The two of them immediately leapt into action, having a slight advantage over the crowds of Rockets trying to fight their way in. Chris couldn't move his sword without hitting someone, they were so tightly packed in, and Gloria's attacks always connected, even if not with the intended target.

"We can't do this for long, Chris."

"I know. I barely have room to swing."

"Then let's get out of here." The two of them backed up until they were back to back. Then they sidestepped onto the warp tile, and found themselves in the hallway outside of the room.

"Blast, not where we wanted to end up. In here, quick." Chris darted over to the door he'd seen the one Rocket come out of earlier and opened it. They found themselves in a storeroom. "Great, a dead end."

"There has to be a tile in here somewhere. Look for it."

They both went opposite ways around the crates, picking up a few useful items as they passed. They met up on the other side, unsuccessful.

"Where is it?" Gloria asked, puzzled.

"Maybe surrounded by these crates. Let's go over the top."
Gloria responded to Chris's suggestion by jumping right up onto the crates. Chris couldn't quite do that, so he climbed up instead, with a helping hand from Gloria.

"Well, let's hope we're right. They're already in here."

"Stay low, so they don't see us." Chris followed his own advice by going down on his stomach, and taking off his hat, compressing it so as not to stand out. The two of them crawled across the crates to an open spot in the grid.

"Here it is, Chris." Gloria called in an excited whisper. "Hang on, I just remembered something." Gloria pulled off her pack and pulled out a pair of padded leather gloves with metal studs. "Should have put these on earlier."

"Cool, then let's get going. Anywhere will be better than here," he said as they dropped down.

Unfortunately, he was wrong. The teleporter led them right into a room that was being used as a barracks by the Rockets. But they did have the element of surprise this time. Before the Rockets could start to attack, they brought out their Pokemon, ready for another all out battle. The Pokemon got back into their groups from before, ready to take on any opponents.

Most of the Rockets sent out their Pokemon, but a few of them just ran away instead. None of them were willing to get in close themselves, though. So Chris and Gloria found themselves up against an array of Pokemon to fight against. It was all of the same typical Rocket Pokemon, too, meaning that they weren't really hard to take down. Cubone immediately set to work bouncing his Bonemerang off of as many Ekans and Arbok as he could, and Pikachu and Flaffy started zapping the Zubat and Golbat. Chris started using the Koffing and Wheezing as baseballs, smacking them into crowds of Rockets where they would Selfdestruct. Gloria took on some Raticate, at one point grabbing one by the tail and hitting it into its comrades before flinging it into the crowd of Rockets. Skarmory, Dratini, and Gastly focused in on the humans right away, as well as one or two enemy Gastly that were thrown into the fray. Clefairy, Togepi, and Tamanta focused on the Ratata, and anyone else that came at them.

Before too long, all of the Pokemon were down, as well as many of the trainers. The rockets were really getting mad, and those remaining came in to finish the job. They were met with the same attacks their Pokemon had faced. The humans went down even easier than their Pokemon had. In a matter of minutes, every Rocket still in the room was unconscious.

"Hey, nice work guys," Chris told the Pokemon.

"Oh, yeah. We rock!" Gloria thrust her fist into the air as their Pokemon called out in consent, all of them happy with their victory.

"Hey, you two, over here!" They turned, and saw a woman motioning to them from a doorway. "Get in here, quick!"

They did, and found themselves in a room full of beds. "So, you're the one that there are rumors about."

"Yeah, I've been able to hold out in here since those guys showed up. My name's Jen. What are yours?"

"I'm Gloria, and this is Chris. We came to get these thugs out of this place."

"Well, that's good. They need to be gotten rid of, that's for sure."

"Hey, Jen, how exactly have you been holding them out, anyways?" Chris was getting his hat back to normal, and put it back on his head.

"Well, I have my own Pokemon, and when they get hurt, I rest them in here, or use this computer to swap them with others. This is the only room in the building without a Teleporter, too, other than the Director's office, which has one in the hall outside of it."

"Well, that's where we need to get to, to finish this."

"First, rest for a little bit. Then I'll give you directions to the Director's office. You've used quite a bit of energy just from what I've seen, and you'll need all of it to get rid of their Boss."

Chris and Gloria couldn't object, especially since they themselves were probably the most tired out of their team. So they and their Pokemon settled in to rest, with Jen still guarding the door. Some of the Pokemon used the beds, but others either lay on the floor or slept standing up. Clefairy, Togepi, and Tamanta shared a bed together, having grown a strong bond between them while fighting, with Cubone on the floor next to them, also part of that bond. Skarmory perched on the end of one of the beds, which Dratini curled up onto, and Gastly rested floating above it. Flaffy and Pikachu settled in on a rug next to each other, and Chris and Gloria each took their own beds on either side of that rug. They rested well, and awoke an hour or so later, ready to face their next challenge...

Chris, Gloria, and their Pokemon got ready to confront Giovanni. Jen was writing directions on Gloria's notepad map, which she had filled out while they slept.

"Part of why they wanted to get me out of here was because of how close it is to the main route to the Chairman's office. 4 teleports will get you there from here." She handed the pad back to Gloria.

"Hey, thanks Jen."

"We owe you for this."

"Hey, think nothing of it. Especially since you'll be saving all of us if you succeed. Good luck!"

The two of them walked out of the room, their Pokemon back in their balls. Chris was carrying his sword at the ready, and Gloria had her studded gloves on. "Let's do this, Chris."

"You've got the map, so let's go."

They went over to another door out of the now-vacant barracks. Apparently the Rockets hadn't thought that they'd stuck around.

"These Rockets aren't very smart, are they Chris."

"Not really. The leaders probably are, but these grunts are doing this to get an easy way through life by way of crime."

"Good point. Let's get going before our luck changes." Through the door was a hallway to nowhere. Chris noticed the shadow of a guard standing around the corner at the end of the hall. He put a finger to his lips and snuck along the wall. He then stepped out, and smacked the guard on the head, sending him to the floor before he knew what hit him.

"Well, Chris, here's the first warp tile," Gloria said, looking at her map

"The only purpose for this hallway is to get you to this tile," Chris commented. "These guys need a better architect. They really wasted space in here. And a stand alone like this is a giveaway that it's important. Let's head through." They warped into a conference room, with a large table in the middle.

"Where the Chairman meets with the board, I'd assume. Well, there's no one here, so let's keep moving. The next warp is back here, where the Chairman comes in." Gloria led the way to a very small room in the back, which had the obvious purpose of bringing in the Chairman.

"Did Jen really include all of those details on the map?"

"Yeah. She's on the board, which is why she knows."

The next warp took them into an office that had once been orderly. "Probably sacked in the overtaking. I'd guess that this is where he keeps meeting notes, and maybe where he eats, too. Jen has never been past here, but knows what to expect. There's a hallway that leads straight into his main office and suite. He supposedly lives in there."

"Well then, where's the Teleporter?"

"She doesn't know. She's never seen it. So we'll have to find it."

"Well then, we'd better start looking." Chris and Gloria started to look through the room for the warp tile.

"The only clutter on it would have come from the other side, it should be pretty clear."

"You'd think that, but Giovanni probably realized that and could have easily covered it from the other side. Keep looking, Glo, we have to find it."

Suddenly a Rocket warped in from the way they'd come. "So this is where you got to. I'll get such a big bonus for this!"

"Yeah right, punk." Gloria punched him in the face, and then rammed her knee into his crotch, sending him to the floor. She used her foot to roll him back onto the warp tile, and away. "Can't make it that easy to find us."

"Hey, I found it!" Chris called. "It's under the desk here."

"Well, that's kind of good. But we can't get to it under there. We'd have to move the desk first."

"Well, then let's try." They both moved to one end and started to push the table. It barely moved.

"Dang, it's stuck, look." Gloria pointed to the two ruts in the floor that it was stuck in. "And too low to get under, at least for the two of us."

"Well, I do have another idea..." Chris grabbed his wooden sword, and grabbed the blade. Gloria heard a small click, and the edge of the sword peeled off, revealing a metal blade.

"Wow, that thing conceals a real sword? How?"

"I only use this when necessary; this will be its first use in quite a while. My people have some pretty good technology on our little island. I'll tell you about this blade later, if you tell me about your gloves." Chris climbed onto the table and made a long slash across it in front of him. He jumped off as his half started to sink under his weight. The other half was forced backwards, and it fell over onto its side, revealing the warp tile. "I hope the Chairman doesn't mind loosing his desk."

"That thing probably took at least two or three Rockets to put there." Gloria observed. "Nice work, Chris. Let's go!"

The teleporter did indeed lead them to a hallway. Which was infested with Rockets, who were ready to fight. "Men, let's get them!" an Admin called.

"OK guys, come out and let's go!" Chris and Gloria sent out their Pokemon, and joined the fray. Chris had put the wooden part back on his sword, since killing wasn't part of the plan, and he and Gloria fought back to back. He felt so natural, fighting alongside her. At one point, she hooked her arm up under his, and he leaned forwards to help flip her over him to kick the men in front of him, while he spun back the way she had been facing to thrust into another's stomach. He'd never even used that kind of signal, but the reaction had come naturally. Another time, he hooked his arm into hers, and pulled her into a spin above him as he leaned back, causing her to kick all of the men within her reach in the head. She flowed with it like she'd done it a thousand times, alternating her legs so that the momentum could be kept.

Their Pokemon worked in their own tandems. Pikachu and Flaffy had their tails together, allowing both to strike with more power than they did normally. Dratini, Skarmory and Ghastly made a variety of combination moves together, from Skarmory using Dratini as a whip while Ghastly drew the targets attention, to Dratini igniting Skarmory's wings with Dragonbreath while Ghastly gave her an extra push of speed. The other four also worked together closely. Tamanta used a water pulse to add extra damage and velocity to Cubone's Bonemerang. Clefairy at one point picked up Togepi and swung her around as she used Headbutt to hit a group of enemies. Togepi also rode on the Bonemerang once, jumping off to hit a Rocket hard with Headbutt, then bouncing and hitting another, then another before landing back on the returning bone to ride back. Clefairy once rode on one of Tamanta's Water Gun attacks for an extra boost for her Comet Punch.

Before long, all of the Rockets had fallen, again. "These guys really need to train more, don't they, Chris."

"You've got that right, Gloria. Let's go confront Giovanni!" They all went to the end of the hall, and opened the door to the Chairman's suite...