As we climbed down the ladder one by one, all we could hear was the sound of our own movements, and breaths. The silence was odd, discomforting, and suspicious. Why would the Rockets be guarding a mountain that nothing was happening in?
My feet reached the solid ground, thudding, before I heard Dylan, Ethan, and Exton's feet reaching the ground. I quickly realised my mistake, whirling around, Pokéball in hand, and calling out Inferna. However, the other person released a Grimer before me.
"Grimer, Sludge!" It yelled, the Grimer spitting out a pile of sludge towards me. Luckily, Inferna appeared and blocked the attack quickly.
"Inferna, Heat Barrier!" I yelled, the Heat Wave flaring up in between the mystery person and Dylan, Ethan, and I. I made a motion at them which meant to tell them to get to me. They walked in my direction quickly, and I recalled Inferna, before telling them to hide behing the wall. As the wall of heat dissipated, I clamoured behind the wall as well.
The person sighed and returned her Pokémon, taking out a phone, and dialling someone.
"Yeah, Boss? Listen, there are some kids in the caves... One had a Torracat... Okay, bye." She said, before walking away to patrol again.
"Whew, that was close." I sighed in relief a few seconds after she left.
"That was a bit suspicious, though, she didn't try to pursue us." Dylan commented.
"Maybe she was ordered to leave us alone." Ethan suggested. A few seconds of silence lapsed.
"How about we keep at least one of our Pokémon out from now on?" I suggested.
"Yeah, let's do that if we want ourselves to be aggressively Force Palmed by a disobedient Riolu." Dylan said, giving a side glance at Ethan.
"Will you get off my case for that?" Ethan said, annoyed.
"Oh yeah, I remember, you said something about a disobedient Riolu?" I asked.
"Ethan got a Riolu from his dead Granddad's Lucario, but it doesn't respect him. Not like I see any reason for him to." Dylan snarked.
"Okay, can you stop? I don't see how you two are even friends." I said, my emotions a mix between anger and annoyance.
"Let's just call out our Pokémon." Dylan grunted, and sent out his Murkrow, who perched on his shoulder. I sent out Haze, who made himself comfortable on my head. Ethan kept his Pokéball in his pocket, sighing. I felt sorry for him, lending him Inferna.
"Here, take my Torracat." I said softly, pressing Inferna's Pokéball into his hand.
"Thank you." He said gratefully, sending out Inferna, who cocked her head to the side, surprised by who called her out.
"Alright, Inferna. I'm just going to need you to protect Ethan until we get out of the cave." I said to Inferna, who nodded in understanding.
"Let's go." I said, motioning again for us to move forward, towards the next ladder. I disappeared down the ladder.
"Hmmm." A man in a black suit mused pensively, behind our three. "This might be a bit harder than I thought..."
Meanwhile:
In the Cerulean Gym, a light brown haired girl watched as her Greninja moved back and forth, side to side, avoiding the various shots her Starmie shot out at a rapid pace, similar to those of a machine gun. At the pace her Greninja was moving, it seemed as if it was teleporting around.
"You know, you really don't need to train this hard, Eri." A woman by the door commented. She wore a white blouse, and blue jean shorts. She also had bright orange hair, kept in a ponytail by a blue hairband.
"I really do, mother. If I want to have the power to face him, I have to do this." The girl said through gritted teeth, concentrating more on the battle in front of her.
"Greninja, Shadow Clone!" She shouted. The Greninja stopped for merely a second, getting hit by two water bullets, before splitting into three. They all then quickly leaped away, the Starmie noticing this, and starting to shift into Rapid Spin, while shooting out the bullets from its tips. The three Greninja dodged almost every bullet, but noticeably being slower than before.
"Greninja, Water Shuriken!" She commanded. The three Greninja formed three shurikens each, before launching them at Starmie. The shurikens cut through the water bullets like hot butter, hitting the Starmie, and creating bruises wherever they hit.
"Greninja, Dark Pulse!" She yelled. The three Greninja made dark Shurikens instead of water ones, and launched them at the Starmie again, fainting it.
"Enough. Starmie, Psychic." The woman sighed. A Starmie camouflaged on the floor behind Greninja appeared, quickly grabbing Greninja with a pink psychic energy, before launching it at the wall. The Greninja, stunned in surprise, hit the wall and fainted.
"Wha-wha-how?" The girl gaped in surprise.
"Camouflage, Miracle Eye, and Substitute." The woman explained. "Now Eri, can you please go have lunch with your stepfather?"
"Yes, mother." The girl sighed, returning her Greninja before heading out the door.
After the girl left, the woman turned in her direction. "They grow up too fast." She murmured, before following her.
In Mount Moon:
I descended to the bottom of the second ladder, to find... nothing.
"You would really think that these guys would be more obvious with their criminal acts." I commented, Haze leaping of my shoulder.
"Well, it isn't like they would jump out and shout some kind of stupid motto, making it immediately clear to everyone, even the police, their name and criminal deeds, and also taking up enough time for them to be detained and arrested." Dylan said.
"That was really specific..." Ethan said. "Also, it is kinda obvious. There's a large hole in the wall right there." He said, pointing behind us.
"Um... I don't see any other exits, so I guess we should go this way." I said, already walking towards the hole.
"This seems incredible irresponsible." Dylan commented in a monotone voice.
"Well, that's exactly what I am. LET'SGONOW!" I commanded, taking both of them by the wrists again, and running towards the hole, the Pokémon following behind us, sprinting. Once I got into the hole, I ran down before getting punched in the arm.
"CAN YOU PLEASE STOP RUNNING!" Dylan yelled angrily, the first time I had seen any kind of emotion from him. He then quickly calmed down, before punching me again.
"Ow!" I yelped, rubbing my arm, where a bruise was already starting to form. "Jeez, okay..." I said, before trailing off now that I knew I had no idea where we were. The entire hole was dark, and smelled of old mildew. The room was oddly cold, colder than the previous cave.
"Great. Now we have no idea where we are, and..." Dylan checked his phone. "No service. We can't even call anyone for help!"
"Inferna, Fire Fang." I commanded, ignoring Dylan. Inferna instantly lit her two fangs on fire, illuminating a tiny spot in the room. "See? Now we can find our way out of her-" I said, turning back, before smacking into a wall. I hit a light switch face-first, illuminating the entire room, before staggering back in pain.
"Ow..." I mumbled, still delirious from the stupidly small amount of pain.
"...what...is this place?" Ethan said quietly, in shock. Blood was strewn all over the floor, and various innards of Pokémon were splattered in the room, as if their bodies had suddenly inflated and burst. Gastric acids dripped from the ceiling, as the vaguely stomach-shaped objects stuck to the ceiling still worked. Suddenly, a gasp came from a corner of a room, which we hadn't looked at before. A vaguely human-shaped...thing...crawled out of the corner by what could be described as a mix of gills, wings, paws, and hands. A hoarse rasping cough came from its throat as it crawled towards us. Its body was littered with various Pokémon parts, the only things barely recognisable was a Seel horn on its hands, a Gardevoir spike on the back of its head, Charizard wings stuck halfway inside its throat, and a Rattata tail protruding from its back. Its body was littered with tumors and bumps, making it indiscernible as a human.
"...kill...me..." It rasped out, reaching out to me. I immediately reacted on instinct, thinking it was going to attack, and commanded Inferna to use Heat Wave. The pure wall of flame flooded over the creature, burning it to death, or at least we assumed.
"What...was that?" I asked, still scared, and bewildered. Both of my companions looked over to me with horrified looks on their faces.
"We don't know either..." Dylan responded, in shock, an expression that looked unusual on his face. I guess that even the most emotionless person could be surprised by a room full of body parts.
"WHAT ARE YOU KIDS DOING HERE?" A voice thundered from behind us. I whirled around to face a man with cyan hair and blue eyes, and a sharp jawline. He looked as if he was around fourty to fifty years old, and he wore a black hat, with a black jacket and long white gloves, with a red band around the ends of the gloves. He had a white belt with six Pokéballs, and black pants, and long boots with the same design as his gloves. A white earpiece was stuck in his right ear. My eyes widened as I met his, the man's eyes also widening. He had different hair, wore a different outfit, and had shaved his salt and pepper beard, but it was him nonetheless.
"Yo-you... why are you here?" Words stumbled out of my mouth as I similarly stumbled backwards in shock. He also looked surprised, but quickly shook his head to clear his confusion. Suddenly, we heard the sound of footsteps thundering behind the man. The man quickly whirled around to the people approaching. I got a quick glimpse at them, confirming that it was Exton and his group, before stepping backwards, and cringing, preparing for the worst.
Exton and Matthias were also both in shock, Matthias reasonably more, as I would be in his position. He took a few steps back, his mouth hung open in disbelief and shock, before taking a few steps forward again.
"...dad?" Matthias softly mumbled, eyes firmly locked onto his own father's face, connected to a Team Rocket Admin uniform, and he couldn't seem to piece them together.
"...Matthias?" His dad whispered out too, his face pale.
"What the fuck is going on here?" Dylan demanded, confused.
"That's Matthias' dad... and he's a Team Rocket Admin." I said breathlessly.