Red Eyed Master

Chapter 17

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I DO NOT OWN POKÉMON.

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"Hello" – Speech

'Hello' – Thoughts

"Hello" – Pokémon speech/Aura/Psychic communication

'Hello' – Pokémon thoughts

[Hello] – Pokédex Entries

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Ash quietly slipped into the darkened conference room. He frowned as he realised that he'd missed the first half of the conference, and then he'd therefore missed the original point of attending said conference in the first place. The Professors and those attending had switched to arguing about current events and technology.

'Better to listen and learn, then to interrupt the conference,' Ash decided. He turned to Luxray and smiled as the feline pokémon was watching everything from her place at his feet – her gaze surveying the room for any and all threats.

Ash twitched in irritation as he spied several of the assisting Junior Professors glancing at him in some sort of reverence to his contributions to the fields of Pokémon Research, so he refocussed his attention to the main presenter as he argued about the relativity of DATA obtained via questionable means ... aka Team Rocket or other criminal organisations.

Ash was more than happy to drown their petty arguments out until someone stepped out of line.

"Well, Bill was always crazy," a Junior Professor spoke from the other side of the room. "So we all know why he was comfortable working with Team Rocket then, right?"

Silence permeated the room as Ash's chair scrapped ominously loudly across the floor. He then stood and eyed the man down, his Aura barely restrained by the fool that dared to speak out against his dearly departed friend. A distant thought told him to seek assistance from someone regarding his erratic Aura soon, but that was instantly squashed down as he glared at the man that was now looking decidedly uncomfortable. Luxray eyed the situation and subtly prepared to defend her trainer.

"Ah, t-the floor recognises Ash Ketchum," the main speaker coughed into his microphone.

At the mention of the scary teen's name, the room tensed. They all knew of the infamous Ash Ketchum and his breakthrough findings in the world of Pokémon Research, and they also knew that he was close to Bill.

"You sir," Ash spoke. "You do not know of what you speak. I can only assume that you are newly promoted as I do not recognise you either, but you clearly have an overtalkative senior Researcher as your head. Whether or not it was ethical for Bill to be working with Team Rocket is not the base topic of this conference, nor will I allow you to spread your false information so carelessly."

No one dared to speak, and Ash took it as a sign to continue.

"Science, ladies and gentlemen," Ash spoke clearly – glancing at each eye on him. "Science and Research is the reason we are here. We are not to dismiss the continuation of science and research purely on who discovered what. Ethically, Team Rocket and the various other criminal organizations use their research to further their own ends ... but do we not also do the same? For example ... your Infinite Storage System for Pokémon and items alike was designed by the criminal organization that preceded Team Rocket. The Pokémon League took that research and used it to further the lives of everyone in this room."

That started murmurs of agreement in the senior Researchers, but Ash continued. "I can assure you, sir, that if Team Rocket discovered a breakthrough in the fields of Pokémon Research, then I'd scrutinize everything that pertained to that breakthrough ... but I wouldn't dismiss the information either."