Return Of A Hero

✨19✨

"I wonder what this means?" Says Clemont. Suddenly everyone is pulled out of their deep thoughts when they hear a voice call to them.

"Ash! Dawn! Brock!"

Everyone turns their heads to the source of the voice. The person running to them is a girl in a green long sleeve shirt, dark green and white stripped pants and a mess of blueish-green hair.

Ash grins realizing that it's one of his old friends from the Sinnoh region. "Hey Angie!" Shouts Ash to the oncoming Sinnoh native. The girls runs up and hugs Ash then looks at the others, though she fails to notice the jealous look given to her by Miette.

"Well? Are you going to introduce us or what?" Asks Ritchie curious about this new girl in the group.

"This is Angie, a trainer we met during a camp in the Sinnoh region and a somwhat girl version of Ash." Explains Dawn.

Misty scoffs. "Great more Ash clones." She says looking over at Ritchie.

"Hey!" Shouts both of Ash's "clones" at the same time earning a chuckle from most of the group.

"So what brings you here Angie." Asks Ash looking at his female friend from the Sinnoh region.

"Well when I heard that you were back and clearly not dead, so I came over as soon as I could and here I am." Explains Angie.

"Well it's good to see you again." Says Ash with a smile. Angie blushes a little at that comment which doesn't go unnoticed by Dawn who feels a wicked grin creeping up her lips realizing what this meant and that she'd get to tease Angie later.

Suddenly the gang hears rustling from the bushes which breaks the happy mood. All heads snap in the direction of the rustling and all jaws drop when they see who steps out into the open. There are two people and a Meowth standing before them. They were all bruised and beaten. One of them was a man with blue hair hanging neatly on his head.

On his shoulder is a women who's head is hanging low, so no one can see her face but they get an eye full of her outrageous scarlet haircut. Everyone saw their white clothes with faded red R's printed across the front.

The knees of the man shake as he collapsed, but before weakly muttering the words. "Help us twerps, please."

"Team Rocket?" Whispers Ash.

Three hours later at the pokemon center

Jessie and Meowth were hooked up to machines and unconcious, James however who had suffered the fewest number of injuries with just a few bandages on his arms and face and was talking with the others. James opened his mouth to speak but was cut off by Ash's face slamming into his face knocking him onto the floor.

"I deserved that." Mutters james weakly holding his right eye which was already turning purple.

"Sorry just needed to get that out of my system. Now answer me this, James. What on Arceus' green Earth are you doing here?" Ash asked.

James looks at the Kanto trainer an sighs. "First of all please don't refer to the three of us as Team Rocket anymore. We dropped that name six months ago." Says James which was a cause of surprise for everyone.

"You disbanded?" Asks Misty in disbelief.

James snorted. "I wish, the three of us just realized how insane Giovanni had become." James spits out the Team Rocket boss's name like it was a curse. Then he looks at Ash. "I'm glad you're alive Ash. We feared the worst had happened to you after your apparent death." He continued.

Ash raised an eyebrow. "I don't know which is crazier. That you were worried about my safety or that you just called me by my real name." States the Legendary Warrior.

James let's out a humorless chuckle. "So what were you refering to when you said that Giovanni had become insane?" Asks Cilan looking at James and then Jessie and Meowth. James doesn't look away from Ash.

"Remember three years ago when you thwarted Giovanni's plans in the Unova region?" Asked James. Ash nods. "Well since then he's been plotting revenge against you. The psycho has become obsessed with destroying you. Even when the world thought you were dead he refused to believe it because he wanted to destroy you himself." Said James grimly.

"Shortly after returning to Kanto he began some strange project called Project D.A. I don't really have any details on the project, only that it involves you and the other evil team leaders." Says James.

"And give us one good reason why we should trust you, because if I remember correctly it was also in Unova where you had Meowth play double agent for our side." Says Iris angrily.

James chuckled. "I don't expect you to believe me. Heck! I'd be amazed if anybody did! We just felt like you deserved to know Ash." Says the blue haired man grimly. Then he stands up. "Look, I'll wait for Jessie and Meowth to recover then we'll get out of your hair. We just want you to know this. Giovanni is coming for you Ash and there are only two things that will stop him."

"Oh yeah and what's that." Asked Ash.

James stares at Ash intensley. "His death or yours." James concluded with a scary amount of calm in his voice. Then he got up and starts to walk away, but Ash grabs his wrist and stops him.

"Wait." James looks at Ash in surprise. "I believe you." Says Ash looking James directly in the eye.
Ash's friends stare at him in shock.

"Are you kidding me!?" Shouts May.

"After everything they've done? After all of the times they've tried to steal Pikachu from you." Says Dawn gesturing to the electric mouse on Ash's shoulder.

Ash looks at his friends and mates. "I know when someone is lying to me. James is telling the truth." Says Ash without a hint of doubt.

"If Ash believes them then so do I, but I am going to electricute Meowth at one point or another." Says Pikachu. Angie and James both stare at the electric type.

"Uhhh, Ash I think you might of hit me harder than we originally thought because I'm starting to hallucinate." Says James uncertainly. Ash rolls his eyes and explains why people around him can understand pokemon.

After that Ash and Co. leave James with his friends so that they could recover. Checking the time Ash and friends head down to the main lobby to find out the match ups for round four. When the gang got down there and realized that they had another twenty minutes before the pairings would be announced, so Dawn (obviously) decided to take advantage of that time.

She grabs Angie's wrist and tells the others that the two of them need to have a "girl talk." She then runs of with an objecting Angie in tow. When they reach a spot Angie asks Dawn what this "talk" is about.

Dawn looks at the blueish-green haired girl before saying. "You have feelings for Ash don't you?" Angie suddenly feels like her face is on fire.

"I-I-I..." She stutters. Dawn chuckles then explains Ash's situation to Angie. It only took about fifteen minutes for Angie to surprisingly calm throughout the entire thing. Once she had finished her stuttering that is. "So you and all of those other girls are all mates of Ash?" She asks. Dawn nods. "Um do you think he likes me?" She asks. Dawn smiles.

"I'm willing to bet on that, yes. How ever don't just rush up and kiss him when everyone is watching. Ash has enough on his plate as it is, having to explain the true complexities of his loce life is probably the last thing he needs right now." Explains Dawn. Angie nods but then Dawn smiles. "But if no one except the mates are watching then it's alright." She says with a smirk causing Angies blush to match the color of Jessie's hair.

Afterwards the girls headed back to the rest of Ash's group just before the announcement. Dawn whispers in Ash's ear about her talk with Angie. He looks at the Sinnoh natives and then smiles but before he can say anything a voice comes booming over the loud speaker.

"Ladies and gentlemen it is time to declare the matchups for round four!"