Pokémon Rescue Force
Co-written by Light Warrior and Lotus of the Leaf
Edited by Light Warrior
Foreword by Light Warrior:
Before we begin, let me warn you that this story does primarily feature original characters. If that does not sparkle with you, please turn back and seek out another fanfic. When submitting a review, I ask that you please rate the content of the story, not complain about the fact that Ash, Brock, Dawn, etc. are not in this story. (I dislike the anime intensely and will not incorporate its cast into my work.) Senseless flames will be deleted, although constructive criticism is welcome.
With that said, this fanfic is based on an RP (roleplay) between my girlfriend and me. The following chapters are rewrites of that RP, which was almost, but not quite, completed. The story is loosely based on the video games, though occasional allusions might be made to the anime. Many of the character names are borrowed from the Japanese versions of the manga, the anime, the video games, and other incarnations of the franchise. There is also one character who bears an obvious close resemblance to a popular Naruto character for anyone who is familiar with the franchise. The bulk of the story is set in Kanto and features primarily Generation I Pokémon. However, the other regions and Pokémon exist within this world and will make appearances from time to time.
That's all. Enjoy.
Chapter 1
Red lights flashed down every corridor of a steel hallway, their sanguine glimmer reflecting on the walls. Besides the lights, the sounds of the alarm also rebounded from the metal frames, its echoes all but overpowering the rapid trotting of two sets of feet. Both of the fleeing intruders had brown hair and brown eyes. The taller of the two wore a tea green sweater, blue jeans, and brown shoes. The other, slightly shorter, man had slightly messier hair and wore round-framed glasses, a light brown hooded jacket with the hood down, blue jeans, and black shoes. Further down the hallway, running equally fast, was a group of five men in black suits: black berets, black sweaters, black pants, black gloves, and black boots, the only deviance from this pattern being in the large red "R" on each of their shirts. As the two fleeing men approached a section of intersecting hallways, the man in the glasses reached for his belt, from which hung six Poké Balls: three on the left side and three on the right side. The same was true for his comrade. The man in the glasses removed one of the Poké Balls and tossed it on the ground behind him.
"Typhlosion!" he called out as the aforementioned Pokémon emerged in a flash of white light. The Pokémon cried its name as it glared menacingly at the approaching Rocket Grunts, who charged fearlessly forward. "Smokescreen now!" Typhlosion did as its trainer commanded and used the attack called Smokescreen, which involved the Pokémon igniting its fiery quills, creating a cloud of smoke that clouded itself, its trainer, and its trainer's partner from the sight of the charging Rockets.
The two men used this opportunity to escape undetected down one of the intersecting corridors. The man in the glasses withdrew his Typhlosion at that moment by firing a beam of red light from the Poké Ball he had earlier tossed, which he had now reclaimed. The beam captured Typhlosion, morphed it into red light, and withdrew it back into its spherical holster. The two men then arrived at a dead end, blocked by a black and yellow striped door with a small slot on a nearby control panel.
"I wonder if my old card key will still work," said the taller of the two men as he pulled out a card. He slipped the card into the slot, causing a red light to light up on the panel. "I guess I underestimated Kai's intelligence somewhat. He's apparently changed the lock since the last time I infiltrated this place years ago."
"Well, he was still stupid enough to keep the same hideout that his dad used," the man in the glasses retorted.
"Looks like I'm going to have to do things the unorthodox way," the other man continued as he expanded one of the Poké Balls on his belt. "Golem, break it down with Rollout!" With that, the man tossed the ball and Golem appeared in a flash of light. The boulder Pokémon cried its name as it curled into a ball and rolled at the door, busting it off its hinges and knocking it against the elevator door that it had previously concealed. The clatter caught the attention of the pursuing Rockets, who rushed through the fading smokescreen and charged at the two men. "Golem, use Fissure!" The Pokémon again cried its name as it punched the floor and created a crack, which managed to trap three of the five Rockets and drop them onto the floor one story below them, but two leaped over the newly formed crevice and tossed Poké Balls of their own.
"Sandslash, go!" one of the Rockets shouted as the hedgehog Pokémon emerged from the red and white ball.
"Go, Scyther!" the other shouted as the large mantis appeared.
The two Pokémon cried their names as they glared at their opponents, their claws glistening in the red flashing lights.
"Golem, return!" said the taller man as he withdrew Golem into its ball the same way his partner had done with his Typhlosion. "For this battle, I choose my oldest comrade: Blastoise!" The man switched Poké Balls and sent out a large blue turtle with two large cannons protruding from its shell.
"Typhlosion, go!" Again, the man in the glasses called for his Fire-type Pokémon.
"Heh, you don't see too many of that kind of Pokémon around these parts," one of the Rockets remarked.
"Yeah, those are indigenous to the Johto region, I hear," his partner said. "Whatever the case, it's a Fire-type, so leave this to Sandslash and me! Sandslash, use a Dig attack!"
Sandslash growled as it leaped into the hole earlier created by Golem and began to burrow through what remained of the floor toward Typhlosion. The Fire-type Pokémon looked at the steel tiles beneath itself and heard the thumping of its aggressor attempting to break through the floor, but to no avail.
"You Rockets aren't too smart, are you?" the man in the glasses laughed. "This just isn't the terrain for those kinds of attacks! Typhlosion, burn through the floor with an Ember attack!"
"Typhlosion!" the Pokémon cried as it breathed fire onto the floor, turning it red and weakening the structure. Eventually, Sandslash's claws managed to break through the part of the floor that Typhlosion had burned.
"Blastoise, fill that hole with a Hydro Pump!" the taller man ordered.
"Blastoise!" the Pokémon called out as it aimed its hydro cannons at the hole and shot a blast of water into it, sending Sandslash falling to the floor below it.
"Return, Sandslash!" the Rocket Grunt growled as he withdrew the monster by aiming the button his Poké Ball at the hole into which Sandslash had fallen.
"Scyther, use a Slash attack!" the other Rocket shouted. Scyther called its name as it charged at Blastoise, only for Typhlosion to slide in the way.
"Flamethrower now!" the man in glasses commanded. Typhlosion obeyed as fire again appeared from its body. The Pokémon then began to spit fire, charring the Bug and Flying Pokémon and halting its flight as it fell to the floor below.
"Scyther, return!" Again, the Grunt called his Pokémon back. The two Grunts reached for new Poké Balls when Blastoise grabbed one in each hand.
"Hey, no fair!" a Grunt shouted. "We're not through yet!"
"Well, we are," said the tall man. "We're not here to play games with you. This is war."
With that, Blastoise smacked the two Grunts' heads together, knocking them unconscious, and then dropped them to the floor. At that moment, Typhlosion moved the broken door out of the way of the elevator, allowing its trainer and his partner access.
"Return!" both trainers said as they withdrew their Pokémon. They then entered the elevator and the tall man pressed the button for the base level.
"The security here is surprisingly tame," the man in glasses commented. "It seems almost suspicious."
"Team Rocket has never been tight on security," his partner replied. "Personally, I find them overrated. I think people were just too afraid to stand up to them all those years ago. I, alone, took them down and defeated Giovanni on several occasions."
"From what I've heard, it sounds like they rarely did any serious damage. They abduct Pokémon, but I've only heard of one incident in which they actually harmed and killed a Pokémon."
"Marowak, right. Remember, though: they're no longer under Giovanni's command. Compared to his son, he's small time. Kai is the cruelest of the cruel. He's cruel to people and to Pokémon alike."
Before another word was spoken, the elevator doors opened. The two men stepped off and looked around the room in shock. They walked through a laboratory filled with Pokémon in cages. Many Pokémon were horribly deformed. Others were even deceased. The tall man quickly turned his head upon the sight of a Rattata eating the brain of another Rattata. The cages were filled with urine and feces as well as a minimal amount of food and water. Many of the Pokémon moaned, desperately wanting to be free.
"This is awful," the man in glasses muttered.
"Do you see what I mean?" said the tall man as he clenched his fists almost to the point of drawing blood. "Kai is incredibly negligent. He doesn't care if his Pokémon rot to death in their own filth. And now he's sunk to a new low and is performing illegal experiments on Pokémon. These must be the failures."
"This is worse than I ever imagined," the man in glasses said in horror. "Well, let's get them out of here!"
The tall man nodded as they both removed their backpacks and began dumping out empty Poké Balls. Each one grabbed and expanded two Poké Balls, one in each hand, then looked around at the many Pokémon in the room.
"Listen up!" the tall man shouted to the Pokémon. "I'm sure you all are dying to get out of here, right? Well, we're going to take you someplace safe where you'll have plenty of room to move around and plenty to eat! What we're going to do is put you inside these Poké Balls, which will then be transported to the Safari Zone in Fuchsia City. There, you will be freed and tended to by Pokémon nurses."
"How do we know that we can trust you?" an odd voice spoke out from within the crowd of Pokémon. Both men were confused.
"Who said that?" the tall man asked.
"Over here!"
The two men looked in the direction of the voice. Inside a cage, they saw a green Hitmonlee. Instead of the usual Hitmonlee eyes, however, its eyes were perfectly round, its pupils large, black, and round as well, leaving little white in the Pokémon's eyes. Another oddity to this Hitmonlee was the presence of large, bushy black eyebrows and three small eyelashes coming from the bottom of each eye. The two men approached the Hitmonlee in astonishment.
"Did you just—?" the taller man started.
"Speak?" the Hitmonlee replied. "I did. I know that I am different from other Pokémon."
"Team Rocket must have done this to you," said the man in glasses. "It's okay though. Different isn't necessarily bad. Look at it this way: you'd have a much easier time communicating with humans than most Pokémon."
"As if that matters to any human," the Pokémon scoffed.
"Hitmonlee, listen to me," said the tall man. "Not all humans are like the ones in Team Rocket. Team Rocket uses Pokémon for power and personal gain. There are people out there who love and care for Pokémon. If you'll just trust us, we'll take you someplace better."
"You wish to stuff me inside one of those tiny red and white balls? No thank you. I am better off in a cage."
"You won't be in the ball for very long," the tall man explained. "You will immediately be released from your ball upon transference to Fuchsia City. There's an extremely beautiful and kind woman waiting for you there. If you just saw her, I know you would trust her. Hers is not the face of someone who would inflict harm upon the innocent."
The Hitmonlee sighed as he scoped the room around him, or at least whatever he could see of it. Pokémon lay famished, some perhaps already dead. Many were diseased. Many were deformed. None of them had room to even stretch. Finally, he returned his gaze to the two men.
"Very well. I will cooperate."
The two men gazed at each other and nodded. With that, they began tossing Poké Balls at all the Pokémon in the room. None of the Pokémon resisted. As the balls hit the Pokémon, they opened up and absorbed the Pokémon in a flash of white light. The balls then began to disappear one by one until no Pokémon remained in the room.
"Mission accomplished," said the tall man to his comrade. "Now let's get out of here before—"
His sentence would have to go unfinished as Rocket Grunts filled the room and surrounded the two men. From out of the crowd of Rockets emerged a man with green eyes and brown hair wearing a white lab coat with an orange shirt, blue pants, and black shoes. The man bore a sinister grin as he confronted his two intruders.
"Isamu! Kinnosuke!" the man in the lab coat said in a sarcastically welcoming tone. "How nice of you to drop by! Thank you for relieving me of those trash Pokémon! I was going to dispose of them anyway, but your methods are probably more humane."
"Kai, you sick bastard!" shouted the tall man while clenching his fist.
The man in glasses then spoke, "We're here to shut down your operation! We've been given orders from the Pokémon Rescue Force for your arrest!"
"Why fight science?" asked Kai. "Science is not our enemy. Quite the contrary: it's our dear friend! How do you think Mewtwo, the strongest of all Pokémon, came to be? Through experimentation much like what you see here! With science, we can create an entire race of super Pokémon, a race far superior to anything this universe has ever known!"
"What we found here weren't super Pokémon!" replied the tall man. "What you're doing is disgusting and wrong and we won't stand for it!"
"You won't be happy until you've taken everything from me, will you, Isamu?" Kai retorted, looking in the direction of the tall man. "You stole my entire life, my future, all those years ago. Now you're taking my Pokémon, my experiments, too?"
"I get the feeling we haven't captured all of them though," replied Isamu, gritting his teeth. "Those were your failed experiments. Where are the others?"
"I'm afraid you're in the wrong place entirely for that. Team Rocket has relocated since the last time you infiltrated the Celadon City Game Corner all those years ago, during my father's reign as leader of Team Rocket." Kai bore a sinister grin as he pulled a remote control out of his pocket. Isamu and Kinnosuke's eyes widened in horror. "That's right. This was a death trap." Without another word, Kai pressed the button, again sounding the building's alarms and flashing its sirens.
"Self destruct sequence activated in T minus 10 seconds," a computerized feminine voice spoke over the intercom.
Kai glanced at one of the nearby Rocket Grunts and nodded. The Grunt tossed a Poké Ball, releasing an Alakazam. "Get us out of here! Teleport!" the Grunt shouted.
"Alaka!" the Pokémon cried as its eyes glowed a blue aura. With that, everyone in the room with the exceptions of Isamu and Kinnosuke was teleported out.
"Shit!" shouted Isamu. "Escape Plan One Delta, now!"
"What?!" replied an alarmed Kinnosuke.
"Oh whatever, I'll handle it!" Isamu tossed three Poké Balls, shouting the names of the resident Pokémon: "Blastoise! Golem! Rapidash! Go!" The turtle, the boulder, and horse all emerged from their spherical abodes by Isamu's command. "Rapidash, burn the floor with Flamethrower! Blastoise, Dig a tunnel where Rapidash blows her flames! Golem, create a Rock Slide over the hole once we've all gotten inside! Quickly!"
The Pokémon did not hesitate to act. After all, they had been trained for dangerous missions such as this one and they knew that survival was a race against time. The horse with the fiery mane spat a blaze of burning hydrocarbons at the metallic floor. Once the stream had ended, the large blue turtle smacked the weakened floor and began to dig in the dirt, quickly creating a tunnel at amazing speed. Isamu withdrew Rapidash into its Poké Ball, then grabbed Kinnosuke by the shirt collar and leapt into the hole behind Blastoise. At that moment, Golem jumped into the hole and pounded the ground, causing the rocks to cave in and cover the hole created by Isamu's other two Pokémon. This was done not a second too soon as the room from which the two men had escaped went up in flames at that very moment. On the ground level several stories above, many gamblers playing the slots felt the rumbling of what appeared to be an ordinary earthquake below them. Following emergency procedures, they began to take cover under the slot machines, not knowing that what was really happening beneath them was more than just tectonic plate movement.
Outside the Game Corner, Blastoise emerged from the ground, followed by his trainer, Kinnosuke, and Golem. All four panted heavily, moreso at the shock of their near death experience than at actual exhaustion from their hasty escape from certain death. Seeing the fatigue of his Pokémon, Isamu withdrew them into their Poké Balls, then looked at his partner.
"Well, I suppose that mission was partly a success and partly a failure," he said.
"We didn't get Kai, but the important thing is that we rescued all the Pokémon."
"Not all. That wasn't Team Rocket's true hideout. It isn't anymore, anyway, though that's what Kai wanted us to believe."
"Whatever the case, this mission is over. We should report back to Yuki and let him know what we've learned."
Isamu nodded. "I also need to return home to check on the Pokémon we captured… and of course, on Ayako."
Kinnosuke smiled. "So, how is she?"
"She's doing fine. How about Kiyomi?"
"She's as good as ever."
"That's good." Realizing that their conversation could go no further, Isamu withdrew a Poké Ball and sent out his Rapidash. He then climbed onto the horse's back, his partner climbing on behind him. "To the Pokémon Center!" Isamu commaned. Rapidash neighed and took off running.
Inside the Celadon City Pokémon Center, Isamu and Kinnosuke stood in front of a monitor phone, on which the image of a man with brown hair, a beard, and sideburns wearing a green hat was displayed.
"I see," he said. "Well, at least we have some sort of a lead. I'll keep my Kanto men on a lookout for Kai. The two of you have done well, so take a break for now. I will keep you both on standby. Yuki out!" With that, Yuki struck a dramatic pose, pulling his green and white cape in front of his face, at which moment the image of his face disappeared from the monitor.
"That Yuki is quite a character," Kinnosuke said with a smirk.
"That he is," Isamu agreed. "Well, I guess I should get you back to Vermilion Harbor so you can catch your ship."
Kinnosuke nodded. The two men then stepped outside of the Pokémon Center. The sky above them began to turn pink in the horizon as the sun sank into its slumber over the western horizon. Once again, Isamu pulled out a Poké Ball and called for another Pokémon.
"Pidgeot!" he shouted as a large bird appeared. The two men climbed on the bird as Isamu then ordered, "To Vermilion City!"
"Pidgeoh!" the bird cawed as it flapped its wings and took to the sky, flying southeast. The two men held on for dear life as the wind threatened to blow them off the bird's back, not that she would allow her trainer or his friend to fall to their deaths. Pidgeot flew at a speed of Mach 2 and was therefore able to arrive at her destination within minutes. The giant bird landed in front of the docks in Vermilion City, at which time Kinnosuke disembarked.
"Well, I'll see you around sometime," said Kinnosuke. "Maybe when this is all over, we can all hang out sometime for leisure."
"It's been a while since we've done that, hasn't it? It seems like it's always business these days."
"Final boarding call for Olivine City!" a female's voice spoke over the speakers surrounding the vicinity.
"Well, that's my ship. I'll see you later!"
"Have a safe trip!" replied Isamu as he waved to his friend.
With that, Kinnosuke pulled out his ticket and headed down the dock. Isamu then looked back at Pidgeot.
"Let's go home," he said with a smile, thinking of the treasure that awaited him back home.