One of the higher-ups of the Indigo Plateau, the man whose authority rivaled the Elite four, Giovanni, the former Viridian city gym leader posed. "I wasn't informed that Team Rocket has been active outside of Kanto."

Steven glanced at Lance, before answering. "An Executive had attacked the mystical Forest of Illusions, notorious in Hoenn for being the abode of several Ghost-types. We believe that they were quite… successful in their endeavor"

"Did they capture them or kill them?" Daisy, who was representing the rest of the Waterflower sisters, put forward.

"Capture, to my knowledge," Steven answered.

"Why would you think that the ghosts were killed?" Lance inquired.

"Well… It would have gotten a similarity with what happened with the Tauros herd at the Meadow." Daisy answered, feeling sickened just by the mere thought of it.

"To my knowledge, the… massacre was done by Mewtwo, though it can be agreed that he is, after all, working for Team Rocket, or at least, with them."

"I don't understand." Giovanni interrupted. "This… Mewtwo, as you call him, seems like a Legendary, at least as far as his powers are concerned. Why would a pokémon want to… systematically cause the deaths of other types of pokémon?"

"That… is indeed one of the main topics behind this meeting," Lance answered. "We have gathered intel that Team Rocket has been… experimenting on pokémon, trying to create, and stable hybrids by combining DNA of multiple types to create a better version of both."

"They are, aren't they? Bloody bastards." Lt. Surge exploded. "Do we have any details?"

Lance paused, sending a meaningful glance at Steven. "We do."

"Like?" Giovanni pressed.

"Lance… Allow me." Steven intervened.

Lance considered it for a moment. "Go on."

Every eye turned to Steven, who cleared his throat. "We have a specific Charmander in question, whose genetic typing is… interestingly, dragon/fire. His move set, to my knowledge, is composed of draconic attacks, and his inner flame is much lower than is imaginable for a fire-type. Also, his DNA is an unnatural cross-breed of a male Garchomp and a female Charizard. To my knowledge, he was found on a solitary route, from where he was picked up and taken in by a trainer."

"An unstable hybrid." Lorelei declared.

"It would seem so, but the experiments made on this… Charmander's DNA reveals that not only is this hybrid pokémon stable, but also capable of mutating to create an almost new species, with evolution."

"Then where is this Charmander?" Blaine inquired, his face holding a frown. "I expect he is already being tested out at the Labs?"

"The Charmander in question…" Lance admitted, "-is with his trainer."

"And why?" Blaine argued. "According to protocol, the Charmander must already be in League custody for experimentation."

"We have received assurance that we will be getting all the data revealed through the tests made on Charmander's DNA."

"And why?" Blaine argued angrily. "Either way, the tests could be wrong as well! Why are we accepting that at face value?" Blaine barked.

"We do when the researchers are Samuel Oak and Bill Montgomery," Steven replied from his place.

That shut everybody up.

"I am not even going to ask how Oak and Montgomery came into this business," Blaine muttered.

"Good," Steven replied merrily. "We aren't going to talk about it anyway."

"Who is this… trainer?" Erica asked softly but her voice seemed weird as if she had taken something before coming to the meeting.

Steven sighed. "Ash Ketchum."

"Ash?" Flint recognized. "The one from Pallet Town?"

"Yes," Steven muttered.

"You know him?" Blaine grunted, glaring at Flint as if he was the source of all evil in the world.

"He… defeated my son on the first go. Currently, he and my son are on a journey together."

"So…" Giovanni mused, "It seems like Steven here, knows this Ash Ketchum personally."

"You might… say that," Steven agreed.

"Ash Ketchum is… an honorary Associate of Indigo league." Lance declared in a monotone. "For reasons which are on a need-to-know basis."

"And I suppose that Mr. Stone here has a hand in his sponsorship?" Giovanni put in slyly.

"I did," Steven admitted, staring hard at the other man.

Giovanni checked in, on the laptop in front of him. In a matter of seconds, Ash's trainer profile was on his page, and he eyed through the contents. "Interesting… and quite an interesting group of pokémon under his registration." He looked up. "How long has this kid been in training?"

"I'd take a rough guess at four months," Flint answered. "He challenged my son back in April, and it was his first week of traveling, from what I remember."

"Interesting." Giovanni mused, his lips curling.

"I think we might be digressing from the point?" Lorelei rebuked everyone, much to Steven's chagrin.

"Thanks, Lorelei," Lance muttered, clearing his throat. "Intel suggests that someone out there, has been working on pokémon-hybridization, and we have a specimen to prove that. Also, we know that Team Rocket has been capturing pokémon of various types in large quantities- Beedrill from Viridian forest, the Rhyhorn population from Grandpa Canyon, Tauros from the Isle Meadow-"

"Wait, I thought that the Tauros were killed," Daisy interjected.

"They were, but stats have revealed that over forty of them were unaccounted for in the deaths," Lance answered.

"And now the ghost-type from Hoenn," Sabrina muttered.

"Rock, Bug, Ground, Ghost—anyone notices a pattern?" Lorelei muttered sarcastically.

"And we should not forget that Team Rocket has been found to have a surprisingly large number of Magnemite, Umbreon, Goldbat, and Muk under their command."

"Electric, Dark, Flying, and Poison," Lorelei commented darkly.

"And Charmander- surely, the one Ash has is not the only one out there?" Steven proposed.

"Add fire to that list, Lorelei," Lance replied with a sigh. "Nine types out of eighteen."

"You are forgetting something else. All nine types are offensive ones." Lt. Surge voiced, "And if you count this Mewtwo, then you have psychic in them as well."

"This looks more serious than I had anticipated," Erica exclaimed.

"We should not forget Mewtwo," Blaine muttered.

"Yes," Lance muttered as well, "-we have a Legendary… well, or one that might pass for one, working alongside Team Rocket, though its aims aren't… clear at the moment."

"Is it not possible that Mewtwo could be you know…?" Lorelei put it forward, not sure how to put it.

"I must confess I have given a lot of thought to that," Lance admitted. "The name Mew-two does suggest a similarity to Mew, and given the nature of his powers, or at least those that have been publicly spotted anyway, are more likely something that Mew could probably do."