The sun was setting slowly as the trainer and Bennett approached the Team Rocket building. Following the captured tank at a relatively sedate pace given the arcanine's speed capabilities, the trainer took special care not to let either Ned or Kelly know that they were being followed. Using her newly-acquired Pokenav to read the signal being transmitted from her planted homing device, the trainer purposely took her time in pursuit, also realising that her chances of rescuing the rayquaza would be higher if the attempt was carried out at night. Fiero had yet to return from the mission he had been sent on earlier that day, which troubled the trainer slightly. However, if she had to confront Team Rocket in their headquarters alone, then so be it.

"Right, Bennett, let's do a flame wheel to break through that door!!" she cried after they made their way around to the hanger door. The arcanine didn't need to be told twice before he broke into a sprint. The faster he got, the more flames appeared around his body until neither human nor pokemon could be distinguished underneath the gigantic fireball. An alarm sounded as soon as they blasted through the door, which prompted the trainer to quickly leap from Bennett's back.

"Bennett, return!! Go, Bolty!!" In the place of the withdrawn arcanine, a handsome jolteon appeared from its pokeball.

"Bolty, use thunder fang on the fusebox over there!! Quickly kill the lights as well as the security cameras!!" The jolteon sprang in the direction his mistress had been pointing. After giving the fusebox an electrically-charged bite which shorted out the power in the building, he returned to the trainer's side with a pleased "Jolt! Jolt!"

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"Hey, what the…?!" Ned started as he heard the intruder alarm start and stop suddenly. He jumped to his feet when the lights also went out.

"Let's go, looks like we brought more than a rayquaza back from our mission," Kelly stated shortly before tossing a pokeball into the air. A banette came from inside and immediately produced a Will-O-Wisp flame which it held between its hands as though it were a candle. Kelly was absolutely livid at this turn of events. Herself and Ned had been in the middle of a teleconference with Giovanni regarding their successful capture when the power had gone out. There was no way she would let anyone get in the way of her promotion and bonus that Giovanni had promised her only a few minutes previously. Ned wordlessly pulled out a pokeball of his own from which an abomasnow emerged.

Knowing that she wouldn't have much time before Rocket agents would find her, the trainer wasted no time in leaving the hanger. With Bolty lighting the way courtesy of sparks from his fur, she navigated along the corridors, senses alert for anything that would indicate where the rayquaza was being kept as well as oncoming danger. Loud, electric crackling drew her attention after she walked for what seemed like an eternity to a door. Light was shining through the crack of the door, so she silently pushed it open. Inside the room beyond was a truly horrific sight. The rayquaza was restrained by the same kind of grappling hooks that had been implemented in its capture, with a weavile blasting its body with Ice Beam and an electabuzz firing bolts of its Thunder attack into the dragon. The only thing keeping the captive beast from crying out was a thick muzzle around its mouth; however its eyes were screwed up in pain.

"Do not fight it!! You will submit to us, Team Rocket, and acknowledge us as your masters!!" Dr Leonheart's voice resounded manically, "It's only a matter of time, your will cannot stand against our supreme power!! Obey!!"

"I think you're the one who should be showing respect, you piece of scum!! Cynder, Bolty, get that rayquaza down and out of here!! Bennett, give this slimeball's pokemon a taste of pain with your flamethrower!!" The trainer launched herself at Dr Leonheart's surprised form before he could react to counteract her swift orders. Flying overhead straight towards the captive rayquaza, a salamance carrying Bolty positioned itself underneath the creature's form while the jolteon was quick to act on biting into the grappling hooks as fast as he could. Bennett was fiercely locked in an uneven match against the weavile and electabuzz as the trainer punched lumps out of Dr Leonheart.

"I know you……you're Sam Blaze!!" he spat through a mouthful of blood, "I guess I should be honoured that such a skilled trainer like yourself has infiltrated our base so artfully, although you have overlooked a slight problem." Before she could question the scientist, Sam gasped as three sharp blades pierced through her body from behind with such momentum that they protruded through her front. As her vision started to blur, she could only look down helplessly as her own blood poured thickly from her body before she collapsed into darkness. Bennett turned his concentration from the battle to his mistress for a split moment after seeing her fall, which gave his opponents the chance they needed: the electabuzz smacked him with a thunderpunch while the weavile ripped into the arcanine with metal claws. Dr Leonheart drew himself up onto his feet, wiping blood from his nose and mouth as he did so.

"About time you layabouts got here!! That self-righteous, if incredibly dim-witted, trainer has seriously messed up my plans. Would you be so kind as to dispose of her salamence and jolteon next?!" Kelly and Ned simply shrugged as though the pokemon in question's efforts to free the rayquaza was of no importance to them. Standing beside them, looking particularly pleased with itself for aiming so true, an abomasnow charged upon the overwhelmed Bennett, smacking into him with its wood hammer attack. Both agents knew the gravity of the situation, but secretly enjoyed watching the bloodied scientist being beaten to a pulp as well as squirm over the prospect of Giovanni's reaction if the rayquaza was freed. Once they had enough of this, before either of them could say anything, a large hole appeared in the ceiling above them with large chunks of concrete and building debris flying everywhere.

"Fiero, get Sam out of there!! Silas, use ice beam on the pokemon attacking that arcanine!! Storm, use your wing attack on the console keeping that rayquaza prisoner!!" As the dust cleared, the rocket agents and the scientist looked up to see a spirited young woman sitting astride a staraptor. At one side was a dragonite which descended upon the electabuzz, weavile and abomasnow and at her other side flew the golden pidgeot Sam had sent for help earlier on that day, now racing towards his trainer. He launched ferocious whirlwinds at Ned, Kelly and Dr Leonheart, sending them all flying out of the room through the door they had initially entered. The young woman, 5ft7 in height with long brown hair and piercing grey eyes wearing an outfit typical of a pokemon co-ordinator, threw herself onto the salamence's back while her staraptor finished helping Bolty destroy the hooks holding the rayquaza. When she saw that her dragonite had Bennett on its back and Fiero was supporting Sam's unconscious form, she instructed all the pokemon to fly straight up and out of the building, pausing for a moment once she was a good distance away.

"Silas, blast a hyper beam at that building!!" she shouted while stroking the unconscious rayquaza in an attempt to reassure it, for the beast was still writhing in pain. The dragonite fired his most powerful attack at the Team Rocket lair, not stopping until it erupted in a gigantic explosion. Satisfied, his trainer gently whispered to the salamence she was riding to go and the four flying pokemon sped off into the night, leaving a burning inferno in their wake.

The co-ordinator rushed straight to a brand new building in the Hoenn region labelled a Pokemospital, which catered for both people's illnesses/injuries as well as those of pokemon. It was a revolutionary idea brought about by the Nurse Joy of Lavaridge Town, after she had witnessed the logistics presented by how remote her hometown was in relation to medical help reaching both humans and pokemon. This Pokemospital was the first to be erected outside of Lavaridge Town, having been built in Rustboro City in response to the onslaught of young trainers coming from Petalburg Woods at the start of their journeys. Sam's injuries, severe when initially inflicted by the abomasnow, had reached life-threatening point by the time of their arrival. Nurse Joy had been consulted by the surgeon who was cleaning up the bloody holes, which she identified had been caused by a round of icicle spears fired at high speed. After giving her verdict on how best to treat the wounds to ensure all traces of the ice were removed, the nurse returned to nursing the pokemon who had been rushed in with the trainer. All were healthy apart from Bennett, who'd suffered terrible bruising and deep gashes along his striped body where the metal claw attacks had torn through his coat and into his skin. The rayquaza's life was hanging in the balance. Both the relentless pummelling of ice and the burning intensity of electricity had taken a heavy toll on the beast, with the nurses powerless to do anything further than support it and pray for a recovery.

After sixteen hours of intense surgery, Sam was finally moved into a private room. She had been hooked up to a ventilator to supply her with oxygen and monitor her signs, but had come through the procedure. The co-ordinator who had rescued her sat beside her bed, refusing to take any food or liquid until the girl on the bed woke up. It wasn't until the second day after the operation that Sam started to stir. Feeling disorientated coupled with the sensation of having been hit by a car, she forced her eyes open painfully before quickly dragging the oxygen mask from her face. The memory of being impaled by something came back to her slowly as she trailed her eyes over the sleeping form curled up in the chair beside her bed.

"Rachel Love, I'd never have guessed you of all people would respond to Fiero's call for help," she spoke lowly as the grey eyes opened in front of her, "I would assume that you didn't know Fiero was my pidgeot, but we both know you knew Fiero back when I caught him as a pidgey." Rachel flinched visibly at both the sneering words and the frail tone in which they were spoken. She expected to be treated less than warmly once Sam saw her again, but the physical weakness in her tone was even more upsetting.

"Believe it or not, Sam, I've been purposely looking for you. Storm first spotted Fiero looking for something, then when your golden bird saw me, he started cooing away at me before leading me to where you were," she explained, "I'm only sorry I didn't arrive sooner, perhaps I could've stopped those bastards from almost killing you. It was icicle spear attack which they hurt you with, an abomasnow unleashed it upon you. You were almost dead when I got you here." Tears slid down her face as Rachel finished talking, she looked away while trying to repress thoughts of what would've happened had she been any later. Sam squirmed uncomfortably as guilt flooded through her system. There had been many times she had envisioned bumping into her childhood friend again, more than fifteen years after they had parted company. So many harsh words lingered on her tongue, the old emotional hurt flaring deep within her heart, yet she could not bring herself to give them voice.

"Well, thank you very much for saving my life, Rachel," she said instead, her tone still very weak, "We've got a lot of things to talk about before we're anywhere close to fine, but it can wait until another day. For now, please come over so I can at least give you a cuddle." As the two women hugged, memories of their pokemon journeys starting came back into the front of their minds.

"Wow, we get our first pokemon today!!" squealed a ten year old Sam Blaze.

"I know!! I can't wait to get a vulpix to train!!" echoed a child Rachel Love. Both girls skipped along the main street of Sa Coma Town towards Professor Oak's ranch. A little town situated between Pallet Town and Newbark Town, any new pokemon trainers took a fire pokemon as their starter as per tradition. Because of the close proximity to Pallet Town, it fell to Professor Oak to give any youngsters from this little town their first pokemon. They had a choice from three fire-types: growlithe, vulpix or charmander.

"Vulpix's alright, but I'm dying to get a growlithe," Sam replied lazily as the outskirts of Pallet Town started to loom in the distance.

"Let's promise to be bestest friends forever on our journeys, no matter what happens, Sam," Rachel stated with a solemn look on her face. Sam turned and grabbed her friend in a tight hug.

"You can bet on it, Rachel!!"

The girls were interrupted from their reverie by a polite cough. Looking over at the door to the hospital room, they saw Nurse Joy and an unfamiliar doctor waiting beside her.The moment broken, both girls hastily let go and determinedly avoided eye contact as the doctor approached the bed.

"Well, hello there, Sam," he said cheerfully, "My name's Dr. Proctor and I'll be monitoring your condition while you're recovering. Nurse Joy has assisted our surgeon during his operation on you, as your injuries were pokemon-related. She's also kindly agreed to help myself in determining the best course of treatment for you." Sam glared in response to this doctor. Short brown hair with a dimpled chin and soft brown eyes, his whole persona was indicative of a guy accustomed to female patients fawning over him. Well, you're very much barking up the wrong tree here, mate!!

"Nurse, where's my arcanine? How's the rayquaza doing?" she asked instead, all of her attention directed at the beautiful nurse standing beside Dr Proctor.

"Your arcanine, Bennett I believe he's called, is making a swift recovery. His injuries were almost as severe as your own, but they're healing very well. But, I should warn you that he will have scarring along the length of his body. Cosmetically, he's no longer contest material, but he'll be back to fighting fit," she replied tentatively, "the rayquaza, however, is a very different story. By the time Rachel got it here, the poor thing was gravely hurt and continued to deteriorate. We did everything possible, however it died in the early hours of this morning." Sam looked away abruptly as tears started to fall down her face. She'd almost lost her life doing what she believed to be right, saving a magnificent pokemon from a terrible fate of enforced slavery. To learn that her efforts had been ultimately useless was crushing to bear.

"Eh, Nurse, is there any chance of taking Sam to see her pokemon? Or perhaps, bringing them to the room?" Rachel asked gently.

"I shall have to take both of you along to the pokemon wing of the Pokemospital once Dr Proctor has completed his examination, anyway. Now, let's get started," she responded happily.