Glitter Rocks

 

“How dare you!”

 

“No, how dare you!”

 

Butch and Cassidy glared at the team of Jessie, James, and Meowth, who glared back as equally as deadly. The five of them had been sent to Geosenge Town to infiltrate the Team Flare Headquarters, but they had never gotten along, especially Jessie and Cassidy.

 

“You make a horrible red head,” Jessie hissed at Cassidy.

 

“I do have red hair!” Cassidy protested in indignation.

 

Jessie laughed obnoxiously. “Yeah, right!”

 

“It’s strawberry blonde! It counts!”

 

“Does not!”

 

“Does too!”

 

“I always thought Cassidy’s hair was golden blonde,” Butch muttered.

 

“Was anybody asking you, Brett?” James snidely asked.

 

Butch glared at him. “It’s Butch! Butch!”

 

“At least I’m a natural, real red head,” Jessie sneeringly grinned.

 

“So what? No one in this stupid Team Flare are natural red heads!” Cassidy narrowed her eyes, quietly arguing her point.

 

“Their boss Lysandre is,” Jessie muttered.

 

“Bah! Who cares about him! Giovanni’s the best!”

 

The five of them took a moment and then nodded in agreement. That, at the least, they could agree on.

 

“What’s going on here?” one of Team Flare’s scientists stormed up to the group, having heard most of their argument from even a distance away. Not hard, considering this group’s voices.

 

Blue-haired, visored, and wearing her customized Flare outfit, they recognized the Flare scientist Mable right away. The high-ranked member equivalent to their Rocket Executives was not as intimidating as any of them, but then again the five undercover Rockets were used to the likes of the sadistic Proton, deceivingly laid-back Petrel, and the unmentionables Ariana and Archer.

 

Cassidy plastered on a smile and then pointed accusingly at Jessie. “It’s her fault. She accused me of not being a natural red head.”

 

Jessie huffed and crossed her arms. “Well, she isn’t. Truth hurts.”

 

Mable snarled at them. “I don’t care! We need to get moving. Apparently Xerneas escaped from the Lumiose base, and we need to go looking for it. That or if we run across Yveltal. At this point, either one will do.”

 

The five of them exchanged looks, hiding discreet smirks.

 

“Yes, ma’am!” they chorused.

 

Mable eyed them before turning on her heel and leaving them behind.

 

“Sabotage?” James nearly cackled.

 

“Sabotage is a go,” Butch clapped his hands and rubbed them eagerly.

 

 

“Meowth, that’s right!”

 

“We should be heading to the Kalos Power Plant now, yeah?” Ash asked, yawning as she stretched in her seat. She adjusted her seat belt, but she still felt antsy.

 

Giovanni hmmed, reaching to grab his cup from the cup holder and take a drink of his coffee.

 

“We should be on the way.”

 

“I wonder if Serena and Lysandre are hitting it off,” Ash mused aloud. “That would be nice.”

 

Giovanni’s eye twitched. “Don’t. Just…don’t.”

 

Ash smirked at him. “Why not? Don’t want to be lumped in with him in the ‘Bosses Who Like Younger Females?’”

 

Giovanni slammed on the brakes, and then turned to stare at her. Then he face palmed.

 

“No, just no! One, like you said, it’s just a ‘you’ thing. Just you, Ash! And for another, I’m trying not to think how Lysandre is attracted to you as well, otherwise I might race back there and beat the hell out of him. That’s not even including the fact I do not want to be lumped together with him, especially on that.”

 

Ash laughed lightly. “Relax. I just thought they make a nice couple, and Lysandre might actually really come to like Serena. I know she’s already interested for sure.”

 

She took off her seatbelt and headed over to him, careful not to distract him from driving. She hugged him from the side.

 

“And don’t get jealous. It’s a ‘you’ thing too,” she grinned widely. “Even if a jealous you is kinda cute, Mr. Macho.”

 

He grunted and didn’t answer her, but his face said he was much more mollified. She shook her head and leaned in to kiss his temple. She teasingly pushed him slightly at the same spot after.

 

“Hey, I kinda really, really like you,” she said sincerely, giving him a genuine, tender smile that made him feel oddly soft inside, not that he would ever admit that.

 

She squeezed his shoulder and then walked to the back of the RV, Persian and Pikachu joining her after leaving their previous spots at the RV’s table booth.

 

“I might kinda love you,” he muttered to himself.

 

He glanced back in a hurry, and relaxed when he saw that she was gone and wouldn’t have heard him. Geez, she was turning him into a sap…

 

“Hey, Giovanni!” making him tense up.

 

“Yes?” he called back, after hearing her yell from the back of the RV.

 

“Let’s take a stop at the Glittering Caves, yeah? Diantha told me there were some really pretty crystals around, and that it even had some fossils. Wanna check it out really quick?”

 

“Is it on the way to the power plant?” Giovanni asked, reaching over for the map.

 

“Yep!”

 

He took a quick glance and noted she was right.

 

“Okay,” he answered and sped up a little. It would be good to try to cut some more time, if they were going to take this side trip.

 

“Thanks, babe!”

 

 

Giovanni rolled his eyes and stepped on the gas pedal a little more.

 

Ash twirled around, looking at all the pretty crystals. She leaned closer to a wall and gently touched one, watching as the glow of the crystal alighted onto her fingers while she felt the smoothness of its surface. Likewise, by her feet, Pikachu leaned in towards the glowing wall of crystals and was mesmerized.

 

“Enjoying yourself?” Giovanni asked in amusement.

 

“Yes,” she huffed at him. Pikachu echoed her.

 

A loud sound echoed further from the cave and they traded looks.

 

“We could leave,” he suggested.

 

“That would be boring,” Ash raised an eyebrow.

 

Giovanni smirked. “It’ll be more exciting if I get to threaten and beat up whoever it is.”

 

Ash snorted and gave him an exasperated look. She turned him around towards the direction the sound came from and started to push him, while Pikachu climbed up on her and settled himself on her shoulder.

 

“Try not to traumatize people who don’t need to be traumatized.”

 

“No promises,” Giovanni laughed at her and winked at Pikachu, who gave him a thumbs up behind Ash’s back.

 

Together, they navigated the cave until they ran across a Team Flare grunt about to take a fossil from a frazzled scientist.

 

“Stop!” Giovanni said in his best authority voice, just to see if he could sound like a cop.

 

“In the name of love~” Ash sung, continuing off from what he said. He gave her an odd look and she grinned unapologetically. “It’s a good song,” she excused herself.

 

“This is really weird,” Giovanni told her. “You’re off singing Arceus knows what, and I’m doing a good thing. I’m saving someone from being robbed. You know how ironic that is, right?”

 

“Completely,” Ash agreed. “I feel like I’m rehabilitating you and you’re corrupting me.”

 

“You’ve always been corrupted,” he muttered under his breath, eying the weirded out Flare grunt and the hesitant scientist. “Alright, give back the fossil and get out of here, or else you’ll regret facing off against us.”

 

The Team Flare grunt scoffed. “Never!” He released a Zubat and looked at them challengingly.

 

“You want to take this?” Giovanni asked his wife curiously.

 

She blinked.

 

“You know…to be honest, I never get why you Teams always go for a battle, and not just run away or do something. Y’all are criminals after all,” Ash scrunched up her nose. “But if we’re doing pokémon battles anyway, I don’t see why we have to follow conventional rules in criminal matters either.”

 

She and Giovanni understood each other and grinned viciously at each other and then at the Flare grunt. Giovanni called out his Charizard and Nidoking, and Ash called out Nidoqueen and Persian. Pikachu just volunteered himself, eager to be amused.

 

The Flare grunt yelped and hurriedly tossed out another pokémon, and a Houndour appeared. But the Flare grunt glanced at his two pokémon, both who were only at level 18, and then looked at the intimidating group in front of him.

 

“Forget it! You can have the fossil!”

 

The Team Flare grunt recalled his pokémon and ran out of there, escaping from their path. Both Giovanni and Ash (even if Giovanni wouldn’t admit it) pouted at the missed opportunity.

 

“Ah man. I was looking forward to beating that guy’s butt,” Ash said in disappointment.

 

“Pika!” Pikachu grumbled. Persian came over and patted Pikachu’s head in consolation, which Giovanni unknowingly mimicked with Ash.

 

“Um…”

 

The scientist made a squeaky sound as they directed their attention to him curiously, and he held out two fossils.

 

“Please accept these fossils in my gratitude!” he thrust it at the two of them, making them fumble to catch their respective fossil, before he too turned and ran.

 

“Wait, what are these?” Ash yelled after him.

 

“He has the Jaw Fossil and you have the Sail Fossil!” the scientist yelled back behind him, his voice echoing through the cave.

 

“What a strange man,” Giovanni noted in amusement. He examined his fossil, pleased by it and wondering if him being able to get all this stuff and good luck nowadays was a byproduct of being around Ash. He eyed her speculatively, and quietly chuckled at his wife’s lucky aura.

 

“It’s pretty,” Ash smiled to herself. “I like it. I wonder what pokémon it’d be?”

 

“We can check later, and maybe even revive them with a fossil machine that’s been in the works for the past few years,” Giovanni told her. “I think we should get out of here though.”

 

“Wait, no!” she suddenly said in a panic, grabbing hold of his arm. He looked at her questioningly and her face flushed. “So, yeah. I may have had an ulterior motive in coming here.”

 

This time surprise coated his questioning look. She fidgeted slightly before finally dropping to one knee, and then fumbling to grab something from her jacket pocket.

 

He furrowed his eyebrows. “What are you doing?”

 

“Giving you your ring!” Ash said in frustration, finally grabbing the ring box and then thrusting it towards him, opening to reveal a platinum band with a very pretty, special stone set in it. “One of us has to at least get on their knee for this type of thing!”

 

Giovanni tried to fight off a smile, though his eyes lingered on the stone and started to work out just what it was.

 

“Is that…is that a Mega Stone?” he almost gaped.

 

“Yes. Augustine gave me a Charizardite X and Y for us both, since we both have a Charizard that we’re pretty close to,” she told him, and though he twitched at the mention of Professor Sycamore, he was touched about this gesture and thought it was rather sweet and adorable, and made him want to take off with his wife and go off and have fairytale endings and maybe some naughty stuff…definitely some naughty stuff…definitely, definitely some naughty stuff –

 

“So?” Ash brought him back to the present, still kneeling and holding out his ring.

 

He was ecstatic to receive a Mega Stone too.

 

“You only kneel for proposals, you know?” he teased. “No need to get down on one knee since we’re already married.”

 

Ash stared at him before scowling heavily. She got up and threw the box at his head, which bounced off it to land behind him.

 

“Ugh, you jerk! Forget it.”

 

Giovanni panicked and turned around, dropping to his knees to grab the box. He swore when he saw it was empty.

 

“I’m sorry! I was just teasing you!” he said, searching for the ring. “Persian! Help me look for it please.”

 

Persian contemplated it for a moment, before a glare from his owner made him snicker and go help. Pikachu, feeling sorry for the guy, went to help as well.

 

Giovanni stopped and gave her a reticent look. “Look, I really am sorry. I was just teasing you and I do appreciate it. I loved the ring, and I’m just as surprised and happy to get a Mega Stone with it.”

 

She glared at him for a moment, before she let up and walked over. She held out her hand and there the ring was.

 

“I slipped it out of the box before I threw it,” she mumbled.

 

Pleased, Giovanni held out his left hand and looked at her expectantly. Rolling her eyes but grinning too, she slipped it onto his ring finger.

 

“Why here though?” he asked her as he admired his own ring, almost like how she repeatedly did.

 

Ash scuffed her shoe against her other shoe. “I thought it’d be romantic, with the romantic setting, the glowy light, and the pretty crystals and all…”

 

Giovanni watched for a moment, which made her fidget even more. Then he smiled widely, making her freak out, before he walked over to her and picked her up into a bridal hold.

 

“W-what are you doing?”

 

“I’m going to carry you to the RV so I can make sweet, sweet love to you,” he crooned.

 

“But-but we still have to head to Cyllage City and Shalour City before we get to the power plant!”

 

“Not until I make love to you~”

 

Pikachu and Persian stared at each other before shaking their heads at their trainers. Pikachu then held up a familiar pokéball with a mischievous grin, and Persian purred in delight.

 

 

Well, they could use the time to teach Litleo a few more things.

 

Serena hummed happily to herself, enjoying her hot chocolate as she sat across from Lysandre. She was really glad that Ash had managed to set her up like this. Even though she’d wanted a relationship like Ash’s, she didn’t think she’d be able to find something like it, and especially now so quickly after deciding that. But she really had come to like Lysandre, so this was just great!

 

Her phone beeped, alerting her to a message. Grabbing it and seeing it was from Ash, she read it quickly and had a grin grow on her face.

 

“Aw, that’s so sweet! Ash got to give Giovanni his own wedding band, and went and did it in Glittering Cave to make it really romantic!” She missed Lysandre twitching, since he hid it by taking a sip of his coffee. “I would be so happy if I’d been proposed to like that!”

 

Lysandre then proceeded to choke on his coffee, causing Serena to be alarmed and reach over to pat his back.

 

“Are you okay?!”

 

Lysandre finally calmed down and gave her a strained smile. “Yes, I’m alright.”

 

Serena then realized what she said and what it sounded like, blushing herself. “Er yeah…not that I’m talking about marriage already or anything.”

 

He continued to smile in a strained way, though a light coating of pink showed up on his cheeks. Another beep had Serena look at her phone.

 

“Huh, this is from today, while that other message was from a few days ago. There must be some kind of delay on the messages or something,” she observed while looking up the newest message. She couldn’t help squealing. “They’re in Cyllage now, and it looks like Ash is challenging the Cyllage Gym! Oh, it’s so cute, Lysandre! Since you have to climb up a rock wall to challenge the gym leader, Giovanni’s climbing it while Ash is holding onto his back. Someone must’ve taken the picture for them.”

 

Lysandre’s jaw loosened slightly, though he outright gaped as Serena held out her phone and showed him the picture she was talking about, with Giovanni hanging onto the indents of the rock wall and in the middle of climbing, while his wife was holding onto him from behind, wearing a very pleased expression.

 

“That’s…marriage, I suppose,” he answered hesitantly.

 

Serena agreed thoughtfully before she happily leaned over and kissed his cheek, taking a selfie of them at the same time. Lysandre’s face turned fully red then.

 

 

Well…he supposed marriage might not be so bad or even…too far off.

 

“Report,” Giovanni ordered his subordinates on the phone, while he and his wife drove through Geosenge Town.

 

As much as they could use this opportunity to deal with the Team Flare base, they knew it held the weapon there and that they needed time to gather as much information on it as possible, before they went off and did something stupid like blow it up and maybe damage the whole town if they were being reckless (no matter how much they were tempted to blow it up).

 

There was a scuffle on the other end, clearly heard by the two who shook their heads together. They could guess Cassidy and Butch and the JJM unit were fighting each other. Again.

 

“Suppose we tell them they’re fired if they can’t get along while talking to us?” Ash suggested, saying it clearly.

 

Sounds of the scuffle immediately stopped on the other end, and Giovanni smiled at his wife’s ingenuity and scheming self. James was the one who started talking then, filling in Giovanni and Ash on the details of what was going on in the base, the most important of which was the search for either Xerneas or Yveltal.

 

“I guess you all should continue to keep an ear to the ground,” Ash said thoughtfully. “Keep listening and don’t do anything overt to reveal yourselves, though anything useful and you should contact us.”

 

“Do what you can to stall or sabotage anything that will help us, but what she said. Don’t bring attention to yourselves and make yourself suspect to any suspicions,” Giovanni added on.

 

“Yes, Boss and Miss Boss!” the group chorused, and Giovanni looked over at Ash to see her pleased look. He hung up on the Rocket infiltrators. “You enjoy that, don’t you?”

 

“Absolutely,” Ash didn’t sugar coat it, smiling smugly as well. “I think I would have gone on to create my own Team, if I hadn’t ended up owning half of yours.”

 

Giovanni chuckled and continued to pass through Geosenge and make his way passed the other routes and towns, so that they could head to Shalour and attain another badge for Ash.

 

“Hey, that was nice of Grant to take that picture of us on his climbing wall, wasn’t it? I’m going to use it as my wallpaper.”

 

“I look like an idiot in that photo.”

 

“…But my idiot?”

 

 

Giovanni could live with that consolation, he supposed.

 

“You ready?” Giovanni asked her.

 

She was pouting though. “I’m ready to face Korrina, but I would have liked to have mastered Mega Evolution.”

 

“You’ll get it,” Giovanni was also disappointed at his own lack of progress, having been attempting it with her.

 

Although, at least he just had his Charizard, Maximus. Ash had her own Charizard, whom she’d requested from Professor Oak the moment they entered Cyllage City, but she also had to work on evolving Litleo too. Although, Pikachu and Persian had been training Litleo as well as Ash’s own crazed training, so he wasn’t really doubting Litleo’s capability to evolve.

 

“Korrina is all fighting-types, so since you have Charizard…” Giovanni semi-lectured.

 

Ash waved him off. “Yeah, I know. Flying beats out fighting and all.”

 

Giovanni eyed her, wondering if she really was going to stick to that. According to the JJM reports, she had a tendency to not always go with the type advantages.

 

“Relax, I’ve got this,” she told him, but he was still eying her.

 

She ignored him and started to walk towards the gym, Pikachu hanging onto her head while Persian walked beside her. Giovanni sighed and followed after her.

 

The Shalour Gym loomed ever closer and Ash’s excitement became even more palpable. Once in front of the doors, she turned to him and he waited to find out what was wrong.

 

She coughed gently, looking at him shyly. “Good luck kiss?”

 

Of course he had no problem with that and swept her into his arms and kissed the daylights out of her, before letting her back down and going into the gym.

 

“I challenge the gym leader!” Ash called out, before Korrina skated into the gym, accepting the challenge. “I choose Charizard!”

 

Ash’s Charizard came out with a loud roar, puffing up proudly. Korrina called out her own pokémon.

 

“Alright then! I choose Machoke!”

 

Both Ash and Charizard looked scarily alike as they stared down the opposing team, with Machoke eying them warily.

 

“Machoke! Leer!”

 

“Leer back, Charizard! Make it a dose of the Glare from Hell variation!” Ash called out in answer to Korrina, adding on hers and Charizard’s special tidbit and making the rest in the room sweatdrop.

 

Charizard did indeed give one hell of a scary Leer, causing Machoke to drop his own attempt at it and flinch back.

 

“Now beat him in an arm wrestle!”

 

Giovanni whipped his head towards her. Then he shook his head rapidly.

 

“What are you doing?” he hissed at her, but she just gave him a thumbs up.

 

Hilarious enough, Charizard did as Ash ordered, and Machoke didn’t protest and entered the arm wrestle competition.

 

“Slam him to the ground!”

 

Korrina sputtered, actually getting into it. “Machoke, slam him into the ground!”

 

“Now, Seismic Toss!” Ash changed it up.

 

Charizard gave another loud roar and grabbed Machoke, easily pulling off a Seismic Toss that knocked Machoke out as soon as the fighting-type pokémon slammed into the ground. Korrina winced and recalled him, before calling out a Mienfoo. The Mienfoo didn’t show any signs of being intimidated, moving into a martial arts stance. Charizard huffed out some smoke in aggravation and boredom.

 

“Double Slap, Mienfoo!” Korrina shouted, and the mustelid-like pokémon jumped high and performed the move on Charizard’s face.

 

Charizard was completely unaffected, and ended up thrusting out a claw and slapping the Mienfoo harshly into the ground. Dazed, the female Mienfoo tried to get back up, but then Charizard slapped her back down. This time Mienfoo stayed down.

 

Korrina cringed back, looking at them incredulously. Charizard postured and roared around, while Ash laughed in triumph in the background.

 

“M-Mienfoo, good job. Come back!” Korrina then took out her last pokémon and threw it, revealing a Hawlucha.

 

“Charizard, come back,” Ash surprisingly said, making everyone there look at her like she was crazy. Then they did more so when she called out Litleo.

 

Giovanni came over and grabbed her arm. “What are you doing?!”

 

She winked at him and gave him a thumbs up. “I got this. Don’t worry about it!”

 

“Litleo’s weak against fighting-types. She won’t win against Hawlucha. Charizard had the advantage!”

 

Ash patted his arm. “Relax. We’re fine.”

 

Korrina started, yelling out her first order. “Hone Claws, Hawlucha!”

 

“Dodge it, Litleo! Keep dodging!” Ash cheerfully said.

 

“Power Punch!”

 

“Dodge!”

 

Giovanni could heartily admit that Ash, Pikachu, and Persian did a hell of a job on Litleo’s speed. The pokémon was practically a speed demon.

 

Ash suddenly gained an unholy glint in her eye. “Dinner time, Litleo! Let’s get us some fried chicken! Get the bird!”

 

Giovanni’s eyes bulged out, especially when Litleo snarled and then started chasing the poor Hawlucha, throwing out a Flamethrower every once in a while, with the intent to roast the avian pokémon.

 

“Fried chicken, Litleo! Yum!” Giovanni grabbed his wife and put his hand over her mouth to muffle her, but she kept cheering while the three crazy, insane pokémon (he knew Charizard would be like his owner too) next to them continued to cheer loudly as well.

 

Korrina screamed and stopped the match. “Okay, okay! You win! Here’s your badge already. Go get some KFC or something!”

 

Ash slipped out of Giovanni’s hold and then headed over to Korrina, accepting her next badge happily.

 

“You know, that’s not a bad idea,” Ash commented. “I’m pretty hungry.”

 

Giovanni buried his face into his hands.