And here's the next chapter! I apologize in advance if the chapter seems a little weird and doesn't have good pacing...like I said before, this is my first attempt at writing Pokémon fanfiction. Anyway, I held off posting this chapter for a while because there was some glitch in the site that was preventing anybody from seeing the latest reviews, so I was unable to see like four of them, and I decided against finishing this sooner, but it looked like the glitch is fixed, so here it is. ALSO. If you came to this story for the sole purpose of seeing Ash and Serena, sorry to disappoint you. This story focuses on OTHER characters as well. This chapter is more heavily based on these other characters, and doesn't show Serena all that much. Anyways, now let's get into this chapter!

.

Prepare for Trouble

"Please work with me here!" Serena screamed at her luggage. After that news broadcast, she was ecstatic. She had no idea how she still had memories of that boy. His face and name had always been at the back of her mind. But hearing his name on live television gave her memory a spark. And seeing those pictures of him made all of those good memories of him come back to the surface. And here she was, an hour later, pressing her hands against her luggage in an attempt to compress everything inside in order to close it. "Hrrrrnnngggg—whoa!" Her hands slipped off of the smooth surface of her black and pink duffel bag and she fell down, hitting her face on the carpeted floor. "Ouch."

Meowstic, her partner since she was just a teenager, waltzed into Serena's bedroom, eyeing Serena who was sprawled out on the floor. Meowstic laughed, her eyes glowing as she raised a hand and lifted Serena up and off of the floor. Serena hovered in midair for a few seconds, crossing her arms and legs and pouting at her Pokémon. Meowstic slowly lowered her feet to the floor.

"I hate packing so much," Serena sighed to herself, sitting on her messy bed beside her luggage. "You'd think they'd make these bags a lot bigger for a beautiful actress like me." Meowstic rolled her eyes. "A little help?"

Meowstic raised both of her stubby arms into the air, her eyes glowing once more, and everything in Serena's bag magically compressed to fit inside. The bag zipped shut, and Serena heaved a sigh of relief. Meowstic walked out of the room and left Serena alone with her thoughts.

Serena patted her bag. She didn't know how long she was going to end up staying in Kanto, so she packed all of the essentials she needed for any trip. Over eight different pairs of clothes, five different fedoras, multiples brands of shampoo, conditioner, and body soap, a hairdryer, a few kits of makeup, an extra pair of flipflops, her laptop in case she needed it, and a few different wires to charge her phone and her laptop.

Meowstic returned, but with a blue and white handkerchief floating a few inches in front of her face. It was the handkerchief. The one Ash gave her all of those years ago to cover up a scrape on her knee. The handkerchief flew through the air until it settled peacefully on Serena's lap. She looked at it and picked it up, squeezing it in her hand and then rubbing it on her face. She took one last long look at it as she stood up, and then folded it neatly to put it in her pocket.

"Ash, I'm coming to see you."

…

A man the same age as Ash sat behind a desk within a small room, typing away at his computer. He wore a black shirt and jeans underneath his white lab coat. The windows near the desk were open, letting a calm breeze enter his home and ruffle his hair. The windows overlooked a giant pasture, filled with many different Pokémon, all roaming free in their respective environments. There was a river, a forest, a sandy area, and open green fields. Just about any type of Pokémon could make themselves at home here.

As he was doing his work, a text box with bold letters appeared in the center of his computer screen. INCOMING CALL: GRAMPS

"About time I hear from you," the man laughed to himself, clicking accept and watching as the text disappeared and was replaced by a small square, which within it held the face of his grandpa, Samuel. "Gramps, it's great to see you!"

"Likewise," the old man replied, scratching the back of his head and smiling widely at his grandson. The man was looking good for someone who was nearly seventy years old. "So how goes it, Professor Oak."

The man sitting at the computer frowned, and then said, "You know I hate being called that. I hate when people compare me to you. Everybody here just calls me Gary. Or Professor Gary. Which sorta sounds lame when you think about it." Gary laughed nervously, cracking his knuckles. "So, how's the Alola region? Is it everything you thought it would be?"

"The weather's great here!" Samuel replied. "The Pokémon native here are phenomenal!"

"Sounds pretty cool," Gary said. "Seems like I need to journey there myself. But I've been really busy lately."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. Pokémon Centers, Pokémarts, Gyms, even random people's houses are being robbed. There have been many attempted Pokémon thefts. And several of those attempts have been successful." Gary gritted his teeth, clenching his fists together. He hated talking about this. It boggled his mind that there were people getting away with other people's Pokémon. His own lab hasn't had an attack in about three weeks. "The entire Kanto Police Force is cracking down. You can't get in anywhere without them searching you up and down."

Samuel held his chin in his hand and made a grim face. "Do I even need to ask who's behind these thefts?"

"It's definitely them," Gary replied. "But I'm sure they'll be caught soon. I mean, not all of their members are the best. You know how many of those fools I sent flying into the sky? Pathetic." He was trying to sound like he had things under control. But the truth was, they were getting stronger and stronger and growing in numbers. But he didn't want to ruin his grandfather's vacation when it had only just begun. "I have to go. I still have a lot of research to get done."

"Same here!" Samuel said, giving his grandson a thumbs-up.

"Sammy!" a female voice yelled in the background. Samuel's eyes widened in horror. "Are you almost done?"

"Who was that?" Gary asked, bringing his face closer to the camera.

"Uh...uh...nobody!" was Samuel's answer. The old man was definitely blushing. "Okay, she's just a fellow research assistant. That's all. I'll talk to you soon, Gary. Ciao." Samuel's face disappeared.

"Typical grandpa," Gary sighed, going back to his research.

…

Pikachu was waiting for Delia to get home. He was sitting comfortably on the couch with a small blanket wrapped around him. The television was on, and the channel was set to the Kanto News Network where a reporter was doing an interview with former gym leader, Blaine of Cinnabar Island. The man was quite old and in a wheel chair.

Pikachu sighed. Pikachu never really liked watching the news. It was all super boring to him. Pikachu had more human characteristics than a lot of Pokémon would normally have. He loved to watch television, he sat at the table with Delia every afternoon and night and eat with her, sometimes he even helped her cook. He went with her into town sometimes and helped her pick out clothes and groceries. She was like his mother. She's raised him since the day Ash fell into his coma.

Pikachu was upset he never got to know Ash. The little time they knew each other, he was a complete jerk to Ash, which made Pikachu hate himself for the longest time. It was half his fault Ash was even in that coma. Pikachu's ears perked up. He heard the tires of Delia's minivan pulling up into the driveway.

Pikachu jumped off of the couch, letting the blanket he was wrapped in fall to the floor, and he dashed to the front door with a huge smile. He backed up from the door as Delia stepped through. Pikachu's smile turned into a worried frown. Delia looked to be rubbing tears out of her eyes. "Oh, hey, Chu-Chu." She closed the door.

Pikachu rubbed his head against Delia's leg, causing her to laugh. Pikachu leapt high into the air and landed gracefully on Delia's shoulder, and then licked her ear a few times to get her to laugh more. If there was one thing Pikachu was best at, it was making his mother feel ten times better.

"So, Pikachu, what should we have for dinner?" Delia asked, to which Pikachu responded with a simple shrug. "I'm not really in the mood to cook today. How about we order? Some Viridian styled pizza? How does Pepperoni sound? Maybe just plain cheese? Pineapple?" Pikachu raised one finger, and then he raised three of his fingers. "Half pepperoni, half pineapple?" Pikachu nodded. "Sounds like a plan."

Pikachu jumped off of Delia's shoulder, ran and jumped onto the kitchen table, and grabbed the house phone off of the base. He struggled to carry it to the edge of the table, where Delia picked it up.

"Thanks, Pikachu," Delia said with a smile, dialing the number for the pizza delivery place in Viridian City. As the phone was ringing she looked to the television. The volume was so low so she barely heard it, but the subtitles were on the bottom of the screen, saying 'Mysterious Hot Air Balloon Spotted Floating Over Viridian Forest'.

"Please don't be who I think you are," Delia mumbled to herself. Pikachu groaned in concern.

…

Viridian City's local officer Jenny rode her motorcycle into the thick Viridian Forest. She stopped suddenly, looking over her head at the thicket of leaves covering the sky. The trees were so close together that only bits and pieces of blue sky could be seen above. Through one of those holes in the leaves, Jenny could see the bottom of the wooden basket connected to a hot air balloon.

Just a few minutes ago a civilian reported that this mysterious hot air balloon was soaring over Viridian City, and by the time Jenny responded to the call, it was already making its way over the forest and towards Pallet Town.

Officer Jenny pulled a huge megaphone out of a bag attached to her motorcycle, and yelled into it, "Attention, this is the police! You are looking very suspicious up there! I need to see some form of identification!" The hot air balloon didn't stop. In fact, it only started moving faster. "Wait!" The hot air balloon was once again concealed by the thick leaves covering the sky. Jenny ran in the direction of the hot air balloon, thinking to herself, Who in the world uses hot air balloons to get around Kanto. Oh wait...

It was at that moment she realized who it was. She didn't know why she hadn't thought of that possibility. They haven't used a hot air balloon in ages. This was the first time in over a year she'd seen one. She clutched one of the six Pokéballs attached to her belt, pressed the button, and watched as her Growlithe sprung onto the ground in front of her. She put the Pokéball back on her belt.

"Growlithe!" she shouted at her Pokémon, who growled in response. "Chase after that hot air balloon above the trees!" Growlithe took off as fast as it could. Growlithe stopped underneath a hole in the leaves, looking up at the hot air balloon that he had just barely passed up. Jenny caught up to Growlithe. "Now use Flamethrower to take them down!" Growlithe pointed his face towards the sky and fire erupted from his mouth. The beam of flames fired into the sky, just barely missing the basket and shooting straight through the balloon above, incinerating it.

The balloon was destroyed and the basket came falling down to earth, falling through the hole and crashing to the ground, pieces of wood flying off of it. "Thanks, partner." Growlithe barked in happiness as Jenny returned it to its Pokéball. "Now then..." She looked closely at the splintered basket on the ground, and noticed the lack of anyone in it. "What!?" She hopped into the basket, grabbing her hair furiously. "No, no, no, where could they be!?" She looked all around, her face getting red with fear and anger. "Huh?" She looked down at her feet. There was a small metallic cube on the bottom of the basket, seemingly unharmed. She picked it up and inspected it closely. "What is this?"

Before she could say another word, the cube lit up a florescent blue color, and black tendrils shot out of each of the corners, wrapping around Jenny's arms and legs and immobilizing her. She fell out of the basket, landing on her knees and then quickly crashed to the ground, her face hitting the dirt.

"Ow..." she groaned, and then tried wiggling around. "I can't move...someone help me!" But it was useless. Nobody would be able to hear her screams outside of the forest. "That hot air balloon was just a trap...a diversion."

…

Gary was monitoring the several different Pokémon being sent in from trainers all over Kanto. Their Pokéballs are digitally transported into the computer, where they are processed and then sent into the Pokéball Lab, an entire building connected to the laboratory behind Gary's house. Within it held hundreds and thousands of Pokéballs, where the Pokémon inside of them slept soundly. A creaking noise was heard from behind Gary.

He whipped his head around at the front door. He was pretty sure he kept the door locked, but for some odd reason the door was just barely closed. "The hell?" Gary exclaimed to himself, standing up and out of his chair. There was a tiny crack in the door, letting in the sunlight from outside. He ran to the door and opened it, peeking his head out and looking in all directions. There was no sign of anyone in the vicinity. His brought his head back inside and shut the door, locking both locks. Gary must have imagined it. But he was sure that he had closed the door all the way.

He turned around to walk back to his computer, when he felt something press into his shoulders, slamming him into the door and keeping him still. On its hind legs, with its front paws pressing into Gary's shoulders, was a Persian. The Persian hissed in Gary's face, his face scrunching up in fear and in disgust at the cat's foul breath. Its teeth were as sharp as daggers. The red jewel on its forehead sparkled brilliantly in the sunlight shining through the windows.

"Persian," Gary stuttered, trying to turn his face away from it. "Who let you out?"

"I'm not one of the Pokémon that live here, you know," the cat hissed at him. Gary's eyes widened with dread. He was staring at one of the only Pokémon in the world to actually to preform human speech. And what's worse, he knew this Persian. "Purrrrr, that's right!"

"How'd you get in?" Gary yelled at Persian.

Persian snickered and replied, "See these claws?" He took one paw away from Gary and his three claws suddenly jutted out, looking as if they were able to slice through bone. "Sharp enough to pick a lock. You didn't hear me come in because I'm just that sneaky."

"So you guys are back in town," Gary grumbled. "Good to know. I was expecting some of your average grunts. I haven't seen your team in months." He darted his eyes all over the room, looking and thinking for some possible way to escape. His eyes fell upon the hallway leading to the bedrooms. In the shadows, he could see two reddish eyes looking back at him. He smirked. "So, how've you guys been?"

"We've been waiting for the opportune moment," Persian snickered. "Old Professor Oak leaving was an added bonus! You're all alone here, twerp."

Gary was sweating, but he wasn't afraid anymore. He closed his eyes and snapped his fingers. Immediately his own Pokémon partner, Umbreon, leapt from the shadows of the hallway, tackling Persian off of Gary. Gary darted away from the door and to his computer, where he looked back to see Umbreon and Persian wrestling on the ground.

Persian jumped away from Gary's dark-type Pokémon. The two locked eyes with one another and began stalking around in a circle, neither one turning away from the other. "Missed me, Umby?" Persian snarled. "I really missed our daily battles." Umbreon barked a response to Persian. "I am too going to get away with this."

"Uh, speaking of which, what exactly are you doing here?" Gary asked. "And where are your two bosses?"

"They're not my bosses! I am my own Pokémon!" In a fit of rage, Persian jumped at Gary, all claws outstretched, but he was immediately headbutted by Umbreon who sent the cat flying into the couch in the center of the room, toppling it over. Persian stood up on shaky legs. "And if you must know, we're here for the same reason as always: to take all the Pokémon. Why else?"

…

A woman in her early forties stood on top of a glass roof. Her long magenta hair billowed in the wind behind her. She wore a dark purple trench coat—which flapped around in the wind—that concealed her clothing. She held a pair of binoculars in her hands, looking out at all of Pallet Town.

She gazed at the lazy town to discover that there wasn't a soul outside except for maybe one or two kids playing in their back yard. To her side was Professor Oak's Pokémon Lab, where the old professor did most of his research and where he would give out the three Kanto starter Pokémon. To her other side was the Oak household. She adjusted her binoculars to get a good look through one of the windows, where she was pleased to discover that Persian was inside of the house, preventing Gary and his Umbreon from escaping.

She hastily stuffed her binoculars in her coat. The took out a small pink flip phone with a huge red R on the cover. She opened it up and dialed a single digit. The person she had dialed answered almost immediately.

"Persian is keeping that twerpy professor and his Umbreon company," she said to whoever was on the phone. "I am in position. You get to work cracking that lock and I will jump in from above as planned. Jessie, out." Jessie shut her phone and pocketed it, taking out a small ink pen from from her boot. She pointed it towards the glass and pressed the button on the end. Instantly a red laser shot from the tip, and she drew a circle in the glass. "I'll never get tired of this."

A circle of glass fell down and hit the floor below, shattering on impact. "Great!" Jessie slid herself through the circular hole, falling down below until she landed perfectly on her feet, losing balance for only a second.

Jessie had landed within a huge chamber filled with row after row of shelves. Each shelf held about twenty Pokéballs. And there were hundreds...maybe thousands of shelves circling the walls and filling the center of the building like a maze. Each of these Pokéballs had a specific owner, and any one of those owners could log in to a PC anywhere in the region and instantly gain access to the Pokéball they sent here.

Jessie ripped off her trench coat and threw it to the floor, revealing her white uniform underneath—a short white tank top with a huge red R on her breast as well as a white skirt rising just above her knees. She got on her hands and knees and pulled out a huge leather bag from the inside of the coat, which looked a lot smaller on the outside than it did on the inside. Both the fact that this bag was able to fit inside the coat, and the fact that this small bag could be filled with hundreds of Pokéballs, was completely insane and unrealistic but Jessie never did question it.

She slid her gloved hand over the metallic surface of the shelf nearest to her, and one by one she knocked the Pokéballs off and into the bag. She took no time at all doing this, practically running along each of the shelves with one hand sliding along and the other hand dragging her bag on the side of her. She ran up and down each aisle, filling the bag with a seemingly infinite amount of space with a seemingly endless amount of Pokéballs.

After several minutes there was a loud CLICK! followed by the sound of a metal door sliding open. Jessie stopped what she was doing for a brief moment to take a look towards the entrance, where her partner stood in the doorway. He had a satisfied smirk on his face, his eyes gleaming mischievously as he ran his gloved fingers through his light purple hair. "I'm in." He put his hands on his hips and strutted towards Jessie in victory. "How many more are there?"

"Not that many," Jessie replied. "We can take our leave now, James. We have more than enough to bring to headquarters." She shifted her gaze from James to the open doorway. "How did you manage to open that door so quickly? Weren't there over ten different locks?"

"I have my ways," James laughed, cracking his fingers. He pressed a small red button that was on his collar, and spoke into it. "We're ready." He took his finger off of the communication device. "Oh, Persian!" Jessie and James stood for a few seconds in silence. "You think he heard me?"

"Loud and clear!" And in came running Persian, leaping through the open doorway and dashing towards his two partners. "Now let's skedaddle. The twerp will be here shortly."

Gary ran into the Pokéball Room with Umbreon at his side. Three jagged cuts extended from just below his right eye to the left of his bottom lip. The blood was beginning to dry on his face. His face burned like crazy. He had used a potion which isn't really meant for humans, but it managed to stop the bleeding. His fists were trembling by his sides. His eyes widened when he saw Jessie and James and the bag filled with Pokéballs right beside them.

"I thought you guys disappeared," Gary said, his face twitching. "Why show up now?"

"Because causing you trouble is what we do best," Jessie said, pointing to Gary and Umbreon with a sinister smile on her face.

"If you're ready to witness our awesome power, please be our guest!" James pulled off a dramatic hair flip.

"To infect the world with darkness and devastation."

"To rule over the people within every nation."

"To bring about the evils of truth and love."

"To extend our reach to the stars above!"

"Jessie!"

"James!"

"Team Rocket, soaring through the galaxy at the speed of light."

"Surrender to us now or prepare for one heck of a fight."

"Purrrrrrrr, that's right!" Persian said, finishing off their motto.

"I see you three have yet another variant of the same motto you've had for years," Gary groaned. "Umbreon." Umbreon bared his teeth and got into an attack stance. "I don't see how you thought you were going to get away. You didn't even bring your hot air balloon."

"Don't need it," James replied. Gary raised an eyebrow. What was he talking about?

Almost instantly, the glass ceiling above shattered, shards of glass raining down around them. The sound of a helicopter's propellers could be heard up above. Gary looked towards the sky and saw a dark gray helicopter hovering just above the building, a huge red R on both sides.

"I'm afraid you lost this time, twerp," Jessie said, laughing hysterically.

…

Delia and Pikachu were sitting on the couch, each eating a plate of pizza. Pikachu was munching into the pizza crust greedily. Delia turned up the volume on the television, where a news reporter was interviewing an officer from Viridian City. He stood in the Viridian forest next to the wreckage of a hot air balloon basket. Officer Jenny stood next to him, brushing herself off because her uniform was covered in dirt.

"So you're saying you were tied up and unable to move, even though there was nobody in the hot air balloon?"

Officer Jenny nodded in response. "That was definitely the work of Team Rocket, an evil crime syndicate working towards the goal of creating an elite army of Pokémon. They knew I would be sent to go investigate the hot air balloon floating towards Pallet Town, so they used that diversion to get me out of the way for a while. If I had to guess, I'd say they're in Pallet Town right now. If not, then we're too late. The only place I can think of that they'd be heading to would be the Oak Laboratory."

Delia spit out her water, startling Pikachu and causing him to drop his current slice of pizza. He and Delia looked at one another in horror. "Gary..." Delia muttered under her breath, standing up to go put her now empty plate in the sink. Pikachu jumped off of the couch after her.

…

At the Lumiose airport, an airplane was ready to take off. Not many people were going to be on board. Just the pilot, the flight attendants, and a single Pokémon doctor, Doctor Fitz. He was well known throughout Kalos, owning his own hospital where he specialized in both people and Pokémon. He researched heavily on paralyzed, poisoned, or comatose patients. And he was ready to leave for Kanto where he would be researching Ash Ketchum and possibly attempting to bring him out of his comatose state.

He boarded the plane, a flight attendant helping him carry his luggage. After he had everything put away he sat down in a seat towards the middle of the plane, looking out the window, deep in his own train of thought. He was broken free of his thoughts when he saw a girl running through the airport and heading straight for the plane.

"Uh, sorry miss, this plane is reserved for—" No matter what the person at the door of the plane said, this girl rushed right through him, stopping in the middle of the aisle, bending over and panting, sweat dripping down her forehead. She dropped her luggage to the side of her and fell into the seat to the left of her.

"Uh, hey," Serena said as she looked in the direction of Doctor Fitz. "You're that doctor, right? The one going to Kanto?" The doctor nodded in confusion. "I hope you don't mind, but I'm hitching a ride."

.

Enjoyed this chapter? Didn't? Leave a review to let me know your thoughts. I'll probably post a new chapter once a week or once every two weeks, since it takes me forever to write a single chapter. Anyways, see you in the next one.