The restraints weren't off the shelf. The trio had spent the entire Indigo Plateau Conference working odd jobs, pooling every coin they earned into a single custom commission: shackles designed to drain the wearer's strength.
Once locked, the cuffs were supposed to reduce their victim to five percent capacity. Meowth had tested them. The math checked out.
On a normal human, the shackles would have worked. On Ash, they were decorative.
God-level physique. The cuffs had been engineered to suppress human-grade strength. Ash's body operated on an entirely different scale. Draining ninety-five percent of his power still left him stronger than anything the trio had planned for.
Human technology could theoretically match a God being, but only with a medium tied to the target. Ash didn't shed Legendary artefacts. He had no exploitable origin item. No Adamant Orb equivalent sitting in a drawer somewhere. In practical terms, he had no weakness that technology could leverage.
The trio's month of wages and meticulous planning had produced the equivalent of a paper chain.
Ash stood up, shackle fragments falling from his wrists, and walked toward them.
They backed into each other.
"S-stay back! Don't come closer!"
"We'll scream!"
"Yeah, stay away, meowth!"
Ash stopped. I'm the one who was just handcuffed, and somehow I'm the threatening one.
"Who's flying this airship? How did you clear the entire passenger list and replace the crew?"
Meowth cracked under the pressure of Ash's stare. "We built a device that shifted every clock in the terminal forward by twenty minutes. The real passengers and crew left on the earlier flight that was still waiting at the gate. We bought out this airship ourselves. It's on autopilot."
Silence.
The explanation was absurd. It was also, on reflection, brilliant. A clock-manipulation device that fooled an entire airport terminal. A purchased commercial airship.
An autopilot system running a thirty-minute route without human oversight. Three criminals who couldn't hold a steady job had executed an operation that professional intelligence agencies would struggle to replicate.
Ash reclaimed Pikachu from the insulated containment glove, snapping the metal claw apart with his bare hands. The trio flinched in unison. He freed Brock and Misty the same way, cracking their shackles like eggshells.
"Why set the destination for the Orange Islands?" Ash asked. "If this was a Team Rocket operation, shouldn't you be taking me to headquarters?"
That was the real reason he hadn't exposed them at takeoff. He'd hoped they'd fly him straight to Giovanni, giving him a chance to dismantle the organisation at the source. He would have played along until landing if his Aura hadn't told him the airship was empty. No crew. No backup. No one waiting at the other end.
The trio exchanged looks. Something pained and lost behind the bravado.
"We haven't seen the Boss in months."
"There's a Rocket outpost in the Orange Islands run by Executive Apollo, but it's under attack by some powerful enemy. We thought if we brought him Pikachu, it might boost morale."
Ash and Pikachu fixed them with identical glares. Boost morale with a stolen Pokémon. Presented as a gift.
"If you want to help your team, get stronger yourselves." Ash's voice carried an edge that cut through their excuses. "Stop chasing my Pikachu. You have the brains to build clock-spoofing devices and buy out airships. Use that intelligence for something real."
The words hit harder than any attack. Something shifted behind Jessie's eyes. James straightened. Meowth's coin-charm caught the light.
"The twerp's... right."
"Even if we caught Pikachu, Giovanni's gone. Rebuilding Rocket is on us."
"Team Rocket's pride can't bow to other gangs, meowth! We make it great again, and the Boss comes back!"
They traded vows with rising passion, building plans on top of plans, voices climbing over each other. Ash watched them with a nod that held genuine respect for the resolve, if not the direction.
Then he said: "Good. That's the spirit. Now when we land, I'm handing you over to Officer Jenny."
Dead silence.
Three faces frozen mid-declaration of organisational rebirth.
"You were just cheering us on!" Jessie shrieked.
"Encouraging you is one thing." Ash crouched so his eyes were level with theirs. The warmth was gone. What replaced it was the coldest expression any of them had ever seen on his face. "A crime is still a crime. You do wrong, you face the consequences."
He held the look for three full seconds.
"I respect your abilities. I meant every word about what you could accomplish if you chose a different path. But I will never forgive what you've done. You've tried to steal my partner more times than I can count. The only reason you failed is that I was strong enough to stop you. If I hadn't been..."
He didn't finish the sentence. He didn't need to. The implication hung in the air between them, heavy and cold.
"If you try again, I won't hold back."
The crimes didn't disappear just because the outcomes had never been catastrophic. Intent mattered.
The trio had tried to steal Pikachu dozens of times, and the only reason they'd failed was that their target happened to be stronger than anything they could handle.
Still. They were familiar faces. Seeing the confusion behind their eyes, the look of people whose entire framework had just been dismantled, Ash allowed himself a moment of sympathy. A few words of comfort. Nothing more.
He pulled a rope from his backpack. Gardevoir's psychic hold kept all three motionless while he tied them. Against telekinetic restraints, struggling was a waste of energy. Two humans and one Meowth, bound and quiet, waiting for delivery.
The airship's autopilot was locked onto Navel Island in the Orange Archipelago. Not the Rocket outpost. Even the trio weren't foolish enough to dock a hijacked airship at their own base. The plan had been to land on Navel Island, hike to the outpost with Pikachu, and leave Ash's group shackled on the airship until someone found them.
That plan had lasted about four minutes past execution.
Without Giovanni to pull strings, jail time would be real. Unless Executive Apollo intervened, the trio would be sitting in a cell with nothing but their own ingenuity to get them out.
Their visible rap sheet was long on attempts and short on successes, which would factor into sentencing. Giovanni had cleared their earlier charges through connections and cash. Only the current offences would stick. A month, maybe. Enough to sting. Not enough to break them.
Half an hour later, the airship touched down on Navel Island.
Ash marched three bound figures across the terminal. Two humans in shredded Team Rocket uniforms and a tied-up Meowth drew stares from every direction.
The stares shifted to Ash within seconds.
"Is that the Indigo Plateau Conference Champion?"
"That's Ash! In person!"
"The Champion is vacationing in the Orange Islands?"
"I need an autograph!"
The terminal erupted. A wave of people surged toward him with phones raised and pens extended. Ash's stomach dropped. He'd forgotten what fame felt like at ground level. The post-Conference cooldown period had lulled him into thinking he could walk through public spaces unrecognised.
That was over.
"Gardevoir, Teleport. Police station."
From inside her Poké Ball, Gardevoir locked onto the nearest precinct and pulled the entire group through folded space.
The fans found empty air where Ash had been standing. Groans rippled through the crowd. Should have taken photos first.
Officer Jenny jumped out of her chair when six people and a Meowth materialised in front of her desk.
Ash placed the rope leash into her hands before she could form a question.
"Officer Jenny, these three are Team Rocket operatives. Attempted Pokémon theft, crew impersonation on a commercial airship, and operation of a private vessel disguised as a public flight. Charge them however you see fit."
He paused just long enough for Jenny to open her mouth.
"We have to go. Thank you!"
Gardevoir teleported them out. Jenny stood holding the rope, three criminals at her feet, blinking at the space where the Champion of the Indigo Plateau Conference had existed for approximately twelve seconds.
The trio's additional offences would surface during processing. Jenny's department could handle the rest.
Ash, Misty, and Brock reappeared outside a research laboratory on Navel Island. The building was roughly the size of Professor Oak's facility: modest, functional, surrounded by coastal vegetation and the salt smell of the nearby bay.
Ash knocked. The door was ajar. He pushed it open and found three young girls inside, all younger than his group, moving between workstations with the practised energy of assistants who'd been doing this for years.
"Hi. We're looking for Professor Ivy. Is she in?"
All three turned at once.
"Professor Ivy..."
"...is out back in the bay..."
"...taking care of Pokémon."