Chapter 138: Partnership with Cipher
Janine returned her spider so it could rest, and then she looked over to the boy and Monkey celebrating their victory, so with a smile she also walked up to them getting their attention.
"Well, I have to say you've surprised me, you're both so strong, all your Pokemon even, I guess I should have known if you caught Surge's attention," Janine said as she reached into her pocket.
"I guess I still have a lot to learn, but don't you worry I'm going to apply myself even harder and then I expect a rematch with everything, but for now you earned this," Janine said as she held out the Soul Badge.
Ash took it and held it up to the sky, letting the sunlight shine through it, "Alright, that makes number 5!"
As he put it in his hand since he didn't have his badge case with him he looked back at Janine and smirked, "Just you wait, next time I'll beat your real team just like this."
"You better, cuz next time I'll be prepared for your little tricks," Janine smirked back as stared back at Ash.
The crowd was obviously eating this up and the news was spreading like wildfire through the internet. It was probably going to be a problem tomorrow but that was for later, right now it is around 3:00 PM.
As the crowd dispersed into groups to talk about the battle some People walked up to take pictures of Ash and Janine, some people came up to ask Ash what Annihilape was, and there were a few that came up and asked Janine out for some reason.
After way too long time passed, eventually Ash managed to get back to his table with his friends, though people were still talking about the battle, the first thing he saw was Yellow clapping for him and Brock, Misty, and Lara looking at him with shock.
"What after all this time you're still surprised that I have a few tricks up my sleeve, I'm offended and here I thought we were friends," Ash said, turning away from them and pretending to cry.
Misty blinked and pointed at Ash aggressively, "Wait, no, no you're not playing that card here, what was that!"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Ash said looking innocently.
"You know what I'm talking about, don't play dumb," Misty said, squinting her eyes.
Ash brought his fist to his hand like he realized something, "Ohhhhh, you mean how I destroyed Janine just like how I destroyed you, don't worry it's just because I spent the entire week training, I only wanted to spend a day but what can you do."
Just as Misty was looking like she wanted to strangle Ash a voice came from behind, "Hey I take offense to that," Janine said as she took a seat.
Ash put on a smile as he looked at the Ninja girl, "Not my fault I read you like a book,"
Janine rolled her eyes, "As much as I hate to say it, yeah with the first two you pretty much shut down my entire strategy. I mean I couldn't even use Toxic, that's like my specialty."
"Well sucks to suck," Ash responded.
"So Ash.." Brock said, "What actually was that Pokemon you had, I haven't seen or read anything about it?"
"Oh it was Primeape, he evolved," Ash said, making Misty nearly fall out of her chair.
"Hey how come when he asks you to give him an answer but when I ask you give me a headache!"
"Ohhhh, you wanted to know about Annihilape, you should really be more clear how am I supposed to know everything I can't read your mind." Ash nodded as Misty frowned.
"So that's its name, Annihilape, I can't say I've ever heard of it~," A familiar voice said, the malicious intent was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
Ash looked back only to see Green leaning down over him with her arms behind her back, she had a Blue kimono as her hair was put down, she had her eyes closed, and a wide smile that only served to make her look creepy.
"I thought I was supposed to be the Evolution expert, you said you weren't interested, soooooo what is this I hear about you finding a new evolution to Primeape~," Green said with an ominous tone.
People who were trying to listen in immediately noped out as soon as Green stood over Ash ominous.
"And I don't, it just happened I was training and it just happened." Ash defended himself.
"Ohh, then you wouldn't mind sharing with me right?"
"Very well you want to know," Ash said, putting on a serious expression and leaning on the table, "Are you sure you want to hear my secret."
Everyone stayed silent and held their breaths as they waited for Ash to talk.
"Push-ups, sit-ups, and plenty of juice," Ash said with a smile.
As everyone heard this they saw Ash's smiling face as Two hands grabbed him by the shirt, it was Green.
The last thing they heard was Ash saying, "I regret nothing." Then he was violently shook back and forth.
—
{At the league building}
Lance was sitting at a table with a bunch of computers in front of him, in the room Darwin and Damian were also working on stuff, although Darwin still had some bandages under his shirt.
It's been a few days since the press conference, if you could even call it that, and since then no official news report has been sent out but some things have emerged.
"Wow, some of these things they are posting are not pretty," Damian said as he was on the computer.
"Tell me about it, there is the normal slander and then they are bringing out the old Flying Master Lance and Birdkeeper Lance," Darwin said.
Lance buried his face in his hands, "No matter how many times I say it they keep ignoring me."
"Is that seriously your main concern, your name is currently public enemy number 1 and some people are making claims that they want to go to Johto to your family's dragon sanctuary."
"They can certainly try, but Clair is way more aggressive than I am, at least I'll give them a warning."
Darwin was not paying attention, he was still scrolling through the media, "Seriously how are they so creative with these things, 'I hate underhanded means' uses 3 under-leveled Dragonite, 'You stopped the first Dragonite, what will you do about the next.' there's even one of you spamming full restores."
Lance rolled his eyes, "I do that one time to battle Wallace and suddenly it's my gimmick."
"Yeah, but it looks like a lot of attention is being led away from you," Damian said as he turned his computer and on the screen, it showed the current trending topics and number 1 was a Gym battle in Fuchsia City.
The topic itself had the usual talks about the competition and how Janine was battling, etc., but the main topic that stood above everything was the Trainer she was fighting and the Pokemon he was using.
It was Ash and Annihilape, people were talking about how he decimated Janine's entire team, how this was staged, etc.
Lance himself did know some things about Annihilape, he didn't know much but he had talked to Champion Geeta and learned about how they discovered new evolutions to some Pokemon, but they kept most of them and the evolution methods a secret from everyone, not even Oak knew much since they haven't been able to get into contact with Professor Sada or Professor Turo.
"Hey isn't that the kid who won the S.S. Anne thing, Ash was his name right?" Darwin asked.
"Yeah it is him, I guess he caught the public's eye, and 5 gym badges already not bad." Damian rubbed his chin.
"Oh yeah that reminds me," Darwin said as he reached into his pocket and pulled out an envelope and handed it over to Damian, "You won the bet with him, so here's the money."
Damian blinked, "Wait you were being serious about that, I thought since you only joined the League for the money."
"I did, but I still keep my word," Darwin said, "Besides, it's not like I need the money right now."
Damian signed, "You're not going to let me say no aren't you," Darwin shook his head, so Damian begrudgingly took it.
Meanwhile the whole time Lance was thinking as he was looking through the computer, "I see, Ash huh so that's who got my Dratini Egg, if he's anything like his father then… "
Damian and Darwin heard him, "What was that?"
"Oh nothing, I just thought I should thank him for getting the media off my back for a while," Lance said, waving his hand around.
"I mean let's be honest People are probably going to start again in like a week."
"*Sigh* Yep, well let's try and get some work done before that happens then," Lance said as he grabbed his cape and walked out of the room leaving Damian and Darwin looking at each other in confusion.
–
{In Pallet town}
Oak was in the front of the classroom teaching everyone, in the corner of the room an Alakazam was meditating.
"Ok everyone, as soon as we finish this lecture you are free to ask Alakazam to take you home for your week-long break," Oak said, smiling at his students.
Just as he was about to continue, an assistant girl who graduated the same year that Ash, Gary, and Green ran into the room with a laptop, "Professor you need to see this!"
"Grace? Forgive me but what is so important you need to interrupt me in the middle of a lecture?" Oak asked.
Grace ran up and showed him her computer, "Look at this, it's Ash!"
"Ash?" Oak mumbled as he looked at the laptop, after a few moments his eyes widened and he looked at everyone, "Sorry everyone I'm afraid we have to cut today short, enjoy your break and I'll see you when you return."
Before anyone could ask any questions Oak already ran out of the room, leaving Grace alone in the room with a bunch of kids that were around her age that she never talked with, "Ummm, Hi?"
Almost immediately everyone demanded to know what she was talking about and how Ash was involved, forcing her to show them her computer letting them see Ash's battle in Fuchsia, and Annihilape.
"What!? Is that really Ash, I didn't know he could make such a serious face!" Rosa asked, making everyone remember Ash's tendency to never be serious.
"And what is that Pokemon, I've never seen anything like it?" Trevor said, looking at Annihilape.
"Wow, isn't my little buddy so cool! It makes me want to Dance!" Tierno yelled as he could barely control himself.
"How far is he? It's only been 5 months and he looks like he is about ready to take on the League." Silver asked, getting an audible tongue click from a certain purple-headed boy.
Wally looked at Ash and looked down at his hands before mumbling, "C-can I really be a trainer like him."
Just as everyone was talking they heard a loud clap coming from the front, and it came from Hilda, "Guys we need to be civil and do the only normal thing."
Then she pulled out a notebook, "Let's take bets! I think he has 4 badges."
–
Giovanni was sitting in his chair looking through reports, currently, Sierra was in the room with him sitting across to report that they had captured Candela.
"Good work, I knew you all were the right fit for the job, how is the process on Moltres?"
"Nonexistent, she is unwilling to summon it so Arlo is researching for a way to force it to come," Sierra responded calmly.
Giovanni nodded, this was not unexpected, "Very well, now it is time to tell you the true purpose of this visit."
Giovanni pressed a button on his desk and some scientists came in with a cart with 3 purple Pokeballs and a strange-looking machine.
"I'm sure you're aware of what these are," Giovanni said, referring to Master Balls, to which Sierra just nodded.
"Well this here is something we just received from our Partnership with Cipher, after their organization was destroyed they wanted our support to rebuild and so they gave us this."
"You may want to know what this actually does, it's quite simple, it creates Shadow Pokémon," Giovanni explained as he walked to the machine.
He turned it on, and immediately orbs of darkness circled the Master Balls and entered them making the balls glow a dark purple color, Giovanni pulled one out and handed it to Sierra.
"With these, you will be able to catch the legendary birds and they won't have a choice but to obey you."
"Shadow Pokémon, interesting," Sierra mumbled as she looked up at the Boss, "will you be giving others this?"
"No, unfortunately, this one is unstable and unable to make large quantities, unless we can restore Cipher and obtain a new one, you and the others will be the only ones with these Shadow Pokémon."
"Not even you or the Executives?" Sierra asked to which Giovanni just shook his head, leaving Sierra to bow and take the Master Balls and leave.
Giovanni sat back down and started reading the reports on his desk, the reports his scientists had been giving him from the experiments they were running, and one name was on the top.
Project: Ambertwo
--
Alright I told everyone already but I'll say it again, I have another test this coming Wednesday so no chapter, maybe on Thursday but uncertain.
Can I get some stones for good luck and maybe be motivated to upload on Thursday
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone