Chapter Ten
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
Abraham Lincoln
All things considered, this wasn't one of his better ideas, Giovanni decided as the main lights flickered out. But what choice did he have? These people had followed him to Celadon City because they trusted him. That trust would be destroyed in an instant if he got himself to safety without at least trying to go back for the others. Giovanni knew perfectly well he couldn't afford to lose more officers.
The tiny emergency lights hardly provided enough light to see by, and judging by the way they kept blinking on and off, the backup generator might fail at any moment. Giovanni fumbled in his pocket for the small flashlight he had brought from the office. Smoke and dust swirled and danced in the flashlight's narrow beam. It may have been his imagination, but the floor tiles seemed to be unusually warm underfoot. The fire in the basement was going strong. How long would they have before the building collapsed on itself?
Giovanni tried not to think about it. There was no turning back now. All he knew was that a partial collapse on one end of the headquarters had left Hector and several others trapped in the old cafeteria. With any luck, getting them out would be a simple matter of clearing away a little debris. They couldn't risk spending any more time inside the building than strictly necessary.
The corridor seemed to be deserted, but then Giovanni made out the sound of someone coughing up ahead, and indistinct voices floated out of the murky darkness. Giovanni turned the corner, and the flashlight's beam illuminated three figures hobbling toward him. As he drew closer, he could tell it was Butch and Cassidy, and the third figure limping between them was Pierce. The elite officer's face was contorted in pain, and he didn't seem able to put any weight on his left leg, forcing him to lean on the other two.
"What are you three still doing here?"
The three officers stood at attention, recognizing their boss.
"Sir, Butch and I heard there were others still trapped in the cafeteria," Cassidy said. "We were going back to help, and we found Pierce right at the edge of where the ceiling collapsed."
Pierce grimaced. "There were a few others behind me. They turned around when the ceiling started to give out. I probably should have followed them, but I tried to make a run for it instead. I almost made it out, but I got my leg pinned under the debris. It was a good thing Cassidy and Butch showed up."
"Good work," Giovanni told them. "You two go ahead and help Pierce out of here. I'll take care of the rest."
"And leave you here alone?" Cassidy's eyes widened slightly.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Pierce said.
Giovanni glared at his officers, the kind of glare that no one dared to question. "That was an order, not a suggestion. I can handle getting through a little debris by myself."
"Yes, sir!"
They scrambled to obey, realizing that Giovanni was in no mood to argue with them. In the dim glow cast by the flashlight, Giovanni could tell Pierce was still reluctant to leave, but he seemed to realize he would be useless on his injured leg. He needed assistance from the other officers just to walk, so there was no way he would be able to help dig his colleagues out of the rubble. Without any further questions, Pierce allowed Butch and Cassidy to lead him toward the exit.
Giovanni continued down the corridor. He hoped he wouldn't regret his decision to not take at least one of them with him. Without knowing the full extent of the damage, he had no idea if this was something he could handle by himself. Yet if worse came to worse and Giovanni wasn't able to reach the trapped officers in time, at least there would be three fewer casualties.
He turned one final corner and found the site of the ceiling collapse. The upper level of the headquarters had given out, burying the corridor beneath chunks of plaster, splintered beams, twisted metal, and smashed furniture from the rooms above. Giovanni pointed his flashlight through the dust and was just able to make out the entrance to the cafeteria about fifty feet away, completely buried under a mountain of debris.
It might only be fifty feet to the cafeteria, but it was a long way to go when the piles of rubble were taller than he was in places. It would take much too long to climb over the ruins of the second floor, get everyone out, and then go back the way they came. Even if they had the time, traversing the wreckage might be impossible if any of the officers inside were injured from the collapse.
Giovanni reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out one of his pokeballs. His only idea was a risk, but it would save precious time if it worked. He opened the pokeball, and a hulking rock Pokemon materialized at the edge of the rubble.
"Golem, use your steamroller attack and flatten a path over this debris."
Golem nodded, sizing up the wreckage in front of them.
"Be careful though," Giovanni warned the Pokemon. "There was an explosion nearby, and there is a fire in another part of the building. The structure is already compromised, so make sure you don't hit the walls or anything else that could make the destabilization worse."
Golem nodded again and tucked his head and appendages into his shell. He rolled forward, although perhaps not as forcefully as he would have in an actual battle. The rubble crunched and groaned under Golem's bulk as the Pokemon flattened a path toward the cafeteria. Giovanni kept a close eye on the floor. The weight of the debris was already pushing the limits of the building's structural integrity, and adding a nearly seven hundred pound Pokemon to the mix wasn't the best idea.
Golem slowly but steadily rolled to the opposite end of the corridor. The Pokemon's heavy shell smashed the rubble into a semi-solid mass, just as Giovanni had hoped. At the obstructed entrance to the cafeteria, Golem paused for just a moment to admire his handiwork and then changed his direction, rolling back the way he had come. The second pass further smoothed out some semblance of a path through the twisted remains of the upper story.
"Good work," Giovanni returned Golem to the pokeball as soon as the Pokemon neared his starting place.
Giovanni kept the beam of the flashlight focused on the ground in front of him and carefully made his way down the path Golem had cleared. The surface was still uneven, and it had a tendency to shift underfoot without warning, but the corridor was at least passable now. It only took a couple minutes of navigating the ruins to reach the wall of crumbled plaster, splintered wood, and mangled steel that sealed off the cafeteria.
The cafeteria had been designed to double as a bunker in the event the headquarters came under attack, and that was what had saved the people inside from being crushed in the collapse. The reinforced steel walls could withstand just about anything. Unfortunately, the bunker had no emergency exits or independent air supply, so the people inside were in danger of suffocating if the fire continued to spread.
Giovanni pulled out his phone and dialed Ariana's number. She answered almost at once.
"I'm at the entrance to the cafeteria," Giovanni said. "It's completely blocked off on this side. What does it look like on your end?"
"Well, the entire entryway is filled in," Ariana replied. She sounded remarkably calm, but Giovanni heard the buzz of frantic voices in the background. "We've been trying to dig, but to be honest, we haven't made much progress."
That was what he was afraid of. The walls of the bunker were nearly five feet thick, so if the entryway was filled in, that was five feet of rubble to remove. It would take humans far too long to free themselves from the cave-in. Yet the right Pokemon attack might speed up the process.
"Ariana, I'm going to see if one of my Pokemon can break through if you can get everyone away from the entrance."
"You've got it," Ariana said before disconnecting the call.
Giovanni gripped another of his pokeballs and released his Rhydon. Unlike Golem, who had accepted their predicament without a second thought or complaint, Rhydon immediately cowered against the wall, confused by the darkness and dust and obvious danger. Rhydon had never been Giovanni's bravest Pokemon. However, he was one of the strongest and had the best chance of smashing through the rubble in front of them. It was just getting Rhydon to cooperate under the current circumstances that would be the problem.
"Rhydon, we need to get this entryway open," Giovanni explained. "This wall of debris is about five feet thick and—"
Giovanni trailed off as he realized Rhydon wasn't listening. The Pokemon's eyes darted around as he searched for the way out.
"Rhydon!" The edge of irritation in Giovanni's voice finally caught the Pokemon's attention. "I need you to focus. We're not leaving until we get this entrance cleared."
Rhydon gave a low growl, and he glared at Giovanni.
"Fine, I'll make a deal with you." Giovanni sighed. He didn't normally tolerate disobedience from his Pokemon, but Rhydon had always been a special case. Bribes and incentives yielded much quicker results with Rhydon than any threat ever would. "If you help me get my employees out of here, you don't have to participate in any gym battles for the next month."
That finally piqued Rhydon's interest. Despite being quite effective in battle, Rhydon wasn't much of a competitor. He preferred to be on the sidelines while his teammates did most of the work. He continued to regard Giovanni with suspicion for a moment, and then he nodded.
"All right. We're going to need to use your horn drill attack."
Giovanni hoped it would be enough. Rhydon would only have the stamina to use horn drill a few times, and the attack was prone to fail more often than not. Still, it was worth a try.
Rhydon sized up the wall of rubble in front of them and then drew himself up with a mighty roar. The horn on his nose began to spin, and he charged forward with speed that was unexpected from such a large, bulky creature. Rhydon crashed headlong into the wall of rubble. Giovanni hastily backed away as shards of wood, metal, and plaster flew everywhere. After a few moments, the dust cleared enough to reveal that Rhydon had created a crater about two feet deep in the wall of rubble.
It was a start, but they needed more. Five times was the most Rhydon had ever been able to attempt horn drill before becoming too tired to use the attack. Out of those five tries, horn drill usually only worked once or twice. It took a high degree of concentration and focus in the controlled setting of a gym battle, so Giovanni knew better than to be optimistic about their chances for success here.
"That was good, Rhydon," Giovanni called from his position of relative safety down the corridor. Usually he didn't bother taking the time to dole out compliments to his Pokemon, but if any of them needed extra encouragement, it was Rhydon. "Try it again, and see if you can put a little more power behind it."
He hoped the implication that Rhydon's attack hadn't been powerful enough the first time wouldn't offend the Pokemon and cause him to refuse to cooperate altogether. Luckily, Rhydon merely nodded and turned back to the entrance, taking a moment to steel himself for the attack.
Giovanni ducked down behind the remains of a heavy wooden desk that Golem hadn't flattened to avoid the shower of flying debris this time. There was a loud crash, but Giovanni could tell the attack wasn't nearly as powerful as the first one. He emerged from behind the desk, and sure enough, there was hardly any change to the entryway. Rhydon stamped his foot in frustration.
"Not bad, Rhydon. Just try it again." It didn't come naturally to Giovanni to be so encouraging, but he figured he should at least make an effort given the circumstances.
Rhydon backed away from the entryway and prepared for the attack once more. This time, Giovanni didn't bother taking shelter. He could tell the horn drill would fail before the attack even hit. The walls shuddered as the attack made contact, but Rhydon more or less bounced harmlessly off the rubble.
Giovanni reminded himself to keep his temper in check. Getting angry would only demotivate Rhydon further. The Pokemon was tiring quickly, and combined with his lack of focus, their odds of landing a successful horn drill were plummeting. Maybe one or two more attempts was all they would have.
"One more hit should do it." Giovanni kept his tone as reassuring as possible. "Pretend we're back home at the gym. You've landed this attack plenty of times before."
Rhydon's next attempt was a little better, but it still wasn't a real horn drill attack. Some of the rubble went flying, but the officers entombed behind the wall of debris were still a couple feet away. Rhydon was worn out. Giovanni knew that they would only have one more chance before Rhydon was too exhausted to continue. Perhaps a month off from gym battles wasn't enough. What else could he use to motivate the Pokemon?
"Rhydon, you remember Ariana's Vileplume, don't you?" Giovanni asked with a sudden stroke of inspiration.
Rhydon turned back to look at him, his gaze slightly suspicious.
On the somewhat rare occasions Giovanni and Ariana trained their Pokemon together, Rhydon always watched Vileplume with a mixture of awe and fascination. Maybe Rhydon's infatuation could be used as an incentive to break through the wall.
"Vileplume is one of the Pokemon stuck behind this wall. If you were the one who helped get everyone out, I'm sure she would be very grateful," Giovanni said. "Since you won't be busy with gym battles for a while, I'm sure I could even arrange for you to spend some time together."
Despite his obvious fatigue, Rhydon drew himself up straighter. Giovanni might have imagined it, but he thought there was a spark in the Pokemon's eyes that hadn't been there moments ago. Rhydon took a few seconds to gather all of his strength and charged forward.
Giovanni ducked behind the desk again as the attack made contact. The walls rattled so hard that Giovanni was momentarily concerned the rest of the building might come collapsing down around them. When the bits of plaster stopped raining down, Giovanni risked a glance over the top of the desk.
Rhydon's attack had been a success. The Pokemon's shoulders slumped with exhaustion, but there was a glimmer of triumph in his eyes. Giovanni returned him to his pokeball. The attack had pulverized most the debris blocking the entrance to the cafeteria, and Giovanni could see faint light filtering through the cracks in the remaining rubble.
Giovanni approached what was left of the wall and pressed against one of the largest pieces of plaster that remained. The chunks of rubble crumbled away, leaving a gap large enough to fit through. A few faces, pale in the wavering beam of the flashlight, came into view.
"Thanks for the help." Ariana was the first one who emerged from the shadows. "It would have taken us a while to dig ourselves out."
"It was nothing." Giovanni did his best to appear as though it had been an easy feat. " Let's get out of here. We don't have much time."
Ariana climbed up the mound of debris and clambered down the other side. She stood beside Giovanni as seven other officers emerged from the hole. Hector was the last one out. He was bleeding from a small cut above his eye, but aside from that, no one seemed to be injured. Ariana and Hector flanked him on either side as the rest of the officers attempted to cross the field of wreckage in front of them. Golem had made the path passable, but it was still slow going across the mounds of unstable debris.
"I'm assuming we can rule out any possibility that this was an accident?" Ariana said, keeping her voice low so the other officers wouldn't hear her.
"I have no doubt someone planted explosives in here," Giovanni replied as they followed behind the others at a large enough distance to keep their conversation private. "I thought we took enough security precautions, but I should have done more when we decided to move here. Manieri used to work in this building. If one of his spies found out we were meeting here, he would know how to get inside."
"We also need to take into account the possibility there may have been an infiltrator," Hector said.
Giovanni knew he was right, but that was one option he didn't want to have to consider. Every officer he brought to Celadon City was hand-picked for their loyalty and devotion to Team Rocket. If one of them was a traitor, it meant he didn't know his own organization nearly as well as he thought he did.
"I'll pull the security footage later," Ariana told Giovanni. "If anyone entered the headquarters who didn't belong, it shouldn't be too difficult to spot them. But before we do that, I'll get a couple of people to help me make sure everyone is accounted for."
Ariana fell silent as they caught up to the rest of the group. The last thing they needed was the mass panic that would ensue if people started speculating about who might be a traitor. They needed unity now more than ever, and this was just the sort of thing that could tear Team Rocket apart.
The group of officers was quiet and subdued as they filed toward the emergency exit. No doubt they had all believed themselves to be safe here, and this attack proved they were nowhere near as invulnerable as they had thought. At least they would soon be out of the headquarters, and they could try to put this behind them.
Even though they were almost to the exit, Giovanni couldn't shake a vague sense of unease. It was the smoke, he realized as they filed past the atrium. The basement didn't extend past this part of the building, so the smoke should be getting less dense as they made their way toward the laboratories. Instead, the air quality was getting worse, which made no sense.
The officer at the front of the group rounded the final corner and cursed as he came to a sudden halt. They had found the source of the smoke. At the end of the hallway, the entrance to the laboratory was engulfed in flames.
"We need to put out this fire fast." Giovanni didn't bother taking the time to wonder how the fire had spread to this part of the headquarters. "If you have a water Pokemon, we'll need it."
Giovanni released his Kingler and Cloyster, and a few of the others who had water types with them followed his lead. In addition to Giovanni's Pokemon, a Wartortle, a pair of Poliwhirls, a Golduck, and even a Vaporeon soon crowded the hallway. There was a moment of confusion as all the officers shouted their commands at once. Luckily, their Pokemon needed little instruction and directed a barrage of water attacks toward the fire.
As they extinguished the flames, the water combined with the heat gave off a cloud of steam that mixed with the thick, black smoke roiling off the floor and walls. It didn't take long before the officers around Giovanni were coughing and choking.
The Pokemon soon had the flames in the hallway contained, but Giovanni realized it wasn't enough. The flames had already consumed much of the laboratory beyond, blocking their entire path to the emergency exit. Their Pokemon wouldn't have enough water to battle the blaze. The weaker ones were already beginning to tire, and humans and Pokemon alike couldn't keep inhaling this smoke for much longer.
"This isn't working," Giovanni finally said. "We need to fall back to the atrium."
Giovanni returned his Kingler and Cloyster to their pokeballs, and the rest of his officers quickly followed suit. Fortunately, no one asked what they would do once they reached the atrium. Giovanni didn't quite have that part figured out yet, but the atrium was the only other part of the building with access to the outside world. At the very least, there would be a little fresh air coming in through the roof.
It was plain to see they were running out of time as they approached the atrium. The floor tiles beneath the layer of shattered glass had taken on a blackened, charred look, and Giovanni noticed they were crumbling around the edges. Smoke seeped up through the cracks forming in the floor. One officer took a step forward and then let out a startled squeak as the floor gave away beneath her. She jumped back just in time before the floor tile plunged into the basement below.
"Stay back," Giovanni warned.
Through the gap in the floor created by the missing tile, they could see the angry red glow of the fire consuming the basement. A thick cloud of smoke billowed out of the hole, adding to the haze in the atrium.
"Do we really have to get across this to get to the other exit?" someone behind Giovanni asked.
"There is no other exit," Giovanni admitted. "We have to find a way to get to the roof."
Giovanni still wasn't sure how they were going to accomplish that. His preliminary idea had been to use his Onix to climb to the roof, but that wasn't an option. The compromised floor couldn't even support the weight of a human, let alone a giant rock Pokemon.
"We might be able to use my Ivysaur," Holiday spoke up, seeming to realize that no one else had any better ideas. "If I can throw my pokeball up to the roof, we can use her vines to climb up."
"That could work if we can make it that close to the skylights without the floor caving in." Hector pointed out the obvious flaw in the plan.
"We might be okay if we stay on the support beams." Ariana spoke up.
"What support beams?" Hector asked.
"Look, you can see the floor is unevenly discolored." Ariana crouched down and pointed. Sure enough, the tiles were darker in some places than others. "Where the tiles are lighter, that's where they're being insulated by the beams under the floor, and that should be the most stable part to walk on."
"All right. Let's try it." Holiday stepped forward.
If the chances of the floor holding up concerned her, Holiday didn't show it. She was careful to keep her feet on the lighter parts of the tiles as she crossed the room toward the skylights. The floor seemed to groan underneath her, but all the tiles remained intact. Once she was beneath the closest skylight, she removed a pokeball from her belt.
"Are you sure you can throw a pokeball that high?" Petrel called out to her.
Holiday shot him a glare over her shoulder. Aside from the sweat beading on her forehead, she looked otherwise cool and collected. "Of course I can get a pokeball up there. Especially if you stop distracting me!"
Petrel took the hint and fell silent as Holiday paused, judging the distance to the roof above them. She exuded confidence in her abilities as she wound up for a throw and tossed the pokeball upward.
The pokeball almost made it to the roof, but it bounced off the jagged glass surrounding the edge of the skylight and plummeted back toward the floor. Holiday dove forward to catch the pokeball before it could open. The floor cracked underfoot as she stumbled to regain her balance, but she was able to make it back to her spot on the support beam before the floor crumbled completely.
Holiday laughed nervously. "Don't worry! That was just my warm-up throw!"
Holiday steadied herself on the beam once more and hurled the pokeball skyward. There was an audible sigh of relief around Giovanni as the pokeball cleared the glass and metal frames overhead and burst open on the roof. Within seconds, Holiday's Ivysaur appeared at the edge of the skylight, gazing down at them with curiosity.
"All right, Ivysaur, we need your help!" Holiday called up to her Pokemon. "Find something to anchor yourself on up there and lower one of your vines down here so we can climb up to the roof!"
Ivysaur obediently dropped one of her vines down into the atrium after wrapping the other around an air conditioning unit to hold herself in place. Holiday gripped the vine tightly and climbed hand over hand to the top.
"Okay, she made that look easy enough," Ariana said to the remaining officers. "Let's go one at a time so we don't put too much stress on the floor."
Petrel stepped forward and followed the same path Holiday had taken over the support beam. He easily made it to the vine and was soon pulling himself out of the skylight and up onto the roof. One by one, the other officers followed. It was lucky there weren't too many of them because with each successive officer who entered the atrium, the floor became more and more unstable. The floor tiles started cracking and breaking, and smoke poured out of each new fissure that formed. Finally, only Giovanni and Ariana were left at the entrance to the atrium.
"After you." Giovanni motioned for Ariana to cross to the vine in front of him.
He tried to keep the urgency out of his voice, but it was clear they needed to hurry. The gaps in the floor would provide much-needed oxygen to fuel the fire. It would only be a matter of time before the flames burst through to consume the upper levels.
Ariana smiled weakly and then stepped out onto the beam. She took a few tentative steps and then nearly disappeared into the cloud of smoke billowing up from the floor. He gave Ariana a brief head start so their combined weight wouldn't put too much strain on any one part of the floor and then followed behind her.
Giovanni expected this part to be easy, but he found crossing the floor was harder than it looked. The atrium was already hazy as it was, and the smoke spilling up through the cracks in the floor made it difficult to breathe and even more difficult to see. Heat radiated off the floor, and the crumbling tiles shifted underfoot.
"Watch out for the last few feet," Ariana's voice drifted out of the smoke although Giovanni could barely see her up ahead. "The floor's almost completely gone."
Giovanni followed along the faint outline of the support beam on the floor. He tried not to think about the fact that a single misstep might send him plunging down into the inferno. It didn't take long to reach the section Ariana had warned him about. The steel beam was completely exposed, and the flames below were clearly visible through the gaping holes in the floor on either side.
Giovanni took a step out onto the support beam. The heat wafting up from the basement below was intense, and it was nearly impossible to breathe through the smoke. Giovanni already felt light headed, which didn't make crossing the precarious stretch of ground any easier.
He made his way across the beam as slowly and carefully as he dared. The lack of air was becoming more apparent as a sudden wave of dizziness made the beam waver in front of his vision. He hoped it was just his imagination, but the beam seemed to creak and groan beneath his weight.
The beam suddenly lurched beneath his feet. For a moment, Giovanni thought it was merely a trick of his oxygen-deprived brain, but then he realized the beam was indeed moving. It had come loose from its bracket and was giving away beneath him, threatening to dump him into the blaze. Giovanni lunged forward the last few steps and managed to jump to the solid ground in front of him. However, he didn't quite land on the next support beam, and he lost his balance as the floor disintegrated under his feet. For an instant, he reeled backward toward the inferno below.
A strong hand seized the sleeve of his jacket and pulled. Giovanni stumbled forward to find Ariana still waiting on the relatively stable section that remained beneath the skylight.
"Thanks," Giovanni said, his voice hoarse from the smoke.
"Anytime," Ariana replied. "That beam didn't feel very stable when I was on it, so I thought I should wait to make sure you got across too."
Without wasting any more time, she turned away from him, grabbed hold of Ivysaur's vine, and nimbly climbed toward the skylight. Giovanni waited until she reached the top to avoid putting too much strain on the Pokemon and then followed her to the roof. He pulled himself up out of the skylight and took a deep breath of the relatively fresh air. As he followed the rest of his employees to the side of the building, he could hear the faint sound of sirens in the distance. Someone on the outside had probably just noticed the isolated headquarters was burning and called the fire department.
There was a low rumble behind them, and Giovanni turned around to see that the rest of the south side of the building was collapsing inward on itself. The old Team Rocket headquarters was a loss. All he could hope for now was that everyone else had managed to make it out in time.