Chapter 10

School's Out

Giselle and Joe arrived at Pokémon Tech on Giselle's Pidgeot, seeing the school in a way they never had before. Team Rocket members were sprawling all over the place, doing all sorts of things, all of which looked sinister. These included hauling off furniture and computers; leading away Pokémon Tech students, apparently to take them captive; and even using Fighting Pokémon to start punching away at some of the buildings. Hopping off her Pidgeot, Giselle reached for her Poké Balls.

"These guys are going to pay," she remarked.

Joe saw something else of interest: one of his teachers, Roxanne, was being taken away by some Team Rocket members.

"Stop!" he yelled, chasing after the Rocket grunts.

Giselle was slightly annoyed by Joe leaving her to do something she felt must be of minor importance, but she figured that she could handle Team Rocket on her own anyway. Out came all of her Pokémon, ready to battle.

"Attack those with 'R's on their shirts!" she commanded.

Her Pokémon scattered around the campus, using their various attacks in order to take down Team Rocket members. Pidgeot grabbed Rocket members by their shirts and tossed them away. Cubone clubbed many grunts, while Raichu electrocuted them. Starmie used its psychic powers to take out all the Fighting Pokémon, while Exeggutor paralyzed many of the Rockets. Graveler made itself most effective by rolling around the campus, taking out grunts as it went. Giselle smiled as she watched her team work seamlessly to destroy Team Rocket's plans.

"And Lance wonders why I'm Pokémon League Champion," Giselle bragged to herself.

Suddenly, she felt herself being grabbed from behind. It was Butch.

"I have you now!" Butch laughed. "We've been waiting to kill you for a long time, and now is our chance."

"That Drowzee sure is an accurate teleporter," Cassidy remarked.

As it turned out, Butch and Cassidy never entered Janine's house; they used Drowzee to hypnotize Jasmine, then they disappeared thanks to Drowzee teleporting them away.

"Drowzee doesn't learn Teleport… it must have been taught it by an old Technical Machine, which is no longer being made…" Giselle reasoned.

"You may be smart, but unfortunately, your mind is about to go to waste," Butch told Giselle, pulling out a knife.

At that moment, the earth shook below Butch and Cassidy's feet. Both of them fell over, while Giselle escaped Butch's grasp.

"What a time for this!" Butch complained.

Out of the ground popped Cubone, clubbing both Butch and Cassidy on the head multiple times. Both Rocket members were knocked out cold. Giselle walked over to Cubone, patted it on the head, then let out a hearty laugh.

"Those inferior Team Rocket members…" she commented.

She then saw a passed-out Jasmine being held by the Drowzee that belonged to Butch and Cassidy.

"I guess they won't be needing her anymore…" Giselle said. "Club Drowzee, Cubone."

Cubone knocked out Drowzee with its Bone Club. With Drowzee unconscious, its Hypnosis wore off Jasmine, who began to wake up.

"Where… am… I…" Jasmine mumbled.

"Your boyfriend apparently stunk it up trying to save you, but fortunately you were brought here to the Champion, who always foils Team Rocket's plans," Giselle boasted.

Jasmine was too confused to feel upset over Giselle's insult of Silver. She simply was happy to be free of Team Rocket's clutches.

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At the Celadon City gym, Erika was busy taking care of flowers. She looked up to see Brock, who had come to visit her, as he often did.

"Hi, Brock," Erika greeted him. "What have you come here for?"

"Oh, I just felt like talking to you while I was in town," Brock said.

"Are you enjoying life as a full-time gym leader?" Erika asked.

"Yeah, it's a nice change," Brock said. "I was so used to always traveling, when I was going all those places with Ash, but now that I've returned to my gym full-time, it's a lot more relaxing. I was originally going to keep on traveling, but I decided to take a break, while Ash goes off to Hoenn."

"I'm sure your family's glad to see you around, too," Erika said.

"Yeah, they like having me around," Brock responded. "In fact, part of the reason I came here today was to try to win some money for them at the slot machines."

"You really shouldn't gamble like that," Erika remarked. "It's way too much of a risk."

"Surprisingly enough, I did win some money today," Brock replied. "It's quite a creepy place, though… I saw some strange stuff going on in the back."

"I really wish our town didn't have a casino," Erika commented. "I really dislike gambling."

"Well, I have to be going back to Pewter City," Brock told her. "I'll see you again sometime soon."

"Okay," Erika said. "See you!"

As Brock walked away, Erika thought about how much more mature he had become. Instead of just being obsessed with her looks, he would talk with her one-on-one in a friendly fashion. She did have some concern about the casino, though, and after Brock left, she decided that she was going to go there personally and see what was going on. The other girls at the gym questioned whether it was a good idea for her to go there.

"You can't go to that casino," one girl told Erika. "It's not ladylike."

"You're wearing a kimono," another girl said. "You could get it dirty in a place like that."

"I know, I know," Erika responded. "But I really feel it's important to find out what is going on at that place."

So Erika walked over to the Celadon Game Corner, a business she had been against since its inception. She had never been inside its doors- until now.

"It's Erika!" one slot player exclaimed, seeing the gym leader walk into the casino.

"Hi," Erika murmured shyly, slowly walking into the casino. She looked around, seeing the place absolutely booming with business. People were slipping their coins into their machines non-stop, while there were others crowded around roulette tables.

"We have another big winner!" a man behind the counter announced. "Mr. Gamer with a ¥10000 win on slot machine #3!"

A few people rushed over to slot machine #3, going as far as pushing each other to get to the machine.

"Lots of winners all over the place," the man behind the counter announced. "Keep on pulling those levers!"

Erika decided to talk to the man behind the counter. "Excuse me," she said.

"Erika! What a pleasure it is to see you walk into our place!" the man exclaimed.

"I was wondering…" Erika began.

"You know, we can open up a slot machine just for you, if you want," the man said.

"Actually, I didn't come to play the slots," Erika said.

"You didn't?" the man responded with surprise. "Oh, that's right, roulette. You want in on the next roulette game?"

"No, no," Erika replied. "I'm not a gambler."

"Not a gambler?" the man asked. "Why are you here, then?"

"I was just curious about the business," Erika commented. "I wanted to know why this place is so popular."

"Well, isn't it obvious?" the man said. "It's because we have so many winners!"

A man came up to the counter. "I need more coins," he said. "I just ran out."

"Don't worry, we have plenty of those to go around," the man behind the counter responded. "It will be ¥1000 for 50 coins."

"Sure!" the man said, paying for more coins.

"Now granted, not everyone's a winner," the man behind the counter explained, as the other man walked back to his slot machine. "But let's face it, it's a very high-risk-high-reward type of business."

"I understand," Erika said. She was about to walk away, satisfied that the business was not as bad as she originally thought. However, she then noticed someone walking up stairs coming from the basement. It was a blonde-haired girl, who looked at Erika with suspicion.

"Why is she here?" the girl asked the man behind the counter.

"She was just curious about our business," the man replied.

"Yes, I was concerned about it," Erika spoke up.

"Why?" the girl asked. "You think we're run by Team Rocket or something?"

"No, no," Erika answered.

"Well, you shouldn't worry about us," the girl replied in a bit of an annoyed voice. She then went back down to the basement.

"Sorry, she can be a little rude sometimes," the man explained.

"I wonder why she brought up Team Rocket," Erika commented.

"No real reason," the man said nervously.

"I've got to find out more," Erika said. She ran down the stairs that the girl had gone down.

"What are you doing?" the man asked. He ran over to the wall, peeling back a poster and pushing a button.

Meanwhile, Erika came to the bottom of the stairs, looking around the place, which looked like a warehouse. She ran over to one room, finding nothing inside.

"I guess there's nothing here…" she remarked.

She then turned around, seeing an electronic clear door close, locking her in the room.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"You've fallen into our trap," a voice said. Erika then looked through the glass door to see the girl she had followed downstairs.

"My name is Domino, and I am a member of Team Rocket," the girl explained. "You may have thought Team Rocket was dead, but many of us have been running Team Rocket under this Game Corner ever since Giovanni was forced out of Saffron City. Our goal is to take over this city first, and what better way then to capture the gym leader?"

"You aren't going to make it very far with Giovanni locked away," Erika replied.

"Don't worry, we'll be just fine," Domino laughed. "What's most important is that you're locked away!"

She walked away laughing, while Erika sat down sadly. Her curiosity had cost her big-time; now she was trapped in this room.

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Whitney and Gold rushed into Gold's house, where his mother was shocked to see the two of them come in so quickly. While Gold's mother asked them what they were doing, the two trainers slammed the door and locked it, panting from their sprint away from Keane and Charmaine.

"Could someone tell me what is going on here?" Gold's mother asked.

"Team Rocket members are after us, and there's a giant Dragonite attacking the town," Gold responded, trying to catch his breath.

Whitney peeked out a window, pulling back the curtains just enough to be able to see. She was shocked to see Sabrina and Will standing around, with no Pokémon around them.

"What- what happened?!" she screamed.

"Oh no," Gold responded, fearing the worst. "Don't tell me…"

Gold pulled back the curtain further to take a look, seeing the same sight Whitney saw.

"How did they do that?" Gold asked in disbelief.

"They're psychics," Whitney replied. "I thought we'd be safe with them."

Sabrina, meanwhile, stood triumphantly next to Will, holding out a Master Ball, with which she had captured the large Dragonite.

"I guess Team Rocket did give us one good thing… these Master Balls, which can capture other trainers' Pokémon," Sabrina remarked, referring to Team Rocket's failed plan to steal Pokémon by using Master Balls, of which she played a part.

"Are you going to try to battle with that thing?" Will asked Sabrina, with a bit of fear in his voice.

"Of course not," Sabrina replied. "Once we foil Team Rocket's plans, I'm going to figure out how to get this back to normal size, and then release it."

Will smiled, reacting to both Sabrina's selfless idea to allow the Dragonite to go free, as well as her confidence that they would defeat Team Rocket.

"Hey, what happened here?" a voice asked the two psychics.

Sabrina and Will turned around to see Keane and Charmaine, who noticed that Dragonite was no longer attacking the psychics. They looked frantically for Clair.

"You looking for this woman?" Sabrina asked, holding out the Clair doll.

"What did you do to her?" Keane demanded.

"Isn't it obvious?" Sabrina replied. "I made her a harmless plushie."

Keane's eyes burned with rage. "You're just as cruel as our boss!" he yelled at Sabrina. He threw out a Poké Ball, with his Magcargo coming out.

"You really want to battle?" Will asked. "This will be easy."

Sabrina grabbed Will's arm as he tried to throw out a Poké Ball. "A battle is not necessary," she said. "Here, you may have Clair."

Sabrina handed the Clair doll to Keane, who looked shocked, though not as stunned as Will.

"Now we must be going," Sabrina said to Will, who gave her an angry look.

What are you doing, Sabrina? Will asked her telepathically. Have you lost your mind?

I'll explain it all later, Will, Sabrina replied. Just take my hand and focus your mind on mine.

The confused Will reluctantly grabbed Sabrina's hand, then focused his mind on hers. The two disappeared from Mahogany Town, as they teleported away. The two Team Rocket members looked at each other in disbelief.

"All we have to do now is give Clair to the boss, and she'll be back to normal," Charmaine said.

"Right," Keane responded. "But why did Sabrina just give her to us?"

The two Team Rocket members left Mahogany Town, trying to figure out exactly why Sabrina had given Clair to them, as well as wondering what their next task would be.