Articuno and Moltres were knocked away further back, closer to the town but not enough to cause destruction as a side effect of the battle, which left Zapmolcuno separated and attacked angrily.
The main advantage that trainers had was that their Pokemon were coordinated and had tactics, but the 3 birds were all attacking like wild animals, which gave everyone else the advantage.
Articuno and Moltres looked at the Pokemon that just tackled them, a Salamence that had Candela standing on it, and a Metagross that had Blanche on top.
Articuno and Moltres looked angrily as they both charged their respective attacks and launched them at the Pokemon, but before they collided a streak of lightning zipped past the attacks and then back into the two of them giving them a nice shock.
Appearing next to Candela and Blanche was Spark who just ordered Zapdos to disperse the attacks.
Spark looked over at the other two, "Alright, Gramps is taking care of the big one, so this time we have these ones all to ourselves!"
Blanche didn't break eye contact from the large birds, "Don't let your guard down, we may hold the advantage but in pure strength, we are outclassed."
Spark put his hand on his head in a saluting motion, "Don't worry, because as long as we work together I know we can win!"
"If only we all had your optimism," Candela shook her head, "I'll focus Moltres,"
Blanche nodded, "Spark can you provide support? I will try to contact Lance."
"Yosh, Leave it to me! (๑•̀ㅂ•́)و✧" Spark gave a thumbs up.
Articuno and Moltres recovered and launched another pair of attacks that were properly dodged and counter-attacked. As Blanche flew to the side to make the call
–
{At the League building}
Lance was with Damian who unlike the rest of the Elite 4 he told everything, including his plan to fly once he gets the signal.
Damian couldn't help but feel concerned at the frankly ridiculous plan, "Are you sure this is wise, I could go in your stead,"
"No, I can get there faster while Spark, Candela, and Blanche hold off, I would have honestly preferred to go earlier but if someone sees me the news will spread and Team Rocket will be alerted."
Damian sighed, "Very well, and I suppose you have a reason as to why you are informing me specifically."
"Yeah, while I'm gone I need you to take care of things here, I don't know how long this will take, I know I can get to Cinnabar in about 10 minutes, "
Damian took a second to compose his thoughts, "I can see why you need a stand-in, but couldn't you have contacted someone else?"
"Unfortunately the rest of the members of the Elite 4 have a personal bias, and the only other People I can trust to do this are either not in Kanto or Johto or just retired, so that leaves you."
"Ok, but final question, why does it have to be you," Damian narrowed his eyes, "Is this just about your public image or is there something else?"
Lance felt himself tense, "Yes, this isn't just about renown…" Lance said looking out of the window, "There is another reason because of the previous incident but I don't have the time to explain it, maybe another time."
Before Damian could say anything the computer rang showing a message from Blanche saying that the attack started and they couldn't stop Zapmolcuno.
"Well it looks like my time is up," Lance said as he jumped on his Charizard, "I don't know how long this will take but take care of things for me here."
Then before Damian could protest Charizard's wings flapped sending a strong gust of air as Lance went to the sky and flew as fast as Charizard could go, the target was Cinnabar Island.
—
Looker and Anabel were taking care of as many Grunts as they could with Croagunk and Snorlax, but even with how weak most of the Grunts were, the more they took down the harder it was to take down the next because of fatigue.
At the moment they took down 10 more but they were still being surrounded, but at the moment they were just buying time.
As it looked like more grunts were piling in suddenly a group of armored police with Machamp and Arcanine by their side and riot shields.
"You all freeze, under orders of the International Police you are under arrest." one in the front said.
The grunts saw this and their once confident faces immediately fell as they all yelled "Scatter" and ran around like headless chickens.
The Police separated following grunts and separated into groups to cover more ground, meanwhile one man in less riot gear than the others approached Looker and Anabel.
"Good work you two for holding out for so long," The Captain said, "We sent the search and rescue squad out for now. We need to hold Team Rocket back until we find their goal, have you anything new to report."
"There's more than we initially thought, but we know they are coming in from one of the bathhouses from the center of the town," Looker said as he looked at all the members of the team and noticed something.
The man nodded, "Very well, we shall secure the perimeter, for now, you may take any number of Team members to go investigate this place you're talking about."
Looker looked down at Anabel receiving a nod as he looked back up, "Very well, Anabel will join the assault Team, I'll go in with… Agent Cole" Looker said as he pointed directly over to an armored man who was snooping in the conversation.
Cole was surprised, for one part he was frustrated that Looker knew about their secret passageway, but on the other hand, he smiled under his mask as he felt his plan would be much easier than he thought.
Cole walked up and took off his helmet, "I heard my name, am I needed?"
The Captain looked at Cole, "Yes you are to follow Looker to a place he believes the Rockets are coming from, cover each other's back, and report back if anything happens."
Cole saluted but on the inside was smirking.
–
Brock, Misty, and Yellow were fighting as many grunts as they could see as they helped escort people to safety from all the Team Rocket chaos. Ash separated from them saying he would find more people but hasn't returned yet.
"Graveler [Rollout]!" Brock commanded as Graveler spun into 3 Team Rocket Pokemon and sent them away as they ran past.
Misty sent out a Pokeball, "Starmie [Ice beam!]" Starmie shot a light blue beam that froze the ground and the Grunts' feet to said ground.
"Hey let us out"
"Brr, that's cold"
"I forgot my boots!"
Misty caught up to Brock as they kept running, "How is everything looking?"
"Yellow stayed with everyone we found to protect them in case anything happened, as for Ash I still don't know where he is but I did find some knocked-out Grunts so I can only assume he is doing fine."
Misty sighed and rolled her eyes, "Knowing him, he probably went off on his own to find whoever's in charge."
"I know you think you're Proving a point, but that doesn't comfort me in the slightest," Brock said in a blank tone.
"Sorry, force of habit," Misty said, struggling to keep up with Brock.
When they met up with Yellow again they were suddenly approached by armored men with Pokemon, everyone stood on alert as one of the ones in the front pulled out a badge.
"Identify yourselves!"
Brock noticed and recognized the badge so he eased up, "You're the International Police right, that's good I am Former Gym Leader Brock, these two are my friends and companions Misty and Yellow."
"And what is it that you're doing," he said noticing they were protecting People
"We are attempting to bring as many people as we can to safety," Brock answered, getting a nod from everyone else.
"Very well, you have done well but we will take it from here, although you 3 are more than welcome to stay and join the fight," he said as some Police members started escorting the civilians out of the way.
Brock looked at Yellow and Misty who both looked at him with a complicated expression.
"As much as I want to just leave it to them, we can't exactly do anything even if we do," Misty said scratching her head
"And Ash is still out there fighting Team Rocket," Yellow said
"Yeah, it looks like we're stuck right in the middle of another Team Rocket invasion, so this time let's try and stop as many as we can!"
–
{Back with Ash}
Ash was running through the town, he knew what was behind this, but the problem was where they were so he could take care of them. He didn't know where they were but he had a pretty good idea on where to start.
As he was running Pikachu took care of any Team Rocket Pokemon he could find, then Ash would take care of the Grunts after, how you may ask, with the spell called Fist.
While he was running he noticed someone, 2 People actually, Gary and Green fighting at least 15 grunts side by side with their Blastoise and Venusaur.
Ash took a detour and ran towards them to help them out, but he also checked something with his Dex
–
[Blastoise(M)]
[Glacial Slam - gain Ice STAB, can learn any Ice type move.]
[Venusaur(M)]
[Tera force - gain Ground STAB, can learn any Ground type move.]
–
He couldn't help but let out a whistle, those were pretty good, Oak doesn't skimp out, is what he would say if he didn't sell his Charizard.
Anyway when he got close he tossed Pikachu in the air, "Pikachu use [Thunderbolt]"
Everyone was taken by surprise by the sudden new arrival, and before they could react a Bolt of lightning hit all the grunts and Pokemon leaving them extra crispy.
Ash ran over as Pikachu jumped back, "Hey guys you're welcome for the save!"
Gary scoffed, "Please that only happened cuz we softened them up, I was about to take them all down if you didn't butt in."
Green got in the center, "Not the time Boys, we have a situation!"
"Your right, you two should get to safety and I'll take care of everything," Ash mocked, specifically at Gary
"Hey, in case you forgot we're just as strong as you, probably even more now!"
"Sure keep telling yourself that number 2, anyway I am going ahead. I think I know who's behind this so I don't want defenseless People getting involved." Ash said as he started running again.
"Wha- why you, I'll show you!" Gary said as he ran after Ash.
"Hey don't forget about me Boys, I'm not being left behind!" Green said as she ran after them.
—
Meanwhile, as this was going on Cliff, Arlo, and Sierra arrived near the volcano only to look up and see the battle between the legendary birds and; Spark, Candela, and Blanche.
Cliff grunted, "What now, should we try and take care of those guys?"
Sierra shook her head, "No need, we can just wait, and when they are all tired we can strike and take Zapdos as well."
Arlo nodded as he cleaned his glasses, "I suppose that would be the optimal move, but until then what should we do, I doubt this will be over in anything less than 10 minutes."
Sierra turned to the town and saw all the grunts run around causing as much panic as they could, "I suppose we could always join in the fun down there~"
They nodded as Cliff released Tyranitar and Arlo let Scizor out as well, "I suppose we can join in as-"
Then they were cut off by the sound of a voice, "[Thunderbolt]!"
Before they could react a bolt of electricity shot true and hit the ground they stood on and shocked the two Pokemon.
Cliff covered his mouth from all the dust and then swiped through the air, "Who's there!"
A familiar voice came from the direction of the attack, "Well, color me surprised, it's you 3 didn't expect to see any of you since the S.S. Anne, well how fortunate 'we' still need to pay you guys back."
As the dust cleared it revealed Ash, Gary, and Green standing and blocking the path, "This time we aren't as defenseless as last time"