment, he looked offended. Then his expression slowly changed into a grin.
"You know what?" Barry said as he stood up, pointing at Ash, "You're right!"
Ash raised an eyebrow
Barry slammed both hands onto the table, nearly knocking over Lucas's milkshake, "I need to train!"
Lucas quickly caught his milkshake before it fell over, "Hey!"
Barry ignored him completely and pointed directly at Ash, "Which is why I challenge you to a battle!"
Ash blinked, "Me?"
"Yeah, you!" Barry shouted, "And if you lose, I'm fining you ten million bucks!"
Ash immediately snorted, then he stood up, a huge smirk spreading across his face, "Fine by me."
Barry's eyes lit up, "Really?!"
Ash nodded and pushed his chair back, "Alright then, Dawn, Verity, and I are leaving first thing tomorrow morning to get back on the road."
Then he looked at Barry and grinned, "Which means I'm gonna pack a week's worth of training into one afternoon."
Lucas stared at him, "That sounds incredibly unhealthy."
Barry ignored him and immediately started bouncing on the balls of his feet, "This is perfect! I'll train until my Pokémon can't move! Then I'll train some more!"
Chimchar pumped his tiny fists in the air, "Chim-char!"
Ash chuckled, "That's the spirit."
Verity was still quietly eating her burger, apparently trying her best to stay out of the conversation.
Ash suddenly reached across the table and grabbed Verity by the top of her head. He lifted her slightly out of her seat while she still had half of her burger in her mouth.
"Mmph?!"
Ash turned toward Barry, "And Verity's coming too."
Verity's eyes widened as she started waving her arms around, "Mmph! Mmph! MMPH!" She tried flailing around, but it was useless. Ash's arm strength was way more than anything she could muster.
Then, as she quickly swallowed, Ash started dragging her and Barry away behind him, making Verity cry out, "Why me?!" before the door to the diner they were in, closed behind them.
Dawn and Lucas blinked at the situation, then both snorted and broke out laughing at what they just saw.
Dawn quickly put some money down on the table, which was at least 10 times more than the meal was worth, while Lucas quickly shoved the rest of the two burgers he was eating into his mouth. Then they grabbed all of their Pokémon, who were just chilling around, and ran after Ash to watch the shenanigans.
—
{Meanwhile}
Roark walked through the tunnels of the Sinnoh Underground and went to a private phone that could work here deep underground.
The area itself was not looking the best. Usually, the Sinnoh Underground is a place where all sorts of fossils could be found and rare Pokémon lived that couldn't be found anywhere else in Sinnoh, but recently, something happened.
The Pokémon were gone, and when Roark and his team came in the other day, they couldn't find any fossils or treasures or anything, really. That's why he's been so distracted lately. Something hasn't been adding up.
But he didn't dwell on it too much at the moment. He's been doing that for almost a week now. Right now, he had to make a call, so when he got to the phone, he dialed the number he needed. After two rings, the other side answered.
And from it came his father's voice, Byron. He spoke clearly, "Roark, is that you?"
"Yeah, sorry I didn't call back sooner. I had some Gym Leader duties to take care of," he said, scratching the back of his head even though Byron couldn't see him.
"Really, how did they go?" Byron asked. After all, he was Roark's dad, and he did like hearing about Roark's battles.
"Ah, it's kinda embarrassing. I lost all three today," Roark said sheepishly, "All three of them were really strong, so you better be ready, Dad, 'cause they might come for you soon," Roark said playfully, making Byron laugh.
"Maybe. We can only hope. I haven't had much fun here in Canalave, but that reminds me, have you been looking into the thing I asked you for?"
Roark's face got serious, and he sighed, "Yeah. I don't know what, but that group has been around here. They haven't caused any trouble yet, but I've been keeping an eye on them."
Byron gave an approving huff, "I've been keeping track of them as well. I've seen them go in and out of Canalave to read ancient texts at the library. I'm getting suspicious."
"Dad, don't jump to conclusions just yet," Roark quickly said, although he had his suspicions too about that group. He also didn't want his dad to do anything rash. After all, with the mysteries in the Sinnoh Underground, and recently two scientists Byron knew had gone missing, if Byron let his emotions get the best of him and he was wrong, then he could face real punishment.
Byron let out a breath, "I know, and I'll try to keep calm. Roark, stay safe and keep a lookout."
Roark nodded, "I will, Dad. Take care," he said, before finally they hung up.
Roark let out a breath and looked back around at the mines. Looks like he had his work cut out for him. Luckily, this is what he loved to do, although he still wondered about that mysterious group. He doesn't actually know much about them or their motives. The main thing he knows is their weird cyan-colored hair.
Wait, no, there is one more thing, their logo on their uniforms. If he remembered correctly, he thinks it had something with a G on it.
—-
{With Ashtwo}
D was sitting at that same Sun Sun Bakery. He actually liked the bread they made here, and he could use it as a good place to get some work done. And oh boy, he had a lot of it.
He made the mistake of one time offering to help Matori with some of the paperwork so that he could track Team Rocket's progress here in Sinnoh and in other regions, just to see if he should cause some 'accidents' to slow things down.
But because he said that and then brought back completed work, Matori took this as a chance to keep D 'safe', basically relegating him to a lot of paperwork to 1) keep him out of dangerous stuff in Sinnoh, where they were working with nothing, and 2) it would drastically speed up her own work and she could get some sleep.
Which wasn't the worst, since she let him work from a computer, so he pretty much had free rein to do whatever he wanted, especially since most of the time he just made Rotom and Porygon do all the work and then give him a summary of what they found.
So far, nothing that required immediate attention. Although, from the documents, apparently Jessie, James, and Meowth were in Sinnoh and were sent out by Matori to go make them some money again. He wondered how they were planning on doing that.
—
{Meanwhile}
Jessie was wearing a suit with a pencil skirt and a pair of glasses, as she was posing in front of a camera that James was holding steady, while nearby Meowth was wearing a 'manager' outfit, while he looked at his two goofballs suspiciously.
"Are we sure dis will work?" he muttered.
"Of course it will. After all, as long as I'm the star, people are sure to come and watch me," Jessie said confidently, pushing up her glasses.
Yeah, that's right, their plan right now was to go into journalism. Well, not just that. Start off as just journalists, maybe make a podcast or two, then eventually create a building to rival that Eterna Building, and that all started right here.
"Okay, Jessie, give me another one," James said as he lowered the camera.
Jessie immediately changed her pose, putting one hand on her hip and giving the camera a serious expression.
"News isn't just about reporting the truth," she declared dramatically, "It's about making sure everyone knows who reported it!"
Meowth slowly covered his face with one paw, "Dat ain't journalism."
"It is if I say it is!" Jessie snapped.
James nodded enthusiastically, "Exactly! And once we're famous, we'll have our own studio! And a newsroom! And maybe a cafeteria!"
"And a dressing room," Jessie added.
"And a swimming pool!"
"Why would a newsroom need a swimming pool?" Meowth asked.
"For morale," James answered.
Meowth stared at him for a moment before sighing, "Fine. But we still need ta actually get people ta watch us."
"That," Jessie said, pointing dramatically toward the city behind them, "is where our first story comes in."
James blinked, "Our first story?"
"Yes! We need something exciting. Something mysterious. Something that will get people talking!"
Meowth's ears perked up, "Like what?"
Jessie smiled, "Rumors."
James's eyes widened, "Oh, I like where this is going."
Meowth, however, narrowed his eyes, "Wait a second. What kinda rumors?"
Jessie pulled a small notebook from her jacket and flipped it open, "I've already done some research."
"You've been researching?" James and Meowth yelled out in unison.
"Of course! What kind of journalist would I be if I didn't?" Jessie said proudly, huffing as she held out the notebook.
James took it, then he and Meowth quickly flipped through the pages before stopping and slowly looking up at her with blank looks.
"Jessie, half of this is old news, and the other half is made up," James said.
"Exactly! The old news is so that we can prove that we are legit, then the other stuff is exactly why they are 'rumors'. It's genius."
"One of these is saying that there could be an undiscovered Pokémon. How are we supposed to even do dat?" Meowth asked.
Jessie got a smirk, "Well then, I guess we'll have to show them their undiscovered Pokémon," she said, looking Meowth up and down, "And looky here. We happen to have a strange, one-of-a-kind Meowth that can talk."
"What does that have to do wi-wait…" Meowth slowly took a step back, but James was behind him and grabbed him by the shoulders.
Jessie reached down into her bag and pulled out a costume, "And looky, now we have our Pokémon~ So it's show time."
—
D thought about it, but it was probably nothing that had to do with him, or the original. Anyway, he only had probably another week of this easy work before he would have to start being more careful, since next week a ship of more Team Rocket members will reach Sinnoh, and on that ship was his squad.
And once that happened, he might have to take the situations more seriously. Plus, Victoria might be showing up soon too, so that was also something he would have to help with, not to mention expanding into the Sinnoh black market. His plate was going to get really full really soon.
He was actually already planning on making a quick stop at the Valley Windworks before Main Ash gets there and before he had to deal with all his other stuff.
But while he was thinking, around him, Hiori and Nazuna were still working. Seemingly, they got back to normalcy after the whole incident, and unsurprisingly, Nazuna still had no idea that Hiori was Pokémon 7.
Speaking of which, right now, seemingly it was time for their break because Hiori went to a table nearby where D was and started munching on a sandwich while Nazuna was looking out of the window, distracted.
"Nazuna, you're not gonna eat?" Hiori asked, as his Lucario was taking the seat next to him, eating his Pokémon food.
Nazuna, meanwhile, kept looking out of the window, "Nah, i'm not hungry…"
"Ah, okay…" Hiori muttered as he sipped on his juice.
But then Nazuna said something that made him spit out his juice, "Pokémon 7♡"
Immediately, as soon as she said that, Hiori spit out his juice right in Lucario's face as he coughed, "W-what are you talking about?"
Nazuna got close to him and whispered, "I already told you before, I met Pokémon 7, and since then he hasn't left my mind." Then she looked up and clasped her hands, "Oh, and then there is Pokémon 3. He's so mysterious too. He saved me, and I haven't been able to get him out of my head either."
"Pokémon 7 and Pokémon 3, ahhhh ♡" Nazuna muttered with a dreamy expression on her face, while Hiori was sweating bullets.
But thankfully, the sound of the door opening got Nazuna out of her thoughts, and Hiori let out a breath, "Ah, a customer. I'll get it." He ran off to the door to greet them.
But when he and Nazuna looked over, they saw a beautiful, tall woman, and she looked at Hiori specifically.
"There you are. You're Hiori-kun, right?"
"Uh, yeah?" Hiori muttered, "Can I help you?"
The woman nodded and smiled, "Yes. Can I speak to you? The name's Mako! I'm the editor for a magazine. We're publishing a special on the elusive Pokémon 7." Mako pumped her fist and looked excited, "Taking back stolen goods, he's like a mysterious bandit of justice! His true identity is still a mystery, but if I can solve it, our magazine will sell like crazy!"
"What does this have to do with Hiori?" Nazuna asked as she walked up next to Hiori.
"Our eyewitnesses have described Pokémon 7 as a young boy who always has a Lucario by his side, and Lucario's a pretty uncommon Pokémon, right?" Mako smirked, then looked at Hiori, "I investigated a bit, and the only kid around these parts who's around the same age as 7, and has a Lucario, is you, Hiori. This can only mean one thing."
Mako pointed at Hiori in an exaggerated pose, "You must be Pokémon 7!"
Her saying that made Hiori feel a drop of sweat fall from his head, but before he could say anything, Nazuna snorted, then burst out laughing.
"That's impossible! I've been friends with Hiori since we were kids, and there's no way he's 7-sama!" Then she got a dreamy expression, "Pokémon 7 is cooler, kinder, and his Lucario is a hundred times stronger than Hiori's."
As she said that, Hiori and Lucario looked at each other and slowly started stepping toward the exit.
Thankfully, Mako was too invested in what Nazuna said, "Wha-you met Pokémon 7? Please tell me the whole story!" Mako said excitedly.
Nazuna puffed out her chest, "With pleasure. I met Pokémon 7, and I even found that he has a cool partner, Pokémon 3! He's equally as cool and more mysterious and-" Nazuna started.
And maybe D could have heard more, but he actually left as soon as Mako entered the shop. He knew what that crazy woman would do, and he wanted nothing to do with that. Besides, he had better things to do than deal with an obsessive journalist. Hiori could deal with that, but just in case, he might have to stop coming here for a week or two. Shame, he liked the curry bread.
Anyway, he could deal with that later. Right now, he started making his way to get to the Valley Windworks. No matter if it was the anime, game, or manga version, he would have to deal with what was happening now sooner rather than later.
As he walked, he sent the completed paperwork over to Matori and started wondering what excuse he could make just in case Matori asked him to go back to base.
He suddenly got a message from Matori. He opened it, and immediately his eyebrow raised. This was not what he expected. On the email that she sent him, it said
[You have a mission from the Boss himself: go to the Valley Windworks and report who you find.]
Not only was it weird that Giovanni would ask him to do this, but it's the wording that made him more confused. 'Who' was there? He wasn't asking for anything from there. He just wanted to know who was there. That was an interesting choice of words.
But he can't complain. He can work with this, and if Giovanni wants to know exactly who is there, well, he'll just have to deliver.