At a lab in Pallet Town, a group of three little boys were standing around a Poliwag. One boy had raven black hair and chocolate brown eyes and was wearing a yellow sleeveless shirt with a red stripe, blue shorts, and light red shoes. The boy next to him had the same black hair, just shorter, and the same brown eyes and was wearing a blue sleeveless shirt with a white stripe, blue and white cargo shorts, and blue and black shoes. The last boy had spiky mahogany hair and viridian eyes and was wearing a black sleeveless shirt, purple shorts, and black shoes.

"Hey Ashy Boy, Kev-Dog, just think, in two years, we'd all become Pokemon trainers. I actually wouldn't mind a Poliwrath on my team." Gary stated with a smirk. The brothers smirked back at him.

"I'm pretty sure a Pikachu can beat a Poliwrath...not that I'm trying to disrespect this little girl's evolutionary line or anything." Ash replied as he patted Poliwag on the head. She cooed in affection. Kevin laughed while Gary pouted.

"Nice one, bro! I think I'd like a Pikachu on my team as well. Not to mention a Garchomp and maybe an Infernape." he replied as he gave his brother a fist bump. Ash smiled a little bit before frowning.

"Say, Kevin, this talking about Pikachus is reminding me of Dad. And I think we promised Mom not to have any thoughts of him during camp." he said sadly. Kevin looked a little disheartened at the sound of that.

"Sorry, Ash. I almost forgot that you're still depressed over his departure." he admitted grimly. Ash wasn't paying attention, as he had gotten himself distracted. Confused, Kevin turned around and smirked mischievously at who he saw: a little girl with long honey blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes who was wearing a straw hat with a pink ribbon around it, a pink sun dress, and pink shoes. She was looking down at the grass, clearly not wanting to be there.

Kevin playfully elbowed Ash while saying, "She's cute, isn't she?"

"Very." he replied in a dreamy way, not even realizing what he just said. Gary, who had finished sulking, smiled mischievously as well.

"Ooh, Ashy Boy has a crush, doesn't he?" he asked in a teasing manner as he also playfully elbowed Ash. His face turned as red as a tomato.

"Hey now, how can I have a crush on someone I just saw for the first time?" Ash asked in a hushed tone. Kevin and Gary's smirks grew as they looked at each other.

"Love at first sight?" he whispered into Kevin's ear. He instantly nodded in agreement, which made Ash confused.

Before he could ask them anything, the trio and Poliwag all heard a familiar female voice call out excitedly, "KEVIN!" Kevin beamed at the sound of that voice as he turned to face a little girl running up to him. She had long brown hair and eyes of the same color and was wearing a straw hat with a black ribbon around it, a black sun dress, and black shoes.

"LEAF!" Kevin shouted back. Ash, Gary, and Poliwag all moved out of the way as Leaf tackled him into a hug. Kevin almost fell over, but managed to keep his balance as he happily returned it. They enjoyed the moment for as long as they could, until a rude voice interrupted them.

"So, I take it that you want some alone time, Kevin, Leaf? You two have fun camping out together, lovebirds!" Gary shouted mischievously as he dragged a dense Ash and Poliwag away from the scene. Kevin and Leaf blushed profusely at that as they quickly separated from the hug.

"Hey, get back here, Oak Tree!" they both shouted in embarrassment. Gary was well out of earshot, but still laughing out loud at them, by that point as he released Ash and Poliwag, who were both struggling to get free, in a forest.

"Hey, what's the big deal, Gary?!" he asked, feeling irritated. Poliwag looked like she wanted to Double Slap that smirk off Gary's face.

He simply shrugged before saying, "Eh, you'll see sooner or later. Anyway, I should go talk to Gramps. Smell ya later, Ashy Boy!" Before Ash could retaliate, Gary ran back in the direction of the lab, leaving him and Poliwag behind.

He groaned in annoyance before muttering to himself, "That Oak Tree..." Ash quickly calmed himself down before staring at Poliwag.

"Well, it's just you and me, Poliwag. What do you want to do?" he asked in a happy tone. Poliwag thought about it for a few seconds before smirking playfully.

"Poliwag!" she exclaimed challengingly as she started running deeper into the forest. Ash couldn't help but grin at that.

"If it's a game of chase you want, you've got it!" he exclaimed determinedly as he started rushing after Poliwag. They didn't know how long they've been keeping up this game of chase for, but they eventually reached a bush.

As Poliwag jumped into it, Ash called out, "Poliwag?" He waited a bit before suddenly hearing fearful mumbles, which instantly worried him.

As Ash was about to say something else, he got caught off guard by an unfamiliar female voice yelling out, "MOMMY!" Alarmed, he struggled before finally getting out of the bush. Ash stood up and brushed down the twigs and leaves that were attached to him before looking for the source of the cry. He saw what he could only describe as an angel in that girl from earlier, sitting on the grass, a little dirty. Ash would have gone into another trance if he hadn't noticed a nasty scrape on her knee and tears falling down her cheeks. He didn't know why, but seeing the girl like this just felt wrong to him. Ash knew that he had to help, so he made his way over to her.

"Hey...what's the matter?" he asked as he squatted down next to the girl. She stopped her sobs at the sound of that voice as she opened her eyes to see who was calling her. Ash instantly got lost in them for a few seconds.

"I...hurt my knee." the girl replied shyly. Ash studied the knee for a few seconds before a light bulb went up in his head.

"No problem!" he proclaimed with a toothy grin as he pulled a blue handkerchief with a Pokeball imprint on it out of his pocket. Ash wrapped it around the girl's injury and admired his handiwork with a sense of pride. Needless to say, she was utterly stunned by his hospitality. The two kids sat like that until another shot of pain went through the girl's knee.

"It...still hurts..." she cried as more tears formed in her eyes.

"No matter, watch this!" Ash replied.

He then waved his hands over her knee, like casting a magic spell, while chanting, "Feel better, feel better, right away!" The girl giggled sweetly at that, which sounded like music to Ash's ears. He never noticed that her cheeks were a rosy pink, but he did notice his heart beating faster and faster every minute he was next to her. And, if Ash was honest with himself, he really enjoyed that feeling, even if he didn't quite understand it yet. With the chant done, he stood back up.

"Can you stand?" Ash asked as he looked back at the girl with that toothy grin still intact. She tried to push herself up, but her knee hurt too much, and she fell back down.

"No, my knee hurts too much." the girl replied with regret evident in her voice. To her surprise, Ash held out his hand.

"Hey, don't give up until it's over, OK?" he declared as he stared into her eyes with determination. The girl looked in awe at the open gesture. She started reaching for Ash's hand, but was hesitating. He noticed the girl's apprehension and met her three quarters of the way, grabbing her hand and pulling her up. However, Ash pulled her up too hard that she ended up falling into him. He blushed profusely as his arms seemed to hold the girl up like a hug, not noticing the blush on her face too. They seemed to enjoy the moment until she jerked away on instinct.

"See, you're up! So, what's your name?" Ash asked with a warm smile.

"S-S-Serena Gabena." Serena stuttered out nervously. Ash couldn't help but think that the name was absolutely perfect for such a beautiful girl, even if he wasn't about to admit it to her.

"Nice to meet you, Serena! I'm Ash Ketchum! Now come on, let's get that knee checked out, shall we?" he inquired.

Serena nodded before saying with a smile on her face, "OK...and thanks, Ash." Ash nodded back and, while holding her hand, led her back to the lab. Little did he know, amour was in the air.

Back in the present, at Hau'oli City's Pokemon Center, Gary and Alain were having a best of three battle, with Gary's Umbreon beating Alain's Metagross in the first one. Now Electivire was battling against Tyrantitar, both of them looking tired by that point. A sandstorm was raging over the field as a result of the Armor Pokemon's Sand Stream ability. Clemont was acting as the referee for the battle as Bonnie, Dedenne, Squishy, Kevin, Maria, Leaf, Paul, Sawyer, Trevor, Mairin, Chespie, Pikachu, and Ash's Charizard were on the sideline, watching it. On another battlefield, Pancham and Milotic had finished up their mock Contest battle and were going back to join them.

"Electivire, use Iron Tail one more time!" Gary exclaimed in a confident tone. Alain smirked as Electivire ran straight for Tyrantitar with his two tails glowing white.

"Tyrantitar, Hyper Beam!" he called out. Gary's face turned pale as Tyrantitar opened his mouth, with an orange ball of energy forming in front of it.

"Cancel and use Protect!" he yelled out in horror. However, Electivire was too close as Tyrantitar, with a huge roar, shot an orange beam from the ball directly at him. The Hyper Beam enveloped the Thunderbolt Pokemon in a huge explosion, which, along with the sandstorm, made it practically impossible for everyone to see the result.

"ELECTIVIRE!" Gary shouted in worry. Suddenly, the sandstorm subsided, followed by the explosion caused by the Hyper Beam. Once that settled, everyone could see that Electivire was clearly not moving anytime soon.

"Electivire is unable to battle. Tyrantitar is the winner!" Clemont said in a neutral tone.

"YES! GO, ALAIN!" Mairin exclaimed happily as Gary ran to check on his fallen partner.

"CHESPIN!" Chespie added in an excited tone. Bonnie smirked mischievously at that.

"Say, does someone have a crush on Alain?" she asked as she playfully elbowed Mairin. Alain heard her while returning Tyrantitar back inside his Pokeball and almost choked on nothing but air. Chespie was snickering at him and a red faced Mairin.

Alain then looked at Clemont and said in an embarrassed tone, "Geez, your sister...say, does Bonnie have a crush on anyone?" That caused him to smirk mischievously at his sister, which made her start to sweat profusely. Korrina saw that and instantly became interested.

"Well, Ash had told us stories about one of his traveling companions from Hoenn, Max Maple. He's ten, like her, and also picked a Treecko as his starter to imitate his idol, like she did with Froakie. Not to mention that he once befriended a Legendary in Jirachi like she did with Zygarde. Just from chatting with him, it seems like Bonnie gets along really well with Max, don't you? Not to mention that he is here in Alola..." he stated teasingly. Soon, Dedenne, Squishy, Korrina, Gary, Alain, Mairin, Chespie, Kevin, Maria, Leaf, Pikachu, Charizard, Pangoro, and Milotic were snickering at a red-faced Bonnie.

"Well, if you tease me about Alain, I'll tease you about Max." Mairin whispered into her ear with a giggle. Bonnie shot Clemont a hateful glare as Gary, who had returned Electivire back inside his Pokeball, returned to his trainer's box with another one in his hand.

"Hey Alain, you're really tough. But let's see how you do against my starter! Go, Blast-" He got interrupted.

"GARY!" Aria's voice yelled out from the direction of the Pokemon Center. Gary abruptly stopped his throw as everyone turned to face her and Shauna, who were both very shaken up.

"Aria, Shauna, what's wrong?!" Gary asked, sounding very worried. He didn't know why, but he had a very bad feeling that something had happened.

Please don't let anything happen to my Lillie flower... Gary thought desperately.

His worst fears were realized when Shauna said, "Lillie...she's been arrested for apparently threatening the President of the Aether Foundation!" The entire place fell silent. Everyone had either shock or horror written on their faces. Though, nobody looked as pissed off as Gary, who suddenly ran off to the Center's entrance, only to see that a police car had just driven off. In the back seat, he could clearly see the love of his life in handcuffs with her head bowed down.

"That Lusamine bitch! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME RIGHT NOW?!" Gary exclaimed, clearly in a rage as he punched the wall very hard. His knuckle now had a bruise on it, but he didn't seem to care as tears started to fall down his cheeks. Everyone else was watching this, with some even crying. Even Paul looked to be on the verge of tears, which was totally unlike the usually emotionless trainer. Pancham and Milotic were clearly furious as well. But Pikachu was even worse, as he looked like he wanted to Thunderbolt a police officer right then and there. And everybody knew why: Sylveon was with Lillie.

"Oh man. If Gary and Pikachu are reacting like this, I'd hate to think about how Ash and Greninja would feel if they were still awake, especially when we consider that Greninja loves Delphox." Clemont stated with a shiver as he looked at Gary punching the wall one more time, then back at Pikachu sparking his cheeks. Everyone shuddered at the sight and sound of that, but before anyone could respond, they all heard a chuckle coming from above him. Almost everyone tensed up as they saw a Meowth shaped hot air balloon up in the sky. However, instead of the usual red R in the center of it, this balloon had an R in the colors of a rainbow. To their confusion, only James and Meowth were in the green basket. The trainer was wearing a sleeveless blue shirt with a silver vest that had the same rainbow-colored R on the center over it, silver pants with a black belt, and black shoes.

"Prepare for trouble-" He got cut off by Bonnie.

"We don't have time for your stupid motto! Squishy, 10% Forme!" she exclaimed in an annoyed tone. James and Meowth's eyes widened in horror as Squishy, who had leapt onto the ground, started to glow green, with streams of green light entering his body. Once the glowing stopped, he had a relatively small, mostly black canine body with a green "leash" that continued beyond the neck. His muzzle was black at the top and green elsewhere. His eyes were white hexagons with a black outline and no discernible pupils; directly above the eyes were two small green hexagons that resembled eyebrows. On his forehead was a very thin, white ellipse. His "leash" was entirely green with his small red hexagon connected to the bottom. His left front paw was green up to the elbow, while all his other legs were completely black. On each of his legs were hexagonal protrusions, all the same color black as the legs themselves. There were two such protrusions on the back of his elbows, one on each knee, and two on each hip. One extension on the right hip was placed higher than on the left. James and Meowth started to sweat profusely at the sight of Squishy in his 10% Forme as he growled menacingly at them.

"Hold up, hold up! We come in peace! We come in peace!" the Scratch Cat Pokemon shouted desperately. Bonnie was having none of it, though.

"Send them packing with Dragon Pulse!" she exclaimed as she pointed a finger at the balloon. James and Meowth gulped in horror as Squishy formed a massive ball of multicolored energy in front of his mouth.

'Time to blast those buffoons off again!' he roared out as he fired a multicolored dragon shaped beam of energy from it at the balloon. Before it could come close to colliding with James and Meowth, the Dragon Pulse was suddenly intercepted by a red-orange stream of fire and a yellow bolt of lightning, which caused a massive explosion.

"WHAT?!" both Bonnie and Squishy shouted, clearly stunned. Almost everyone, including James and Meowth, who were both trying to keep the balloon from tipping over, was equally shocked. When the smoke cleared, they were not expecting Charizard to be flying in front of it with Pikachu on his head, both staring down a flabbergasted Squishy.

"What...how...why..." Bonnie stammered, at a loss for words. Almost everyone was literally speechless at the sight of two of Ash's oldest Pokemon protecting the duo that had been thorns on their sides for seven years now.

Before anyone could question anything, they heard Gary say in a calm tone, "Don't. They're on our sides now." To empathize that point, Pikachu jumped onto the edge of the basket and shook paws with Meowth.

'Meowth, good to see you, pal! What are you doing back here?' he asked curiously. Meowth couldn't help but smile at that as he suddenly snickered at the disbelieving group.

"Good to see you too, buddy. Say, I got a brilliant idea if you're up for it." he replied with a smirk. Pikachu was skeptical at first, but once Meowth whispered the idea into his ear, he was giggling like a mad Pokemon and nodding furiously, which drew suspicion from almost the whole group.

"What the heck is going on up there?" Clemont asked, clearly very confused. James, who had gotten the gist of what Meowth and Pikachu were planning, snickered at them.

"Prepare for trouble, we're here on duty!" he stated.

"And make it double, getting Lillie out of jail is our priority!" Meowth added.

"To protect your world from devastation!"

"To unite all loved ones within our nation!"

"To denounce the evils of lies and hate!"

"To extend our reach to help life's fate!"

"James!"

"Meowth, that's right!"

"Team Rainbow Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now, or prepare for a court fight!"

"Pikachu!" Pikachu exclaimed as he flashed a V sign.

"Inkay!" Inkay, who had popped out of his Pokeball, added with a smile, clearly happy to be with his trainer again. There was utter silence as almost everyone tried to process what had just happened. Then Clemont suddenly had a brain wave.

"Say, where are Jessie and Wobbuffet?!" he asked as he looked around for the magneta haired woman. Pikachu's cheeks sparked angrily at the mention of the thug whose Mimikyu wanted his girlfriend dead while James and Meowth turned pale. Even Gary, Pancham, Milotic, and, more surprisingly, Charizard were shaking a little bit.

"Uh, as much as we'd love to talk about our current issue regarding Jessie, we have a more serious issue at hand. I seriously doubt that Lillie would want to spend a night in a jail cell, and that Gary would want her to. Not to mention that Pikachu and Greninja obviously wouldn't want their mates to either. Speaking of Greninja, where's Ash?" James inquired, clearly confused about the whereabouts of the missing trainer. If those who didn't know of the friendship between Ash and Team Rainbow Rocket weren't already flabbergasted enough, they certainly were now, considering that they always called him and his friends twerps or twerpettes. Everyone was silent until Gary spoke up.

"Ash had to do something very important. And he had most of his Pokemon with him, excluding those two, who wanted to train. By the way, how did you know that Lillie was going to jail?" he asked as he narrowed his eyebrows in suspicion. James and Meowth both frowned.

"You see, we were spying on Lusamine when we overheard her talking to an Officer Jenny on the phone. When we found out that she wanted Lillie arrested, we instantly called one of our bosses, who, let's just say, has a personal vendetta against Lusamine. Actually, both of our bosses do. They agreed to give you the money to bail your girlfriend out." the man explained as he took an envelope out of his jacket. Everyone's eyes widened in shock at the kind gesture.

"No way. Are you actually serious right now?" Gary asked hopefully. Pikachu was staring straight at Meowth with Lillipup eyes, which made him giggle a little bit.

"Yep...on one condition: our bosses would like to meet Ash on Poni Island once he completes his Ula'ula trials. Oh, and before you ask, they'd like to remain anonymous until they meet him." he replied as James held the envelope out to Charizard. He looked at Pikachu, who nodded as if saying to take it. Charizard then stared back at James and nodded before gently taking the envelope from him. With Pikachu back on his head, he flew back to Gary and gave it to him as his partner jumped onto the ground next to him.

"Thanks, James, Meowth! Tell your bosses I said thanks as well and that Ash will see them on Poni Island!" he replied with gratitude evident in his voice. Before anyone could respond, he ran off with Pikachu by his side. When they reached the police station on the far end of the city, they both gasped in shock upon seeing a bunch of Team Rocket and Team Skull grunts standing in the doorway.

"What the hell?!" Gary exclaimed as he reached for a Pokeball. Pikachu's cheeks started sparking furiously.

Just as they were about to do anything, however, a female voice yelled out from above them, "GARY! PIKACHU!" Gary and Pikachu instantly recognized that voice and looked up. Their eyes widened in horror at who they saw hung up on a helicopter, all tied up with her hair in her face.

"LILLIE!" Gary shouted.

"PIKACHU!" Pikachu exclaimed in union. Lillie was staring at them with a very terrified look on her face.

Before anyone could respond, a woman's cold voice called out to them, "One wrong move, and your girlfriend falls to her death, Gary!" Gary's blood suddenly went cold.

"N-N-No, i-i-it c-c-can't b-b-be..." he stuttered out as he, along with a very confused Pikachu, turned to face the source of the voice. Gary turned pale at the sight of a woman with long black hair, cold viridian eyes, and a scar on her face. She was wearing a black short sleeved jacket with a big red R on the front, a red sleeveless undershirt, a red and black Mega Ring on her right wrist, black jeans, and black shoes.

Gary could only utter one word, "M-M-Mom?!"