When May was finally given the ribbon, she held it with a big smile in front of the caras despite the things that had happened not even five minutes ago.
And so, with this ribbon, that ant May now had four and just needed one more to qualify for the Hoenn Grand Festival. She was really doing it.
Eventually the ceremony wrapped up, and May left to go backstage, knowing that more people with caras and reporters wanting to interview her were going to be waiting out front for her. She wondered if she could get Kirlia to teleport her out and help her find the others, but she hadn't really been practicing that. Her Kirlia wasn't really trained for teleporting people around since Ash usually did that for her.
Speaking of which, she needed to…well, she'd get there when she got there.
She went to her changing room and closed the door behind her.
Inside, she carefully placed her ribbon down on the table for a mont and stared at it, but then she slowly smiled before beginning to change out of her contest dress.
A few minutes later, after changing back into her normal clothes, fixing her hair, and tightening her bandana back to the way she liked it, May stepped back out into the hallway carrying her ribbon case.
"Okay," she muttered to herself, "Ti to find everyone."
And maybe Ash first, but not because she specifically wanted to see him first or anything. Definitely not.
She started walking down the hall while holding her phone and thinking about what to text, but when she turned the corner, she saw Ash down the hallway leaning against the wall waiting for her. She didn't even know how he managed to get backstage.
Ash waved at her with his usual smile like he hadn't just threatened to break soone's legs a few minutes ago.
"Yo," Ash greeted casually.
May stopped walking for a second, just staring at him.
Ash blinked, "...What?"
"You," May said while pointing at him accusingly.
"What did I do?"
May stared at him another second before suddenly marching toward him quickly. Ash barely had ti to react before May threw her arms around him in a huge hug.
Ash almost stumbled slightly, but he managed to catch himself while Pikachu and Vee abandoned his shoulders.
May buried her face against him tightly, "Thank you," she mumbled quietly.
Ash blinked in surprise before smiling softly and returning the hug, "It's nothing."
"No, seriously," May said while squeezing him tighter, "Thank you."
Ash snorted slightly, "I was just telling the truth."
That sohow made May's face even hotter, but she hid it, refusing to let Ash see because she knew full well he would tease her endlessly if he noticed.
"You really had to say all of that in front of EVERYONE?" she groaned into his shoulder.
Ash gave his usual grin, "What? Rember, only I get to bully you. I can't have soone else doing it. I have a reputation to uphold."
May imdiately pulled back just enough to glare at him, "You are impossible."
"And yet I finally got my thank-you hug," Ash said dramatically while putting a hand on his forehead, "It only took nearly six months, but I finally got the hug I was owed on the first day I got here in Hoenn."
May scoffed and quickly punched Ash on the shoulder.
"Ow!" Ash complained dramatically while clutching his shoulder even though it didn't hurt at all, "What was that for?!"
"That," May huffed while crossing her arms, "was for making think for even one second that maybe what you said wasn't true."
Ash snorted, "How is that my fault?"
May huffed and looked away from him like she was actually upset, "You should've stopped him from getting away with it."
"Hey, I broke the cara when I found it. How was I supposed to know he had an extra one?" Ash said as he smirked and poked her in the side, "I think it's actually your fault for having such little faith in . I'm hurt," Ash said while copying her stance.
Then they both laughed at how ridiculous the situation was.
Ash eventually wiped one eye while calming down slightly, "Anyway," he said, "congrats."
May smiled softly again, "Thanks. You really helped."
"You would've gotten there on your own eventually. I just sped up the process," Ash waved his hand dismissively, "But I already texted the gang to et us at that restaurant to celebrate, so shall we go?"
May blinked at the offered hand for a second, "…What?"
"You wanna escape or not?" Ash asked while pointing back toward the lobby where people were definitely waiting to ambush her.
"…Oh," May understood, and she looked at Ash's hand before quickly grabbing it before she could overthink things.
The mont she did, Ash looked toward Vee and whistled.
The little Pokémon imdiately jumped onto Ash's shoulder while Pikachu climbed onto the other one like this was completely normal.
May blinked, "Wait...what are you-"
Then she noticed Vee's eyes glow faintly blue.
You see, after watching Gardevoir use [Teleport] enough tis, Vee had managed to [Mimic] it. It wasn't as good as Gardevoir's or even Abby's, but it would be enough for them to escape.
Before May could finish speaking, they teleported away safely from the contest hall and headed off to celebrate another win together.
—
{anwhile with Ashtwo}
D finally managed to get back to base. I an, after basically having to sacrifice a bunch of his clones to ta Darkrai, he needed a break, which he kind of got when Matori sent him back to the Mirage Kingdom to set so things up and make sure they could drive Team Magma out of the desert.
He was actually sent on this mission with Jessie, Jas, and owth of all people since his regular squad was off at Slateport raiding Team Aqua's secret bases, and Matori basically sent D with what they had left.
Oh, and one more thing of note that Matori had been keeping him updated on: the Sird and Carr situations.
First, with Carr, he was still under investigation for all the things he did, and with evidence they managed to steal from Sird's phone and computers, they learned quite a few things.
Like how Carr was planning to set up a Neo Team Rocket to try and overthrow Matori, then eventually the Boss, or how he had been taking cuts from missions in Hoenn, or the Deoxys project, which on the computer was listed as dead, one thing D didn't bother correcting. It was better if they didn't find out anyti soon, sa reason he never said anything about Darkrai.
I an, what? Was Sird going to tell Matori that D had them?
Ah yes, who would she believe? The spy who stole, lied, and sabotaged multiple things for them, or Team Rocket's poor golden boy who only ever tried his best and got hurt anyway, and even after losing everything still wanted to help Team Rocket?
Hmm. A really hard decision. Especially since everyone still thought D was depressed since they never saw him sleep, eat, or take care of himself.
But yeah, Carr was under investigation, though best case scenario he probably just lost his Admin position.
As for Sird and the other Galactic mbers, Sird knew she was cooked and was ready to reveal anything Matori wanted to hear if it ant getting a lighter punishnt.
But the real gold mine was Io. While neither she nor Sird were particularly loyal to Galactic, they were both only doing this because it was the best option they had. Io wasn't a spy, and honestly if Matori jokingly offered her a chance to betray Galactic and join Rocket, she'd probably accept imdiately.
So Io spilled absolutely everything she knew, and since she was a higher rank than the grunts or B-2, she actually knew things unlike the others, who were basically brainwashed cultists. None of them even had nas, just numbers.
Now granted, because Io and Sird were only commander level, they didn't have that much information to give other than the Boss's na, so bases in Sinnoh, nas of the admins, and a few plans.
But they did confirm that Team Galactic basically used brainwashing to recruit new mbers into the hive mind, and that they had spies in the Sinnoh League and even inside the International Police.
All of this was noted by D for later use, but what happened after they gave that information wasn't D's problem anymore. Matori could do whatever she wanted with them, and he knew Sird wasn't getting out on good behavior anyti soon.
As for Io, if she joined Team Rocket, he didn't care.
And the grunts like B-2 were literally useless for anything. They didn't have mories or skills. Maybe Rocket would try fixing them and using them as spies, and if they did, he'd take note of the process for when he eventually had to deal with that himself.
But right now, that wasn't his problem.
Oh, but speaking of spies, so grunts had been sent to Sinnoh by the Boss just to monitor what was going on, and it had actually been D's suggestion. Officially he said it was just to validate the information they'd received.
But really, it was because he knew Galactic and teor were fighting each other, and he hadn't been able to contact Taka, so he didn't know how things were going. With this, he could keep tabs on everything while dealing with Hoenn, and if he needed to teleport there to save his boy, he already had Hypno mark one of them.
But those were problems for later. Right now D was just coming back to base after completing their mission in the desert, and in his arms he was carrying a little Nincada he got there.
Yeah, when he arrived, Princess Sara had gotten excited and imdiately gifted him one of the newly hatched Nincada to try and get him to talk to her more.
Yeah, D wasn't touching that with a ten-foot pole. Sara was a nice girl and all, but he knew full well her crush on him was only because he saved their kingdom and everything else he'd done for them.
Besides, he was a clone and couldn't do that, and even if he could, it's not like he could stay there. He knew he could never give her the happiness she deserved, so it was better not to let her get attached to him.
But he kept the Nincada. I an, it would've been rude not to, and the little guy seed attached to him.
Anyway, once they got back, Jessie, Jas, and owth imdiately collapsed onto the couches in the lounge. Even Wobbuffet dragged himself in and fell face-first onto the floor.
"My feet are KILLING !" Jessie groaned dramatically while kicking her boots off as her Cubone jumped up and tried giving her a massage with its bone.
"I think sand sohow got into places sand should never get into," Jas added while trying to shake desert sand out of his sleeves while his newly caught Chicho rang its bell softly to soothe them. It helped a bit.
"Wobbuffet…" Wobbuffet's muffled voice ca out from where he was face-down in the carpet.
owth just faceplanted directly onto the floor next to Wobbuffet, "I never wanna see another Trapinch again…"
D ignored all of them as he walked past carrying the little Nincada in his arms, "Do you guys want to stay here? I can finish everything with Matori."
Jessie imdiately lifted her head off the couch just enough to point at D, "If by 'finish everything' you an sitting through one of Matori's three-hour debriefings where she stares into your soul every ti you breathe wrong, then YES."
She said that without realizing it was only a them problem. No one else got forced to deal with that.
Heck, even after they proved they weren't Team Rocket's most useless mbers anymore and significantly helped bring in money, Matori still sotis gave them harder tasks or chewed them out for hours, though at least she stopped sending them on completely pointless missions.
Jas weakly raised a hand from the floor, "Tell her we died heroically in the desert."
"Tell her we were eaten by Flygon," owth added without lifting his face from the carpet.
"Wobbuffet…" Wobbuffet agreed dramatically from the floor.
D stared at them for a second while the little Nincada in his arms chirped quietly, "You know she'll know you're lying."
"That sounds like a future-us problem," Jessie imdiately replied.
D sighed softly through his nose before looking toward the elevator to go report to Matori, and honestly he'd vouch for them. He had missed their shenanigans, and it was nice having a silly adventure again since this mission had been relatively easy.
But when he pressed the button, he heard them call out.
"Wait," Jessie suddenly said while sitting up slightly, "Before you go, how bad is the whole Carr thing actually?"
D paused for a mont, "Bad."
Jas sat up properly now, "How bad are we talking?"
D adjusted the sleeping Nincada slightly in his arms before answering, "The Boss and Matori are furious."
Jessie winced imdiately, "Oh."
"And Sird?" Jas asked.
D shrugged, "I an, she talked, even if it was only to save her own skin."
Jas frowned slightly, "Wouldn't that make her...I dunno...useful?"
"She's still a traitor," D said simply.
And yeah, that made sense. You couldn't really trust anything coming out of her mouth anymore.
Even if the trio rembered being put on squads with her sotis before they went "solo," and maybe nostalgia was making them feel slightly bad for her, she was still a traitor.
The elevator doors opened and D stepped inside, "Anyway, it was fun hanging out with you guys again. Take care. Till next ti," he said as he turned toward them with his one visible eye while the elevator doors closed.
The trio looked at each other, "Do you think D smiled at us?" Jas asked. I an, they saw his eyebrow raise slightly, but they couldn't really tell since his face was always covered by that mask.
"I didn't even know he could feel fun anymore," Jessie added, as Wobbuffet tried to stand to do his usual chant, but he fell over to tired and took a nap, and the trio followed along after
—
anwhile D's elevator doors opened as he stepped out and started walking down the hall. So grunts saluted him as he passed, mostly newer recruits since anyone around before the Hoenn expansion usually looked at him with pity because of the fake injuries and everything.
But whatever. He was an Admin. So recognition was nice every now and then.
He got to Matori's office and didn't even knock before walking in, where he saw Matori buried in more paperwork.
She looked up annoyed and ready to yell at whoever walked in without permission but stopped the mont she saw it was D.
She sighed since she simply couldn't get mad at him and put her pencil down, "I see you're back. Did everything go well?" She didn't even bring up the fact that he was an hour late since they got held back.
Was it blatant favoritism? Yes. Was D going to complain? No.
D adjusted the sleeping Nincada slightly in his arms before answering simply, "No problems at all."
Matori nodded imdiately like that alone was enough confirmation for her, "Good. You're dismissed. Take a break, I'll contact you when you're needed," she said without bringing up the paperwork soone normally would've had to fill out. She could make the Team Rocket trio do that later.
And D didn't complain. He turned to leave, but right before he reached the door, he paused slightly, "By the way, is my squad back yet?"
"Hm? Oh yeah, they're in the cafeteria with Orm," Matori answered as she returned to her paperwork.
D nodded and opened the door, but before leaving he glanced back, "Oh, by the way, I noticed you did your hair. It suits you." Then he closed the door while Matori tried to keep a calm face despite being slightly flustered.
D walked down the hall and returned the sleeping Nincada to its Poké Ball so it could rest. He needed to find his squad so he could finally get sothing done.
When he got to the cafeteria, he saw his group sitting together with Orm at the edge of the table, Jay, Enid, and Domino sitting across from him, while Annie and Oakley sat beside Orm with Annie helping feed one of his baby Shuckles.
And there at the edge of the table he saw the person he was looking for, Helena.
D walked toward the table calmly, hands in his pockets while the cafeteria buzzed quietly around him.
Jay noticed him first and raised a hand excitedly, "Yo bro, sit here with us!"
Enid glanced up from her drink and nodded slightly while Domino leaned back in her chair trying to scoot over as if D was about to sit next to her. Annie perked up imdiately while Oakley just rested her head on her hand looking more bored than anything.
anwhile Orm barely looked up at all since one of the baby Shuckles had sohow gotten halfway inside his sleeve again.
"Co on little guy," Orm muttered while gently trying to pull it back out, "How are you even fitting in there…?"
D stopped beside the table and gave a small nod toward everyone before his visible eye shifted toward Helena.
"Helena," D said with a straight face, "I need you."
The entire table froze.
Jay blinked once.
Enid choked on her drink.
Domino's eyes widened slightly while Annie imdiately slapped both hands over her mouth to stop herself from squealing.
Oakley stared at D like she was trying to process whether she had finally lost her mind.
anwhile Orm looked up in confusion for exactly two seconds before returning his attention to the Shuckle currently trying to climb onto his head.
Helena herself completely locked up, "…W-What?" she asked weakly.
D simply stared at her silently.
Helena's face imdiately turned bright red, "A-Ah...um…" she stamred while sitting up straighter, "I an...shouldn't you maybe ask sothing like that more privately…?"
Jay slowly looked between the two of them, "No way, this isn't happening, right?" he asked shakily.
"Oh my w," Annie whispered behind her hands, internally mourning the fact that her Oakley x D ship apparently wasn't sailing anymore.
Domino sputtered like she was malfunctioning while Oakley pinched the bridge of her nose, already feeling a headache coming on.
anwhile Helena was actively malfunctioning now, "I-I an not that I'm saying no!" Helena blurted out, "I just think maybe doing...that...here is a little inappropriate-"
Without blinking once, D slowly raised one hand, and shadows imdiately began flowing off his fingertips, "You have Hex powers, right?" D asked calmly, "So I need you to help train this."
And imdiately everyone at the table deflated like balloons realizing that was what he ant.
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