"V-Vel?"
"Shannon." I greeted her while trying to mask my exhaustion the moment we met. Going toe to toe with a Rocket Executive, while kind of expected to happen, wasn't right up there on my to-do list ever since Operation Unity was a go. I'm lucky that Looker arrived when he did and that none of my pokemon suffered fatal injuries.
"A-Are you o-okay?! Oh shit do we have a first-aid kit nearby or something maybe even alcohol wipes at least and-"
"Shannon," I repeated myself to try and calm the flustered girl down. My haggard look right now probably isn't helping my cause. "I'm fine, really. Looker is battling Archer right now. Hopefully, he can retrieve the catalyst from him."
"You found it?" Shannon asked in surprise.
"Kel found it, to be exact." I replied. "But what's the status right now? Is there anything else that we can do?"
"Uhm, I do know that the Indigo forces are prioritising evacuation efforts while the Pillars are handling Zapmolcuno." Shannon fidgeted uneasily as her anxiety visibly set in. "Even Mewtwo has arrived to help, so it should be fine, I think."
"Mewtwo?!"
"Y-Yeah. It's surprisingly friendly though, maybe because I'm the Mind's Eye thingy…?"
Shannon's voice descended into a whisper towards the end so that only I could hear her. Our shared secret is not something we'd like others to know.
"Perhaps." I answered with a slight frown. Does our… power? Whatever that is in any case. Does it actually have an effect on legends too?
A songful cry resounded across the battlefield as our eyes spotted a new player into the game. A large white figure with wings let out a roar as the ocean heeded to the call of its power, erecting powerful psychic barriers over Olivine while firing pressurised shots of air at Kanto's very own protectors.
"That is Lugia that we are looking at, aren't we?"
"Y-Yeah. Arrived less than a minute ago." Shannon stuttered. "And uh, Lugia's appearance gave us an unexpected finding. The energy it is giving off is kind of… I don't know how to describe it in layman's terms, but we are starting to be convinced that Lugia's powers are necessary to help separate Zapmolcuno back into what they were before this. Nova had sent word back to us that what we needed to find are a pair of ruby and sapphire crystals. We suspect that the combination of those crystals and Lugia's power are what we need to stop this."
"Ruby and sapphire?" I racked my mind to try and remember if I ever saw any of such items on Archer in the short bout we had. I drew up a blank, but then again Archer could have hidden it away somewhere on his person or at some secluded corner of the world. I can only leave it to Looker to grill the information out of Archer if he manages to defeat him somehow.
Hopefully, Looker is strong enough to defeat Archer. He should be capable of holding his own if Dad's words about him are anything to go by.
"So… what are we going to do now?"
"We… We've done all we could on our part. I guess it's just like what Looker said. We need to have faith." Shannon admitted as we watched the battle unfold together with the rest of the R&D team. Bill, Fuji, and everyone else, we are all watching and praying in our hearts that whoever is risking their lives out there fighting for Johto's survival will win this war and live to tell the tale.
"-ker. -Bzzt- is Agent Looker. Does anyone copy?"
"Looker!" Shannon called out in excitement as she immediately answered the transmission. "This is Shannon speaking! You need to bring the catalysts to Lugia! We don't know how exactly it will work, but it's highly possible that Lugia's powers and the catalysts are needed to revert the birds back to normal!"
"I will get the stones there." Looker reaffirmed from the other end of the line. "But if Lugia is needed, then we probably will need Ho-oh to be here too. I doubt that Lugia alone can stop Zapmolcuno even with Mewtwo and Zygarde helping out. Has Eusine sent word back?"
"This is Vel. Kayla had gone to look for Eusine, no word so far."
"I see. Keep an eye out for any news of them, I will be making my way to the battlefield now. Looker out."
I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding until Looker cut the transmission. It seems that Looker has won his battle against Archer even if I didn't know how he did it. Wasn't Archer an extremely skilled trainer even by the standards of a Pillar? How did Looker win in such a short period of time?
I closed my eyes for a brief moment to reorganise my thoughts. The mystery surrounding Looker can wait. Right now, I need to focus on trying to track Eusine and Kayla down. If Ho-oh and Lugia are needed to stop Zapmolcuno, then we need to track Ho-oh down ASAP.
"Shannon, anything we can use here to track Eusine down? Or more importantly, Ho-oh?"
"Uh, uh…" Shannon quickly looked around her to check if there is anything that can aid us in our search. She came up with nothing.
"S-Sorry, Vel. We didn't manage to bring everything out before we evacuated. These are all the tools we have left and none of them are suited in-"
"Shannon, relax. It's fine, I understand." I quickly calmed Shannon down before she turned into a nervous wreck once more. I had lost touch with Kayla for quite a while now, so trying to locate Eusine through her is a bust. Still, is there any other way for us to contact Eusine?
"-one there? This is Guardian, anyone there? Goddammit is this thing -bzzt- spoilt?"
"Akamu?" I quickly answered the new transmission. "Akamu! This is Vel! I can read you! Hello? Akamu? Can you hear me? Akamu!"
"-bzzt- you? Oh thank God someone -bzzt- up. Yes I can read- bzzt- too. Listen, I'm -bzzt- Eusine and we -bzzt- are at Bell Tower to summon -bzzt- I repeat, we are -bzzt- to summon Ho-oh. Hold Zapmolcuno at Olivine for -bzzt- long as you can!"
"We hear you! Lugia, Mewtwo, and Zygarde are holding it back! Be quick about it, Zapmolcuno's strength gets progressively stronger with every second! We cannot hold the line forever!"
"Copy that. Guardian over and out!"
I allowed myself to release a little of the tension within my shoulders. Akamu and Eusine are at Bell Tower trying to summon Ho-oh. This is good, this is good.
I turned to some of the STAR forces nearby who, like me, can do nothing but watch the fight unfolding before our very eyes because we are too weak to be of any help in regards to the battle ahead. However, things have changed now. There are things that we can now do.
"STAR forces, if there is anyone available, please send some of your forces over to the Bell Tower to assist Akamu and Eusine to summon Ho-oh! No, if there is anyone that can teleport us to the Bell Tower right now-"
"Don't worry, kid, I heard the transmission too. We got this." A man who I estimate to be in his thirties reassured me before turning around to bark orders at the men behind him. "Squad Eight! Any teleporters available?!"
"Sir!" A hand shot up into the air immediately. "My psychic is still able to teleport four people to Bell Tower and back!"
"Good! You, and you, you two tag alone with us too! Rest of you that are staying here, eyes sharp! Assist wherever is needed, whenever you can!"
"Yes sir!"
The team of four teleported away without any further ado. I looked back towards the scene of battle taking place above Olivine's sea where legends that you could only once read about in fictional tales are duking it out with their full strength. Evacuations are mostly complete by now and from the looks of it, the casualty count has been reduced to the lowest possible even if I cannot say the same about the damages done to the city. Jasmine may have protected the city from total annihilation, but whatever that took place thereafter had still destroyed a considerable part of the city that was nearer to the coastline.
A visible swirl of darkness rose up from the ground before disappearing altogether when it reached the height of Lugia's flight. That was a really powerful Shadow Sneak and the only people who can use it in that manner are extremely skilled Ghost Specialists like Agatha or Morty. That could have been Looker as well, if he really is as skilled as people claim to be. Maybe Looker had joined the battle and is currently hitching a ride on Lugia's back.
"R-Rainbow! Rainbow! It's a rainbow!"
The excited cheer from someone nearby had all of us looking upwards into the sky. Our gaze followed the direction which her finger was pointing at and true enough, a rainbow is now visible in the sky. Johtonians have a unique fondness for rainbows due to what it represents in their land, it was the promise that their Guardian of the Skies had given them since ancient times.
This time, I cannot help but really smile. Things are really turning out for the better.
Ho-oh has arrived.
A bright burst of whitish blue flames descended from the skies as a loud cry rang out clearly for us to hear. That same cry was accompanied by a songful one as Lugia flew up to join its counterpart in fulfilling their duties as Johto's guardians. We watched as both majestic creatures unleashed their signature moves in tandem, Lugia's Aeroblast fuelling the flames from Ho-oh's Sacred Fire as the flames shone in seven colours of the rainbow and engulfed Zapmolcuno whole. This time, Zapmolcuno let out a real cry of pain, something a lot more different from when it cried out when it received injuries from the previous attacks afflicted on it.
Two separate glows could be seen enveloping Johto's guardians. A deep blue glow shrouded Lugia while a fiery red one covered Ho-oh as they used their combination move once again on Zapmolcuno, the light produced from their attacks brightening the entire sky until everything in my vision turned white as Zapmolcuno screech of pain continues to ring loud and clear.
"Ow… My eyes…"
I could hear Shannon's painful groan as I tried to blink out the spots within my vision that were caused by the light produced by that blindingly bright flame. I squinted and tried my best to make out the results of the battle ahead, something which I am sure everyone else around me is trying to do as well.
Had we won?
A beautiful yet mournful song could be heard just as my sense of sight is starting to work once more. Zapmolcuno is nowhere to be seen and neither are Lugia and Ho-oh. The dark clouds that had always accompanied Zapmolcuno's presence had also disappeared, in its place a clear blue sky with a rainbow overhead. The sea had been calmed instead of the raging torrent it was while under Lugia's control during the battle. It's as if the battle taking place just seconds ago had never happened.
The song had caught us all in a trance until it ended as suddenly as it had come, and it was then that everyone started to snap ourselves back to reality. A swirl of shadows occurred near me as three very familiar figures emerged from it.
"Looker? Nova, and Skye? How… What…"
"We won." Looker stated. He is obviously exhausted even if I feel that he hid it well. "Lugia and Ho-oh have successfully stopped and separated Zapmolcuno into their individual selves. Both Kanto's and Johto's legends have left Olivine. For now, the battle is over."
There was a murmur before it shortly erupted into a cheer. People are hugging each other and crying it out. Some are kneeling on the ground in a prayer, some are simply relieved. In any case, like Looker said, the battle is over.
For now.
"That… was really crazy. You wouldn't believe it." Skye said between breaths as she walked over to Shannon and I before promptly sitting down on the ground, her exhaustion evident. "Oh shit, wait till Falkner hears that I actually rode Lugia into battle. He's going to chew me a new one."
"Y-You were t-there?! On Lugia?!" Shannon stuttered in shock. I didn't say anything, but I am as shocked as she is. Skye suddenly appearing here was one thing, but how did she end up riding Lugia into battle?
"Who else do you think got Lugia out of that stupid island?" Skye pointed to herself and Nova and grabbed the canteen attached to her belt before greedily chugging a large mouthful of water. "Ah, that's refreshing. Want some?"
"Thank you." Nova grabbed onto the canteen and gulped down its contents, albeit a lot more gracefully. "You know, I am starting to think that Volkner and Akamu had the right line of thinking. If this is the kind of situation we have to deal with every single time... Is it too late to quit the interpol?"
"Yes, it is." Looker stated blandly from where he is standing behind us, looking pretty unimpressed at our topic of discussion.
"I'm going to ask for a damn raise."
"You know what, me too." Looker agreed with a cross of his arms and an exhausted sigh. "We were lucky that we were able to get Lugia and Ho-oh involved in time. If they didn't appear when they did…"
"Yeah, bye bye Johto." Skye quipped. "Speaking of which, is it fine to just let Kanto's birds…"
"They will be fine. Like Lugia said, when combined, Zapmolcuno is nothing but an irrational mess of anger and power of unparalleled strength. When separated, however, they are Kanto's best guardians."
'Not doing a very good job at being Kanto's guardians if they can be so easily captured and manipulated, if you ask me.'
The sudden voice in our heads made us all jump. It was not helping when Mewtwo suddenly appeared in front of us just a few feet away.
'Can you humans stop acting so jumpy all the time when you see me? This is getting annoying.'
"Mewtwo." Looker greeted with a controlled voice but I can see the tension from the subtle change in his body language. "How can we help you?"
'Has the annoying one been captured? Killed? Served justice? Or any scenarios similar to those stated above and not in that particular order?'
"Annoying one?"
'Oh right, you guys gave him a name.' Mewtwo replied with a mocking roll of his eyes. 'Giovanni, that is who I am referring to.'
"Last I checked, Professor Oak had gone to personally stop him. We will have to wait until he checks back again."
"Uh, I dropped the professor outside Violet City, near to where the entrance of the Dark Cave is." Skye spoke up in a hesitant voice. "If that helps…?"
'Dark Cave? Violet City?' Mewtwo's eyes narrowed a little before an unnerving smirk appeared on its face, one that sends shivers down my spine just by looking at it. 'The annoying one might still be alive? Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant. I am still not quite done with my murder spree.'
And doesn't that just sound like sunshine and rainbows?
"Wait-"
Mewtwo disappeared before any of us could get anything across, leaving us staring at an empty space.
"Oh shit, I just screwed things up, didn't I?" Skye blurted out.
"Nobody could have predicted that. At least, Mewtwo's targets are obviously the Rockets and Giovanni, so I guess we could count it as an ally." Looker reassured her with a somewhat grim look on his face. "Although its hate towards Giovanni is within reason, its murderous personality is a little… concerning."
"M-Mewtwo was really polite to me when we first met though…" Shannon said timidly. "I-I d-don't think it really is… that cold-blooded... usually…"
"Whatever it is, someone has to keep a lookout on Violet City if that is where Mewtwo is heading to. I will handle that personally. As for you guys…"
Looker turned to face us, catching our attention.
"Take a break. You deserve it."
Looker disappeared in another swirl of shadows as soon as he said that, leaving us alone.
"I need to find and report back to my squadron, there is definitely still work for me to do and people to rescue." Skye said as she stood up and dusted herself. "Uh, see you guys soon, I guess? Whenever I see you guys again."
"Stay safe!" Nova waved back just as Skye released her pidgeot out of its pokeball. Skye gave us one last wave after she climbed up onto her pidgeot's back and seconds later, she and her pidgeot are nothing but a speck in the sky.
Wow, that's really fast.
"So, what do we do now?"
I decided to just not give a goddamn care about appearances and lay with my back on the ground to appreciate the beautiful rainbow overhead. I'm simply too exhausted right now.
"What Looker said. We are taking a goddamn break."
Character and pokemon list:
Velda Vera, Age: 13, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Member of the International Police
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
6) Charizard (Toothless), male
7) Cradily (Lily), female
8) Espeon (Rena), female
9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male
10) Tyranitar (Kratos), male
11) Cleffa (Joy), female
12) Nidoqueen (Ness), female
13) Pangoro (Hulk), male
14) Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
15) Scizor (Archer), male
16) Lapras (Chill), female
17) Gengar (Wacky), male
58
It came to nobody's surprise that whatever happened on 16th June, Year 530, became an international incident that shook the world to its core. The revelation of the tons of misdeeds conducted by the President of Indigo, Team Rocket's motivations and the leader behind it, the massacre of more than 80% of Indigo's cabinet in the stadium itself, the war that broke out on the day of Indigo's founding; any single event is a huge topic of discussion alone, the controversies behind them are enough to spark a new rebellion if not handled properly.
With the Indigo Government practically disabled with the assasination of nearly their entire cabinet, there was no other choice but to implement wartime measures where the reigning Champion takes over the reins until a new ruling body is reinstated. Professor Oak and Lance had not gotten a single break ever since the entire fiasco started and not only did they have to clean up the mess in Johto, they also had to pacify the angry Kanto masses.
People like Professor Oak, Blaine, Bill, and Agatha were the reason why Kanto had not yet revolted. They are influential figures that are highly respected by people from all walks of life or from any part of the world, and them condemning Giovanni actions and claiming that what he did goes against SKIP's ideals was probably the only thing holding the angry Kanto masses back and not sparking another Kanto-Johto war. Of course, that alone means that all former and surviving members of SKIP had no choice but to stand up once more to claim responsibility for what they had previously done for Kanto in order to make their homeland a better place. They can no longer hide in the shadows, they are now forced to come out into the light.
Personally, I feel that the revelation of the tragic fact that Professor Oak's and Agatha's granddaughter being kidnapped by Kain under Project Illusion was what cemented Kantonian's support for them, but that is an opinion best kept to myself.
With Kain's disappearance and the disclosure of his crimes, Lance had stood forward to take responsibility for everything that happened on National Day. The public's opinions are torn into two main factions. One faction accused him for being a failure of a leader during his reign as Champion for not noticing the rot within Indigo sooner, something which Lance accepted and admitted wholeheartedly. An equally large faction supports him, citing that things would have been a lot worse if Lance and his Pillars had not reacted quickly to the situation, stating that the casualties would have increased by at least tenfold and Johto would have fallen if it wasn't for Lance's quick response and leadership in taking charge of the entire situation. Some also blamed the previous Champions and Presidents for Indigo's current state, many are rioting to change the current system as soon as things settle down, and there are a minority choosing to sit on the fence.
Since the situation is already extremely chaotic as it is, the fact that the best possible outcome was only achieved through the aid of a double agent from Project Illusion was never made known. Nobody could foresee how the disclosure of such information will affect the current situation. We are barely struggling to maintain the fragile peace and the last thing the Indigo wants is for a new factor to topple it.
To put it simply, everything is a mess, but even then, the general vibe I am getting is that people are temporarily putting their differences aside to clean up the mess because the one-day-war we had with Team Rocket had resulted in a large number of casualties and damage to nearly every single town and city in Johto. The images of the aftermath of the battle against Zapmolcuno that took place in Olivine were also horrible enough for people to temporarily put aside their differences to aid those in need. The outcome of our war against Team Rocket would have been a lot worse if we were caught unprepared, of course, but the number of people and pokemon who had died is still an astronomical number.
The other ramification that resulted from this is the revelation of Mega Evolution to the public. Our war with Team Rocket was too harsh, forcing many trainers to utilise the power of Mega Evolution in public view to defend Indigo. There were too many witnesses that saw the process for Indigo or the PWL to hide that secret for any longer and thus, the existence of Mega Evolution is now being forcefully brought to light. Strict laws were immediately implemented by all member Leagues of the PWL regarding the ownership and usage of any items relating to Mega Evolution, although the bare knowledge of the power was still released to the public. Most of that knowledge was released and written in such a way that the public easily understood the reasons why such a power was not made public knowledge. Most of the released knowledge of Mega Evolution pertains to the downsides of it, like how the misuse of the power led to widespread death and destruction in the warring era, the harmful side effects to the pokemon in question, irreversible impacts to the ecosystem and so on and so forth. Again, Lance took responsibility for the inevitable revelation of such dangerous knowledge to the public. I'm not sure what kind of penalties he and Indigo might face from the PWL for this and frankly, I don't think I would be privy to this matter. What I do know for certain is that until the situation in Indigo has been stabilized, Lance will still be her Champion because right now, there is nobody else more suitable to lead Indigo.
It's been two days since that one day war. While I wasn't directly involved with the big mess outside, I was kept busy trying to help the interpol to fix what we could. Nova had been pulled to reorganise and analyse the huge amount of data seized, especially those released on the internet by Team Rocket. Shannon and the research team are involved in securing and studying the artifacts relating to summoning Kanto's and Johto's legends, ensuring that they can never be misused again. Skye had reported back to the Rangers. Volkner is hospitalised together with his wife, both suffering injuries and had lost several of their pokemon when they were defending Olivine and are in no shape to get involved any further for now. Akamu and Mary had brought back an orphaned baby from somewhere during the entire mess, saying that Mary had saved him from Team Rocket when she was helping out at Mahogany and they had decided to adopt him after finding out that he has no known parents. That baby is a boy, but seeing as how the child's name is Silver and that he has red hair, I have a gut feeling that the couple might have connections with Team Rocket that nobody is aware of. Even then, none of us reincarnated souls said anything about the matter. Now is not the time and if Akamu wants to talk to us about it, he will, and we do trust him.
Giovanni had escaped. Currently, I am assisting Looker to search for clues that might help us locate where Giovanni and the remaining Rockets had escaped to. As far as we know, Executive Ariana is also alive. Professor Oak and Skye had given their accounts about their encounter with Giovanni and from that, we also know that Executive Plague is gravely injured and currently in Giovanni's hands, and we now have confirmation that he is Lance's mysterious informant that we had been searching for, the double agent and sole survivor of Project Illusion. In fact, Executive Plague had helped in defending Violet City by single handedly holding Giovanni back, preventing him from personally leading the siege on Violet City and buying enough time until Professor Oak arrived to stop Giovanni. Professor Oak had also somehow retrieved blood samples belonging to Executive Plague from the site of the battle for the purpose of DNA testing and it was soon confirmed that he is indeed Grimsley's long lost son, Jayce.
What we do have, is Plague's pokemon that Skye had rescued and recalled back to their pokeballs from the scene of the battle. While Giovanni had succeeded in grabbing Plague and whisking him away from us, he did not manage to achieve the same for his pokemon. Grimsley had demanded possession of these pokemon when the DNA test confirmed that Plague is his missing son kidnapped by Kain many years ago. Lance had given Grimsley his implicit permission to do so. Hopefully, Grimsley would be able to get Plague's pokemon to work with us in tracking Giovanni down because they would have knowledge of many of Team Rocket's secret hideouts simply because their trainer was one of Team Rocket's Executives.
"I don't think these files here have what we need," I told Looker as I dumped a pile of files on a nearby table. I've been looking at these ever since the war ended. None of it pertains to information that might clue us in on where Giovanni and his lackeys might have disappeared to.
"We need to find him as soon as possible. The sooner we do so, the sooner things will calm down outside," Looker sighed as he leaned back against his chair to catch a short break. "And then there's Kain."
"Still no clues about him?"
"A separate team is on the case," Looker replied. "Our assignment is locating and apprehending Giovanni."
"And who will be the one bringing him in, assuming we found him? He is someone that even Professor Oak did not manage to capture."
"The Indigo Pillars are not there for show. Besides, Mewtwo have expressed an explicit interest to take part as well."
"We are letting it participate?"
"We don't have a choice if it wants to. That is a pokemon that went toe to toe with Zapmolcuno and the last thing we need now is to earn its ire. Do you think that right now, there is a way for us to put it down without us paying a heavy price?"
Good point.
"So where is Mewtwo now?"
"With Grimsley. Seems to have taken a liking to him," Looker spoke while opening a new file to browse through. "But as long as Mewtwo is on our side, it's fine. Could have been a lot worse."
It's true. Things are looking bad right now, but it really could have gotten a lot worse. Our situation right now is already the best we could hope for.
"The last thing Indigo needs right now is for the leaders of Team Rocket to be seen as martyrs and inspiring extremists to follow their example," Looker went on. "Thus, how we deal with Giovanni after his capture is also a sensitive issue, but that is Indigo's problem. Our immediate concern is locating him. The sooner he is locked behind bars, the sooner the unrest will quell."
"What do you think will happen to Giovanni if we really do capture him?"
"While it's true that he had the best of intentions when he first started out, it does not change the fact that he had committed countless terrorist acts for two decades behind the name of Team Rocket. That alone is enough to give him a death sentence. But enough of that, did anyone make any progress in tracking Giovanni down?"
"Jarvis is still working on it," I informed Looker. "Nova and I are going through the hardcopy files we retrieved and there's nothing we picked up so far. Are they really still in Indigo? I mean, if I am Giovanni I would leave Indigo as soon as I can, lay low till the entire storm dies down before striking back. They could have already left the borders and are planning for their next comeback."
"Given Giovanni's obsession with Kanto, I doubt it, and I am not the only one who has the same view," Looker said while crossing his arms. "Although, maybe, you are not entirely wrong. They could be still within Indigo but at the same time, already left its borders. If so, it would explain why we still had not picked up any trace of Giovanni's whereabouts."
"What?" I asked, feeling extremely confused. Looker simply pointed to a spot on the huge map laid out on the centre of a large table.
"Ever heard of the Sevii Islands?"
As it turns out, Looker's hunch was right. Giovanni and his remaining faction of Team Rocket, whatever little is left of it, had fled to the Sevii Islands.
Jarvis started to pick up clues of Giovanni's whereabouts on the fourth day after the war ended, narrowing our search down to the Sevii Islands. It wasn't long before the scope of our search narrowed down to Five Island, or more specifically, a large warehouse hidden on the Five Isle Meadow. From what I had heard, Five Isle Meadow is a flat grassy plain of land that is usually devoid of human presence. However, care needs to be taken if we are to hold our final battle with Team Rocket over there, because the current dry climate and the scorching weather makes it very easy to start a wildfire in such a location. Furthermore, it will be difficult to mask our advance towards Team Rocket's final hideout, also due to the fact that there is hardly anything on the flat plain for miles that we can use to hide ourselves. As much as possible, we do not want Giovanni and his goons to see us coming until we strike.
We could teleport ourselves right in front of the warehouse for the element of surprise, but Teleport only works if the psychic pokemon in question has been there before and is familiar with the destination in mind, and as it turns out there are very few psychic pokemon who is good enough with Teleport and had visited Five Island prior to this. Due to the low population on Five Island, there is very little military presence there and none of them will be of any use to us in such a high stakes operation, meaning that Indigo would need to bring their own troops from the mainland. Even fewer ever visit the desolate Five Isle Meadow, and thus getting a psychic pokemon skilled enough to teleport enough people right in front of Giovanni's doorstep for a surprise frontal assault is not going to work.
That was the main consideration we faced until Elite Four Will had chipped in with an idea. Apparently, when Teleport had failed to work back at Indigo Stadium after Team Rocket had turned its defense system against us and trapped the Indigo forces within during National Day, Volkner had taken a leaf out of my book and had his gallade Shadow Sneak the Indigo Elite Four around to resolve that problem. Volkner's gallade was the reason why the Indigo Elite Four managed to resolve that unforeseen crisis as fast as they did. If Volkner's gallade, a non-ghost type, could do that, what about ghosts with strength comparable to it? How far could they stretch the limits of Shadow Sneak, a method of pseudo-teleportation?
Thus, Morty was dragged into this operation as well because he is the only Ghost Specialist among us with ghosts whose strengths are Pillar level in power. Agatha would have joined, but she is too old to be taking part in such an operation and frankly, she is still needed in Kanto because her presence alone is able to calm and pacify the masses while Professor Oak and the surviving members of SKIP continue to work on cleaning the big mess Team Rocket had started.
On Agatha's recommendation, I am also now actively involved in this operation too for no other reason than me having command over a small army of ghosts. While most of my ghosts are far from skilled in using Shadow Sneak individually, what they lack in quality, they make up for in quantity. Ghost Specialists are a rare breed and their numbers are little no matter which region you are in. Right now, Indigo needs as many skilled Ghost Specialists as they can find.
Even with me and my ghosts handling most of the transportation duty, there is still a limit on how many people we can bring along for this operation because not every ghost that follows me is proficient enough in that move for our liking. Having psychics to transport the main bulk of our forces is still the preferred and most reliable option, but is not an option readily available to us due to the unique terrain of Five Isle Meadow and also because we really need the element of surprise if we are to go against Giovanni of all people. We have no idea what to expect at Giovanni's final stronghold. Thus, dealing a crippling blow before they could react to our arrival is our best and safest bet of putting them down for good.
So, with that in mind, a plan was finally agreed on. An elite team will be sent ahead first, transported by Ghost Specialists via Shadow Sneak to deal a crippling blow on their stronghold when they least expect it. The main force will be following close behind, they will arrive later through more conventional means and provide support soon as they can. After testing the limits of our ghosts' usage of Shadow Sneak, it was decided that we could at most bring along an additional five small squads of Indigo STAR forces along with the elite team we have in mind.
Lance and his Elite Four going on this mission is a given. Indigo Gym Leaders are still having their hands full with cleaning up the mess in their respective cities so none of them will be coming along other than Morty for reasons explained earlier. Grimsley was adamant on tagging along because he believes that the warehouse is where Giovanni had brought his son to, Elesa is also coming with us because of Grimsley's presence in this operation. All combatants within the interpol will also be part of the elite team simply because we are better than most trainers in terms of capability. The main forces will be accompanied by several members of the foreign dignitaries like Steven, Lucian, and Siebold.
And so, without further ado, we set off for the Sevii Islands.
Sevii Islands are located far south of Kanto mainland. They are an archipelago consisting of the islands that according to the folk tales passed on among the natives from one generation to the next, are named as the Sevii Islands not because the archipelago consists of seven islands, but because they are made in seven days. Nova did tell me that there is a more obscure tale saying that there are actually nine islands instead of seven that made up the Sevii Islands, but there is no evidence thus far in regards to the existence of the remaining two islands. If they exist, they haven't been found yet.
Due to how far the Sevii Islands are located away from the Kanto mainland, heading there via teleportation is impossible unless you are a psychic on the level of Mewtwo, who sometimes sticks around us for a short while before disappearing to who knows where doing who knows what. Thus, the only way to head to the Sevii Islands is through the sea, which is where the speed of Drake's S.S. Fury comes in handy.
For this operation, time is of the essence. Every second passed is an extra second for Team Rocket to go further into hiding and that is not an outcome we want. Thus, our journey towards Five Island became terrifyingly swift because Drake sailed us there at the fastest possible speed, ignoring any possible obstacles that might cross our paths. There is no obstacle that his S.S. Fury cannot overcome because not only is his ship packed to the brim with Indigo's elite trainers, Pillars are also onboard and of which, two are Champion level trainers. Wild pokemon trying to get in our way? A roar from Lance's dragonite scared away even the bravest of gyarados within seconds. The raging sea currents and whirlpools not allowing us to pass? Siebold's water types will quell them in the blink of an eye. Oh, a thunderstorm ahead? The weather is not in our favour? Do not worry, because Steven Stone will work his magic and dispel it at the snap of his finger. Any other physical obstacles that might block our way? A Hyper Beam from one of Drake's dragons will obliterate it and if that wasn't enough, another two or three more shots will definitely do the trick.
So, yes, that was the most terrifying ship ride I had ever been on. The worst part of it was that I had never adjusted well to being on a ship and almost always got seasick. The S.S. Fury sailed at such a fast speed, causing the wind to whip at my face with so much force that I was forced to put on my goggles to protect my eyes whenever I stepped up on deck. In the end, I ended up spending most of the trip within the shared cabins simply because I don't feel as disoriented there. I never knew ships could sail that fast and a part of me is convinced that Drake had definitely made some illegal modifications to his ship for it to be that impossibly fast.
"Luckily I brought along motion sickness pills," I grumbled to Nova as we both rested on a couch as the S.S. Fury continued to rock and sway in our mad rush to the Sevii Islands. I know for a fact that a few of Indigo's Rangers and STAR forces are already experiencing motion sickness because I had already handed out some of my pills to those who really needed it. The cabin that the three of us chose to huddle in is a very small one and there's only the three of us here right now. Looker is in some other room, probably doing some last minute planning that we are not involved in. Shannon is still in Johto busy analysing the relics relating to Zapmolcuno that we retrieved from Team Rocket.
"Definitely the rockiest ride I had ever been on, and definitely not getting a five star rating from me," Nova concurred before turning to Akamu, who doesn't seem to be the least bit affected. "How are you not affected at all by all the swaying?"
"Alola's waters are way worse. This is pretty tame for me," Akamu replied with a shrug.
"I don't even want to think about it," I shuddered at the thought of experiencing an even rockier ride than the one I am currently on. The door to our cabin opened at that very moment as a familiar face came into view.
"Hey, miss me?"
"Skye!" I waved her over immediately. I knew she was part of the main force that will arrive to support us later and thus, will also be on this ship, but I haven't seen her until now.
"Which cabin are you at?" Nova asked as we made space for her to sit. Skye plopped herself down and pointed towards her left.
"Walk down the corridor on your left, go down the first flight of stairs you see, third cabin on the right, that's where my squadron is. Well, technically, I am not supposed to meet you guys like this, but I suppose nobody would question if my toilet break takes a little longer than usual if I, you know, was too busy puking my guts out in the toilet thanks to this crazy ride."
"I have motion sickness pills. Need some?"
"Nah, I'm fine. Couldn't be a good flier if I feel nauseous whenever I experience some turbulence. My Ranger friends though… well, can't really say the same for them, but they will be fine." Skye took another look around before asking another question. "Don't see Volkner anywhere. Is he not on this ship?"
"Volkner is in the hospital. Nothing life threatening, but enough to put him out of commission," I quickly explained.
"Oh," Skye said in realisation. "Well, as long as he is alright, I guess. It's a freaking miracle that we are still alive after the kind of shit we've been through that day."
"But being able to ride Lugia into battle is so worth the trouble, right?" Nova teased with a knowing smirk. "I've gotten myself a few of its feathers too. You know, for collection purposes."
"You didn't," I gasped, only for Nova to reply with another smile.
"I totally did."
Lugia's feathers. Oh now I'm so jealous.
"I did too. Now I'm keeping it on me at all times for good luck." Skye unzipped her Ranger jacket and showed us the shiny silver feather tucked securely within the inside of her jacket that will lay over where her heart is whenever she wears it.
"That's so cool. I want one."
"Count me in," Akamu added.
"Calm down, boys and girls, I got enough for everyone," Nova said exaggeratedly. "I have enough to ensure that all seven of us will have a feather each. Having a common identity and all that."
"That will be so cool. Imagine all seven of us going into battle with one of Lugia's feathers each. These feathers are priceless." Skye let out a laugh at the thought. "So what are we now? The feather gang?"
"If only we managed to get some of Ho-oh's feathers too…" Nova said dreamily with a sigh.
"Someone's getting greedy," Akamu teased with a smile, prompting another laugh out of all of us.
"Alright, I have to return to my own cabin before my commander realizes that I am actually not in the toilet," Skye told us as she stood up from her seat and made her way towards the door. "See you guys later, and stay safe."
"You too, Skye."
At the speed Drake is going at, it wasn't long before an announcement was broadcasted throughout the entire ship, calling for all personnels involved in the advance party to head to the Five Islands to gather on the deck and get ready to take off. We don't have the luxury of time to properly dock the S.S. Fury if we don't want to give Team Rocket time to detect the ship's presence and prepare themselves, so what we will be doing is to simply make our way there before they realise that we are here.
We quickly made our way up to the deck as soon as the announcement was made. I wore my goggles over my eyes and had the oxygen mask designed into my combat suit cover my face immediately because Drake's ship is not slowing down in the slightest.
I can already see the five squadrons of STAR forces on deck preparing to take off the moment the signal is given, four of them accompanied by a member of Indigo's Elite Four each. I released Snap, Toothless, and Fuzzy from their pokeballs, knowing that we will take off anytime soon. Fuzzy is raring to go if his excited squeaks are anything to go by.
Grimsley and Elesa are also on deck. Grimsley is standing at the edge of the deck, face grim and arms crossed with his gaze fixed on Five Island far ahead as we get closer and closer to it. A honchkrow perched itself on the railings next to where he is at. Elesa has an altaria beside her, one that she borrowed from Lance because she does not have a suitable pokemon on hand that can ferry her through the skies. Nova faces the same problem but I had told her that I will be loaning Snap to her for this operation, so she does not need to worry about not having a suitable pokemon to fly her there.
The Electric Specialist waved me over the moment she spotted me. We had been introduced to each other the moment the respective teams were finalised and when we were briefed by Lance about our respective roles in this operation.
"Vel! Over here!"
"Elesa, Grimsley," I greeted with a slight dip of my head while trying my best not to trip with how bad the ship was swaying as I walked towards the two Unova Pillars.
"Oh, you have a pachirisu?" Elesa said in a cheery tone as she held out her hand and allowed Fuzzy to climb along her arm. "He's pretty cute, and I can see that you take great care of him, not like I'm expecting any less from a Vera."
"Thanks," I replied as my gaze went down to the two emolgas just standing beside Elesa. "Your emolgas are cute too."
"I know, right? This is Mimi, and that is Nana." Elesa pointed to the emolga on her left followed by the one on the right. "They may be cute, but they can pack quite a mean shock too."
"I don't doubt it," I said with a smile, because there's no way a pokemon on a Gym Leader's main team will be weak by any means. I squatted down and held out my hand towards the two emolgas, who sniffed at my hand curiously.
They are really, really cute. I can see why their species are so popular among Unovans and are often kept around as companion pokemon. Cute, easy to raise, and simply good company to have altogether.
"Hey Grimsley~ Want to join in the conversation?" Elesa called out over the harsh howling of the wind.
"No," Grimsley grunted without even turning to look at us, his sights still fixed on Five Island. "Why don't you call Morty and that Dragon Master over instead? They are still not here."
As if proving him wrong, a dark pool of shadow swirled beside us and Morty and Lance made their appearance. The Indigo forces on deck saluted Lance the moment they spotted him and Lance returned the greeting, allowing them to be at ease.
"When are we making our way there, Champion," Grimsley sneered at Lance the moment he spotted the Indigo Champion. Ever since I was first sorted into the same team as him, I soon realised that it is no secret that Grimsley did not like Lance or Professor Oak one fair bit and it doesn't seem like he sees Indigo in any sort of favourable light. If anything, it's like he dislikes anyone and anything relating to Indigo.
"The moment Drake gives us the go ahead," Lance replied as he walked towards the last squadron of STAR forces to take a leading position. If he is bothered by the blatant disrespect Grimsley is showing, he did not display it. Lance released his dragonite out from its pokeball as a drifblim emerged from Morty's shadow. "Let's do one last comms check before heading out."
The comms check was completed within a minute and it wasn't long before Drake's booming voice was broadcasted once more.
"First wave, thirty seconds to take off! Please prepare!"
"There's our signal," Morty said with a grin as his drifblim's appendages wrapped around his body. I climbed up on Toothless' back, Elesa doing the same for the altaria beside her and Lance for his dragonite. Grimsley didn't move and neither did his honchkrow. Nova is already riding on Snap's back and Akamu's ditto has already transformed into a noivern with him and Looker on its back... Wait, when did Looker appear on the deck?
Where Five Island was but a mere speck on the horizon just minutes before, I can now see it growing larger and larger within my field of vision.
"Take off in five, four, three, two, one! Take off!"
Upon hearing Drake's shout from the speakers, we shot off into the air as one, including Grimsley, who I did not manage to see how his honchkrow went from idly perching on the railings to grabbing onto Grimsley's shoulders with its talons and bringing him into the sky within a split second. In fact, Grimsley is somehow faster and ahead of us, leading the way. Lance reminded us of our task at hand once more as we made our way there.
"Remember the plan! Search for the warehouse at Five Isle Meadow! The moment we confirm its exact location, Ghost Specialists will bring us down ASAP with Shadow Sneak! Prioritise Giovanni's capture!"
The Five Isle Meadow soon came into view as we lowered our altitude without slowing down. Grimsley stretched out his left hand to grab our attention and his voice rang out from the comms.
"This is Grimsley, I have visual. Straight ahead, about 700 meters. Morty, please advise."
"The safest limit we can go is at about 400 meters with such a large group and our current speed."
"This is Lance. Get us in at 500 meters, we will close the remaining 100 meters by foot immediately after landing. It's faster and safer that way," Lance ordered. "As discussed, the Elite Four and their squadrons will surround the warehouse and block all exits. My squadron and I will break down their front doors and create a distraction. The rest is on you, interpol, Grimsley, Elesa."
"Roger that." Looker's voice sounded over the comms, which was followed by Elesa's.
"Don't need you to tell me what to do." Grimsley's scratchy voice could be heard, but we are used to his prickly personality by this point. It wasn't long before Grimsley's voice could be heard once more.
"500 meters in five, four-"
I gave a mental tug at my shadows and felt them responding to my call. The darkness of my shadow quickly enlarged and split up, swiftly attaching themselves to the people around us. Morty's ghosts are doing the same thing as well, they are just doing it a lot smoother than mine are.
"-three, two, one. Now."
We were immediately engulfed by the darkness and when we were out in the light once more, we were simply flying about ten meters above the ground at the estimated 100 meter mark. We wasted no time in making our landing, releasing the pokemon we needed the moment we touched down and charged right into battle.
"They spotted us! Incoming!"
Will's warning got us to look up and true to his words, attacks were already being hurled our way from the direction of the warehouse. Guess we weren't being as sneaky as we thought we were.
"Leave it to us! Akamu!"
Akamu cooperated with Looker in a manner that could only be achieved with years of working with each other. Looker's sableye threw up a huge barrier of Protect as Akamu's ditto glowed and transformed into what I recognised as Stakataka, an Ultra Beast. Akamu's ditto placed itself right in front of our group, easily tanking the assault without budging an inch. Nova's ground types bellowed, and evenly distributed walls of earth rose in front of us in the next instant across the stretch of 100 meters that we had to cross to get to the warehouse, providing us enough cover from Team Rocket's assault to make our way there.
Will and his psychics promptly disappeared before reappearing right in the middle of our attackers, easily dispatching them and reducing the pressure on us. We took this opportunity to quickly close the distance before Team Rocket could come up with another plan. If there's one thing we learnt about Team Rocket during our war with them, it's that they are scarily efficient. We need to act before they do if we want to retain the momentum we gained from our ambush.
"Vel, take Bruno and his squad closer towards the warehouse with Shadow Sneak!"
I immediately commanded my ghosts to do what Looker had ordered, telling Dolly and Wacky to take a small group of ghosts with them to do just that. Our ghosts allowed Bruno and the STAR squadron under his lead to reposition themselves as they clashed headon with the Rockets that were starting to swarm out of the warehouse. Lance and his dragons are making quick work of the Rockets who are trying to sneak potshots at us from the rooftops, allowing us to maintain aerial supremacy.
"So much about having a plan, nothing is going according to plan," Grimsley's snarky muttering could be heard over the comms before an explosive Dark Pulse forcefully blasted a considerable number of Rockets backwards along with their pokemon.
"Grimsley, take Vel with you. Her ghosts' Shadow Sneak may be what you need to extract your son out of there. Vel, go with him."
"You heard Looker, girl. Hurry up and come over here, we don't have all day."
"On my way," I replied as I tried to keep the irritation out of my voice. "Bigblue, Kratos, open up a path for us!"
With a roar, Kratos fired a Hyper Beam, obliterating everyone in our way. Bigblue moved the earth to allow Flamel to easily bring me through the path Kratos opened up for us without getting harassed. I quickly recalled them back into their pokeballs the moment I reached the end of the path to prevent them from getting overwhelmed and met up with Grimsley, who was in the company of a sinister team of dark types and in the thick of the battle at the forefront.
"Whatever you do, don't slow us down," Grimsley eyed me for a brief moment before deciding on a course of action. "See that houndoom in front of us? All the pokemon near it belongs to my son. If he is really here, then his pokemon are our best bet in tracking him down. All we have to do is to locate my son before the battle heats up and everyone here starts to indiscriminately attack anyone, friend or foe, and extract him out of here. Locate, extract, run, you get me?"
"Yeah, crystal."
"Good. We will be moving our battles indoors soon, so recall your bigger mons and only use those that are suitable for fighting in enclosed spaces. Don't fall behind," Grimsley instructed me before barking an order at the largest hydreigon I had ever seen in my life, one whose eyes are burning with such an obviously insane gleam that I cannot help but wonder if Grimsley had truly tamed this monster.
"Hydreigon, erase them all!"
To my horror, the hydreigon called upon a Draco Meteor down on our location just as an exeggutor erected a powerful dome of psychic barriers over us. The ground shook as the attack promptly disintegrated everything in the vicinity. The only reason why we are still alive is thanks to that exeggutor, who barely seems strained despite throwing up psychic barriers strong enough to withstand a hydreigon's assault. It is surprisingly adept at defense.
"Hydreigon! I leave it to you, drapion, and tyranitar to secure our exit! Everyone else, get in! Move!"
Grimsley's tyranitar and the hydreigon immediately began a murderous assault together with an equally menacing drapion, sowing enough mayhem among the Rocket's ranks to allow Grimsley and I to sneak our way inside. Grimsley wordlessly signalled for me to stick close to his son's houndoom and the pokemon around it before he and his own team split up and took on another group of Rockets that were meeting us in battle from another direction.
Alright, so much for working together. We still ended up splitting up our search.
I heeded Grimsley's orders and stuck close with the team of dark types the houndoom is leading. I wanted to help out the houndoom and the other pokemon Grimsley told me to follow, but I cannot see an opportunity to do so. Even without a trainer to command them, they are more than capable of putting down any threats we faced even before I could get a single word out of my mouth. They are so efficient that it is borderline impossible, each of the pokemon knowing when to cover for each other and when not to because help isn't needed.
The exeggutor stuck close to me and my pokemon, constantly erecting a small dome of psychic barrier around us for our protection and erecting more shields for the pokemon in front of us if they need it. They seemed used to working in such a manner. The houndoom and ninetails draw the most attention due to their more flashy moves and how people subconsciously perceived them to be the bigger threat, allowing people to easily ignore the smaller yet much more lethal threats like the weavile, shiftry, and gengar, who in actuality racks up the highest kill count among the team as they silently reaped the lives of their foes even before they realised that their necks were slit or their bodies punctured with a Shadow Punch. If there are threats too huge to be ignored, the bisharp and umbreon will be there to block their advances and the honchkrow will be there to hamper their abilities to buy time for everyone to come up with a plan. If that is still not enough, then there is the exeggutor who is responsible for shielding them from the worst attacks Team Rocket has to offer until the entire team is done taking down their respective opponents and then collectively collapse onto the threat as one to neutralise it.
So this is Executive Plague's power. I can only imagine the heights his team can reach if he is here to command them personally.
Knowing that I won't be needed to help deal with the Rockets, I focused my attention on having my ghosts search for anyone that might possibly be Jayce. My ghosts silently spread out to search the hideout under the cover of the mayhem Grimsley and Jayce's pokemon are causing within the hideout, hoping to locate him as soon as possible.
Although, I do have a burning question I want to ask the exeggutor beside me.
"If I may ask, are you able to sense your trainer from here?"
Psychic types are often able to mentally keep track of the location of the trainers that they bonded themselves with, like how Rena does to me. They are also able to sense our thoughts and emotions. If exeggutor is his pokemon, surely he is able to do at least that? Wouldn't that save us a lot of time?
One of exeggutor's heads eyed me before subtly shaking its head.
'The tree said that this entire building has to be coated in Darktycin. It is an extremely rare element capable of blocking all psychic transmissions in and out of it, allowing an area to camouflage itself from psychic scans, so to speak. This is probably why even Mewtwo wasn't able to locate its trainer. My psychic senses are being hampered in this environment as well, mistress. I cannot sense anything beyond ten feet around me.'
Darktycin? There's such a thing? I will have to check with Looker later.
'In that case, keep close to us. Leave the sensing to the ghosts,' I instructed Rena as the ninetails brutally burned down a vileplume before pouncing onto the next nearest Rocket and tearing out his throat with its jaws and then moving on to its next victim within seconds. If I hadn't experienced the Lilycove Invasion and the one at the Battle Frontier, I honestly don't know if I could stomach the sheer brutality of the scene unfolding just a few meters in front of me.
Hulk aided our allies by tearing down a large metal door as we forged our way ahead towards the second floor. The second floor is filled with narrow corridors and I could only release Hulk, Archer, Rena, Kel, and Fuzzy outside to accompany me. I have Dolly and Wacky as well, and Jarvis is still hiding within my xtransceiver. Protection wise, I think I'm well covered.
Jayce's pokemon also seemed to realise the problems that come with fighting in narrow corridors because they switched tactics almost immediately. The bisharp took the lead as everyone else followed behind in a single file, each of them placing themselves in a certain order that I could only guess the reason for and only they would understand. I wasn't surprised when we were ambushed, forcing the bisharp to take on the enemy's firepower on behalf of everyone else, but I was surprised at how tenacious it is and how it isn't falling just yet.
It was then I spotted the umbreon using Wish to heal the bisharp from its position at the back and I understood just how it was possible for the bisharp to survive everything. By its very nature, Wish's effect is a delayed one, for the umbreon to invoke Wish's healing effect just when bisharp needed it the most meant that it had used Wish almost immediately we came into contact with the enemy and even then, its invocation speed is insanely fast for Wish's effects to manifest so soon.
The gengar suddenly appeared behind enemy's lines, taking them by surprise with its sudden appearance. Bisharp charged ahead the moment it saw that gengar had drawn their attention and everyone else simply followed. I contemplated on having Dolly and Wacky help out as well, but decided against it. Our interference would only hamper their already established teamwork and as much as it hurts my ego to admit it, it's obvious that they will work better without us trying to help them.
We arrived at a larger area at the end of the corridor, an intersection or sort that has several corridors branching out in other directions. The houndoom has its nose to the ground immediately, trying to sniff out its trainer's scent as the other pokemon surround it protectively, keeping a watch on our surroundings as houndoom tries to locate their trainer. My ghosts weren't idle either as they spread out to search for our target, but given the size of the warehouse I don't think we will get any immediate results.
I struck upon an idea when I saw a computer terminal by the side of the wall.
"Jarvis, see if you can hack into it."
Jarvis materialised from within my xtransceiver before swiftly disappearing into the terminal. Seconds later, the lights of the other corridors dimmed with the exception of one. We now have a direction.
"That way!"
Jayce's pokemon only spared me a brief look of gratitude before they quickly ran ahead. We encountered resistance several times but all of them eventually fell before Jayce's team. We soon arrived at a dead end, where the only way ahead is through a door of what seems to be the entrance to a medical ward. We had wanted to enter it but Dolly had suddenly reappeared and hissed at us in warning. Something or someone is waiting for us there and it probably isn't pleasant.
"Dolly, what's in there?"
Dolly chattered as Rena translated her words in real time.
'A red haired woman is sitting by the bedside of an unconscious man hooked up to all sorts of machines. There are also several pokemon in there that we will be hard pressed to deal with. Mistress, I think we found our missing person.'
"And I think we found Ariana too," I said with a grim tone, knowing that red isn't exactly a common hair colour and Ariana is the only woman in Team Rocket that I could think of with red hair. After my harrowing experience with Archer, going up against an Executive isn't what I have in mind, and there's no way we are going to do battle when there's a heavily injured patient in that small room that is most likely the person we are here to rescue. He will just end up as part of the casualty count.
My job is to Shadow Sneak Jayce out of here, but Professor Oak had said that his injuries are supposedly grievous. I have no idea if his pulse will go flat the moment I unplug him from the machines he is hooked up on. I don't want to take that risk, so I quickly explained that to Jayce's pokemon, who were surprisingly patient in waiting for me to come up with some sort of plan instead of charging right in immediately.
"Dolly sensed pokemon in there. Someone needs to disable them and take them away from your trainer's bedside, and also to prevent Ariana from calling out more pokemon to hinder us. Do you guys have any other, uh, peculiar abilities or skills that might be able to help?"
Jayce's pokemon exchanged looks and murmurs with each other as if discussing something before they collectively turned their heads to face a seemingly empty spot beside them. The air in that space shimmered before a zoroark appeared before us with a scowl on its face.
A zoroark. Even when I know its species has the ability to visually blend itself into its surroundings I have no idea how its presence eluded the senses of all my pokemon that were beside me all this while, but the abilities of the illusionary pokemon might be just what we need to pull this off.
There was a dull croak sounding out from above and we looked up, spotting a greninja who is sticking itself up on the ceiling and is now turning back into its original colour before camouflaging itself once more, hiding itself from our view in plain sight. Is that Camouflage? I had never seen a pokemon use that move with such expertise before.
The last pokemon made its presence known when I felt the familiar tendrils of shadows creeping out not from my own shadow, but from my own pocket, giving me a brief scare. An odd looking stone rolled out from my pocket as an extremely rare ghost type slowly manifested itself from the stone, the distorted visage of a spiritomb gazing back at me.
I had an idea of the kind of pokemon Jayce is known to have due to the reports I had read about him when we were doing our research on Executive Plague, especially about the report documenting the attack on Johto National Park which he is involved in. I recalled from the reports that there were records that he has a zoroark, so I wasn't surprised by its sudden presence. However, that greninja and spiritomb are unaccounted variables and seeing how they are acting a little out of place among the team of dark types, they are most likely Grimsley's, even if I have no idea when and how Grimsley managed to slip a spiritomb's Odd Keystone into my pocket without me realising. A part of me is glad that he is looking out for me, another part of me is annoyed at the fact that he could at least have the courtesy to informe me about this. If I thought that the dusknoir species had a bad enough temperament, the tales I had heard from Nova about spiritombs made dusknoirs look like babies throwing a hissy fit in comparison. I'm lucky that the spiritomb has not done anything malicious to me while it was hidden in my pocket without my knowledge.
"Okay, cool. A zoroark and greninja that can hide in plain sight, and a spiritomb that can easily hide in pockets. I guess we can make this work."
Jarvis reappeared beside me before diving back into my xtransceiver. My xtransceiver beeped as the blueprints of the entire warehouse suddenly found itself in there.
I grinned. We now have something to work on. With the blueprints, we will at least have an idea of what the room's layout is like. We will not be going in completely blind.
"Good job, Jarvis."
Time to come up with a plan.
I opened the door very carefully and as silently as I could. Considering the space constraint of the small room, the only pokemon beside me right now are Rena, Joy, Fuzzy, and Archer. I'm not releasing more pokemon because I am not sure if the room could accommodate anymore than them.
The room is very well lit and I can tell from a glance that this room serves as a hospital ward. I can see an unconscious man in his twenties lying on a bed, hooked up to all sorts of wires and machines. From how he is being mummified by all the bandages wrapped around him, his injuries were probably serious.
Sitting on a chair next to the man is a woman who I recognised immediately. A woman with hair as red as blood sat leisurely with her legs crossed and a lazy smile plastered on her face. She is expecting me.
"Hello there, little girl. I see that Indigo still retains the practice of recruiting child soldiers."
I did not reply to correct her misconception, nor do I know what my reply should be. My concern is the deadly looking kabutops just standing one step away from the unconscious man lying on the bed, the tip of one of its curved scythes just hovering about an inch away from his neck. The man on the bed has to be Jayce, also known as Executive Plague, Operative 2046, and the missing fellow reincarnator that the six of us had been trying to find.
Professor Oak had told us that Giovanni seemed to care very much for Jayce and would most likely not hurt him despite his betrayal, but seeing as how he is now being used by Ariana as a hostage, maybe we should have reevaluated his statement.
"Ah ah, do not even think of taking another step forward," Ariana playfully warned me with a wave of her finger as a shuckle slowly crawled out from underneath the bed. "Recall your pokemon, girl, and I might just be merciful and not kill anybody today."
"This warehouse is surrounded, there is no escape. It is just a matter of time before you get caught," I told her and tried my best to not let my facial expressions give anything away. I have no idea how I am supposed to resolve a hostage situation and I am certain that any sudden or suspicious movements on my part will be immediately spotted by Ariana and her pokemon. I have no idea when reinforcements will arrive, if they will even arrive. We are too deep in enemy territory.
Ariana has the upper hand here and she knows it. However, I do have my own contingency plans as well. I can only hope that Jayce's pokemon could pull off what we had discussed earlier.
"I won't repeat myself twice. Recall your pokemon, girl, or..."
Ariana's kabutops gave a low growl as the tip of its scythe now touches lightly on Plague's exposed neck. I gritted my teeth, knowing that she has cornered me with no real way out. I still need to buy some time for everyone to get into position.
Luckily for me, I do not keep every single of my pokemon in their pokeballs.
"... Fine." My reply came out slow as I carefully moved my right hand and held it in front of me, displaying to Ariana the pokeball gauntlet I wore there, the device that Mary had made just for me. Ariana looked at me curiously, giving me her silent permission to go ahead and remove the devices from both my forearms. I did so slowly, trying to buy as much time as I possibly can.
"Kick them aside. Remove any more pokeballs you may have hidden in your pockets, and recall all of your pokemon, starting from… let's see… that espeon."
I have no choice but to use my feet to lightly shove the gauntlets aside the moment I laid them down onto the floor, making them now out of my reach. My right hand slowly reached within my pocket, pretending to reach for Rena's pokeball but actually slowly reaching for the touch of a coarse stone which I estimate to be slightly smaller than the palm of my hand.
I felt the familiar cold touch of darkness and shadow gently wrapping around my fingers the moment I held the stone, as if assuring me that everything would be alright. Spiritomb is as ready as it could ever be. This is a plan that we had come up with after spiritomb conveyed its idea to me through exeggutor's and Rena's help, a plan allowing us to grasp the element of surprise and separate Jayce from Ariana and her pokemon in one move.
I maintained eye contact with Ariana the entire time as I slowly pulled my hand back out while lowering myself to the ground, pretending to place my "pokeball" down on the ground. Thanks to zoroark's illusory abilities at work, she would never know that what I have in hand isn't what it should be.
Ariana's eyes frowned a little in suspicion as I slowly lowered myself to place the "pokeball" on the floor, as if trying to guess what seems wrong to her regarding what I am doing but unable to come up with an answer. My gaze flickered to Rena at the very last second, who had been observing me the entire time and had obviously caught on.
'Rena, get ready to immobilise the kabutops on my signal. Tell Dolly to handle the shuckle and Joy to restrain Ariana. Fuzzy will take care of the machines.'
"Hurry, girl, I don't have all day."
I felt a faint telepathic pulse at the back of my mind that I know represents Rena's acknowledgement of my commands. This is it.
The moment my hands touched the floor, I quickly rolled the stone like a little bowling ball and let it hurtle across the floor and under the bed to reach the kabutops' feet. I can see everyone exploding into a flurry of motions the moment I did so. Ariana leapt out of her chair and released a lycanroc, Dolly immediately using a Shadow Sneak to reach the shuckle before using that same move to forcefully bring the shuckle out of the room with her, Jarvis making his sudden appearance from my xtransceiver and swiftly using Psychic to bring the gauntlets back to me and snapping them around my wrists where they belong, the kabutops trying to move but finding itself unable to with Rena temporarily freezing its movements with her psychic powers.
I heard the stone rolling to a stop before a wave of pressure suddenly pressed down on all of us, catching all of us by surprise. I recognised this pressure, a sensation that you can only experience when in close proximity with a pokemon using the Pressure ability, an ability not many pokemon possess.
A distorted howl permeated the room as a thick dark miasma exploded from where I knew the stone had rolled to a stop on the floor. The brief distraction allowed greninja to get the drop on kabutops as it landed on the floor below from where it was sticking itself on the ceiling and sent kabutops crashing through the wall with a powerful yet precise Dark Pulse, far away from Jayce. Greninja had sneaked into the room with me the moment I opened the door, its expertise with Camouflage allowing it to hide in plain sight and its silent steps preventing us from sensing it with our hearing. Zoroark might have assisted greninja in that endeavour using its illusionary abilities, but I am not too sure.
The spiritomb launched itself right at Ariana and her lycanroc almost immediately after that, jaws wide with a sickening pressure still pressing down on all of us. Joy wisely separated herself from Ariana's lycanroc as spiritomb took over the battle, pushing the Rocket back and blasting yet another hole in the wall, forcing them to shift their battle into the room beside ours. Somehow, Jayce miraculously came out from all that without a single scratch despite all that power and movement thrown about just right next to him.
The wall behind me was forcefully broken as Jayce's pokemon who were waiting silently outside burst in with full force, fully intending on protecting their trainer. Fuzzy had promptly gnawed through all the wires of the machines Jayce had been hooked up to from the electric sockets on the wall and held the now exposed wires in his tiny bulging mouth, providing electricity to keep the machines working despite them being disconnected from the hospital's power supply. With that, we are now able to freely move Jayce about.
"Hurry, before Ariana comes back!"
Jayce's pokemon split into groups. The shiftry and honchkrow went to battle the kabutops, preventing the vicious prehistoric pokemon from getting close to us. Umbreon and houndoom immediately leapt to join and assist spiritomb, leaving me with the rest of the team.
"Quick, move him out of here!"
After releasing the lock on the wheels built onto the legs of Jayce's bed, we quickly pushed him out of the room. The remainder of Jayce's pokemon had swiftly formed a perimeter around him, acting as his bodyguards. I can feel their concern and protectiveness for him literally oozing out of them as they eagerly carved a bloody way out of the hideout, mercilessly slaughtering anything that is blocking our exit.
It was at that moment I realised that although I know next to nothing about Jayce as a person, I can say with certainty that he is a splendid pokemon trainer who really loves and cares for his pokemon. There can be no other reason that can explain why his pokemon are acting this way with such devotion when he is so close to death's doors right now. Dad always used to say that someone who truly cares about their pokemon cannot be that bad a person, and that you can judge a trainer's character by seeing how a trainer treats his pokemon and how their pokemon treats them in return.
Jayce must have really cared for his pokemon, and no matter what kind of ugly deeds he had done, be it as Operative 2046 or Executive Plague, he is probably not as bad a person as people make him out to be. At least, I think I will be willing to hear his side of the story before judging his character.
Jayce's ninetails is the pokemon taking point as it led our little group. Fuzzy is still busy supplying the machines with electricity to ensure that Jayce's life will not be endangered by our forceful extraction. Other than that, my pokemon really did not have anything to do besides guaranteeing my own safety; Jayce's team is more than enough to clear the path ahead.
Ninetails unleashed another huge blast of fire that took out another group of Rockets that had unfortunately stumbled into us. We quickly pushed through and we finally bumped into Grimsley.
"Grimsley! We got him!"
Grimsley's worry and relief was easily visible as he rushed to his son's side. I could see the myriad of emotions in his eyes as he finally had the chance to take a good look at the face of his long lost son. He didn't say a word, but his actions had already spoken for him.
"Grimsley," I reminded him with a soft voice. "We cannot stay here. We need to get him out of here."
"We do," Grimsley nodded in agreement as I watched him reined his emotions in. "Follow me, I will lead the way out, help is on the way."
We did not manage to move more than five steps when our pokemon realised that something was wrong even before we did. Archer had moved to position himself in front of me and Grimsley's bisharp did the same for its trainer. Archer's pincer-like claws glowed in a metallic sheen as he batted away an irate sandslash, forcing it to back off. Grimsley's bisharp had knocked away a large bone that came hurtling at Grimsley like a guided boomerang. The sandslash leapt backwards in the direction of a shadowy corner where the bone had flown back to. The visage of a man could be vaguely seen as that figure slowly stepped out into the light.
"Giovanni."
Grimsley's growl was soft, yet clearly heard by all present. His dark types bristled in hostility upon sensing the shift in their trainer's mood, tensing up for an imminent battle. My hands are already preparing to release the pokeballs that contain the stronger members of my team that I can call upon, my eyes glued on both Giovanni and Grimsley, waiting for Grimsley's confirmation on whether I should make a move to assist him or to run.
I cannot help but carefully observe the man in front of me, an adversary that I had hoped to never bump into. This is Giovanni, one of the strongest trainers of Indigo and the leader of Team Rocket, an organisation widely acknowledged as the biggest and most powerful underworld organisation across the world. Just standing in front of him as an enemy is enough for me to feel suffocating pressure, I cannot imagine actually battling him for real.
"Get out of our way."
Grimsley's demand did not alleviate the tension one bit.
"Grimsley, what a rare guest, but I'm afraid that I cannot let you take my last Executive away from us."
"DON'T FUCK WITH ME!"
Giovanni's marowak moved the same time Grimsley's bisharp did, both pokemon clashing and dancing in a mesmerising yet deadly physical exchange of skill and power. The walls around us exploded as more ground types finally sprang their ambush, trying to close us in, but Grimsley had seemingly expected it. His pokemon responded with just a simple wave of his hand, each of them immediately choosing a foe to go up against and hold them back.
"Girl, go ahead with my son's pokemon! I will hold this bastard here! Help is already on its way! Please, I'm counting on you!"
I'm counting on you to help save my son, was the hidden message and plea that I heard between those lines.
"I will do my best!"
That's the only promise that I can give him.
We fled without delay. Giovanni's presence had also obviously unnerved Jayce's pokemon seeing as how they are now acting out with more viciousness as they continued to slaughter our way out of the warehouse. As Jayce's pokemon when he was still acting as Executive Plague, they must have known the extent of Giovanni's strength. They had even battled against Giovanni and lost. They are antsy, because they know that Giovanni is truly an obstacle that can prevent them from bringing their trainer out of here.
I felt my shadow being tugged at before miasma exploded out of it. Spiritomb reannounced its presence with a Shadow Sneak, bringing along the other dark types who had stayed behind to delay Ariana and her pokemon earlier. The houndoom leapt over us as it charged ahead, firing massive beams of Dark Pulse that obliterated another group of Rockets that were about to swarm us. The zoroark had also forgone all pretences of stealth, not bothering to hide itself any longer as it supplemented houndoom's offensive with powerful bursts of Night Daze.
We managed to somehow reach the chaotic ground floor where most of the fights between Indigo forces and Team Rocket are being congregated within the warehouse, telling me enough that Lance and his trainers must have finally breached the entrance. Ninetails led us through as we moved ahead towards the exit while avoiding the battles by sticking close to the walls. However, we cannot reach the exit. The situation ahead is simply too chaotic and dangerous for us to move a critically-injured and immobile patient through and we have no visual confirmation to decide if the situation outside is safe enough to Shadow Sneak us out of here. I don't want to Shadow Sneak us out only to be accidentally caught in the crossfire simply by reappearing at the wrong place at the wrong time. That will be a stupid way to die.
Grimsley said that help is on the way. Now is really the time for the 'help' he was referring to to arrive and save the day, but I don't think that 'help' will be coming anytime soon. I have to figure a way out of this.
Just when I was trying to think of a way to get us out of this predicament, I saw houndoom raising its head and letting out a loud and bone chilling howl. Seconds later, the building actually shook before the wall nearest to us started to crack. Exeggutor immediately threw up another powerful barrier around us and Rena was obviously very alarmed as well, doing the same to assist its efforts. That is enough of a sign to tell me that whatever is trying to break down this wall, it is very powerful.
The wall finally did come crashing down on us but we managed to emerge from it unscathed thanks to exeggutor's and Rena's collective efforts. The first thing I saw were the three snarling heads of the hydreigon from earlier, followed by the drapion who is now busy shifting away the debris with its massive pincers and tail to create a path out for us.
I wasn't expecting to see Mewtwo hovering above them.
'Funny, I really couldn't sense anything beyond those walls even at this distance. I guess there really are things in this world that can block even my psychic senses.'
Mewtwo seemingly ignored the chaos around us as it floated down from the air and effortlessly slipped past the psychic barrier to reach Jayce's side. It actually had a gentle look in its eyes as it carefully reached out a hand to gently caress the side of Jayce's face.
Why is Mewtwo here? It couldn't be the 'help' Grimsley was referring to earlier, right? In that case, where was it before this?
"You… Grimsley…"
'I had told him to inform me the moment he had concrete information of Jayce's whereabouts. Do not worry, I am his ally and thus by extension, yours, for now,' Mewtwo replied while still staring at Jayce, as if unable to fathom why he is asleep.
If Grimsley entrusts his son's safety to Mewtwo, I guess I can trust him. It's not like I can do anything else anyway, I can't simply go up against Mewtwo of all pokemon.
"Not to ruin your moment, but we really need to go. We need to get him to a hospital ASAP," I told Mewtwo, still not knowing if this creature is as temperamental as my foreknowledge made him out to be. What I do know for sure is that this is not a place for us to dally.
'I understand,' Mewtwo responded before closing its eyes in concentration for a few short seconds before reopening them again. 'It seems that I am able to teleport him to the hospital in Indigo Plateau in one journey. I will take over my friend's safety and well-being from here, his pokemon friends and I are more than capable of taking care of him.'
Mewtwo casually plucked the wires out of Fuzzy's mouth, eliciting an indignant squeak from him when the legendary psychic gently tossed him my way after doing so. I caught Fuzzy in my arms and watched as Mewtwo personally took over the job of powering the machines with electricity with a skillfully controlled and watered down version of Thunderbolt while holding the wires with his fingers.
'I will remember this favour, little girl. You have my gratitude for saving my dear friend.'
Mewtwo vanished with a flicker, and along with it Jayce and his pokemon, leaving us alone.
I guess that means our job here is done. Grimsley had told me that my task literally was to locate, extract, and then run. In that case, it's time for us to advance to the next stage of our plan.
"Dolly, Shadow Sneak us out of here. Our job here is done."