Drew.
Ten Seconds Later.
"What the [expletive deleted], what the [expletive deleted]?! You blew a hole in the goddamn door, Astro!"
Astro blew the smoke from his paw. "I got tired of waiting. You were bargaining with Little Bit, and I got tired of waiting." Astro walked through the hole he had blasted in the metal doors of the building.
I learned pretty damn quick that Astro was stupid, but efficient.
While Aaron kept babbling out scoldings, Astro pointed his left paw at the group of Galactic grunts playing poker in a corner. They were scared stiff, completely unable to move.
"-someone is definitely going to have to pay for that-!"
"Alright, maggots!" Astro barked. "There's a little girl being held in this building against her will! You're going to either let us go peacefully and find her, or I'm gonna do what I just did to that door to your asses! We have a pleasant agreement?"
Four or five heads nodded, turquoise bowl cut wigs swishing. Either they knew who Astro was, or feared him for what he threatened.
Astro faced Aaron, grinning. "See? Negotiation, buddy. I should leave Twinleaf more often!"
It was absolutely fascinating how they feared Astro. Even Dee and Aaron did, a little; I wasn't sure how Aaron knew Astro's trainer, but I could easily see Dee was Amber's best friend, and even Dee held Astro at arm's length. Could he really be so volatile? Or was it all just brute strength?
Aaron shook his head, muttering disgusted swears. Dee jabbed him in the rib, a sour look on her face.
"His way usually does end up working better than ours," I heard her murmur to him. "You need to trust Astro's judgement more."
We marched up to the second floor of the building, and Astro politely persuaded yet another group of grunts into letting us pass. I'm sure whatever Galactic superiors were in the building had heard the commotion by then.
These are new grunts. I wasn't sure if the thought had occurred to any of them, but it had been bothering me for a time. Sure, it was necessary for some previous members to organize a revival of the team, but for it to gain any strength, new members were almost required. Probably enough to outnumber the old members. If Team Galactic has been sighted all around the region, from Eterna City to Sunyshore City, it would mostly be greenhorns on these missions...
I felt a tug at my sleeve, and Dan was waiting for me. He nudged his head towards the stairs to the next floor, where everyone else went.
Come on, he was telling me. I followed him, and found Nat was waiting at the top of the stairs for us.
Upstairs, I found Michelle was battling a Team Galactic grunt.
Michelle.
"Wait! Azzy! Let me battle them!"
Astro looked at me like I was crazy. "Mitchie?! But-"
"-You've never been in a real battle before," Dee added in a hushed voice.
I stopped Astro before he could bully the next wave of grunts into letting us pass, grabbing his arm. I thought it was the perfect opportunity to have my first real pokemon battle.
On the way to Jubilife City, Drew was nice enough to let me and my Piplup have a few practice battles with his Vulpix, and he taught me a few neat tricks. And I had seen my big brother and Barry battle dozens of times, both in person and on TV. I was more than confident in myself and my pokemon.
"Bubbles! C'mon, let's battle!" My Piplup, Bubbles, came out of his pokeball, flapping his wings excitedly. I caught his pokeball as it bounced back at me.
At the sight of my Piplup, the grunts burst out into fits of laughing. It felt embarrassing. It made Azzy mad, too; I could see his aura in my peripheral vision, eletric blue and swirling like an angry cloud around him.
Eventually, one grunt, a woman, managed to calm down. She wiped a tear from her eye.
"Ha ha haa..." She snickered. "A newbie, battling us? You got moxie, kid." She produced a pokeball from her uniform. "I guess I'll beat it outta you! Zubat, let's tear her apart!"
The grunt sent out an eyeless, blue pokemon with wings. Bubbles squeaked angrily at it, like he knew who his opponent was. I didn't have time to scan it.
"Bubbles, use Peck!" I figured if I started off with a strong attack, like Drew would, I wouldn't be going wrong.
Bubbles lept up in the air to jab his beak at Zubat, but it just flapped its wings and flew higher than Bubbles could reach. It hit me that maybe a physical attack wasn't the best idea.
I shook my head. "Bubbles, use Bubble!"
"Zubat, use Leech Life! Let 'em have it!"
Bubbles tried to attack first, but Zubat was still too quick. Zubat latched onto Bubble's shoulder, burying its teeth into the skin and sucking. Bubbles howled in pain.
I heard Dee and Aaron each take out pokeballs, but my stupid pride kicked in and I yelped, "No! We can do this! Bubbles, shake him off! I know you can!"
As Bubbles flailed his wings and tried to knock off Zubat, it took up far too much energy. He started to stagger around, getting weaker...
"Finish it off, Zubat! Show no mercy to this stupid brat!"
That must have been when Drew came in. I heard a gasp behind me.
"Bubbles! Michelle!" I heard him scramble behind me for a pokeball. "Pixel! Quick! Use Faint Attack, save Bubbles!"
I felt the air swirl as Drew threw it over my shoulder, and his Vulpix, Pixel, emerged. She snuck up behind Bubbles and Zubat, then grabbed Zubat's small body with her teeth and tore it away.
"Vuuuulpix!" She was mad to see her new friend in danger. Bubbles toddled for a second before falling over, and I rushed to scoop him up in my arms.
A strong hand on my upper arm pulled me back after I retrieved Bubbles. I fell back on my butt, curling my body around Bubbles to protect him.
"Yeowch!" I cried out.
The hand to pull me back was Dee's. She marched up to the Zubat's trainer, pushing her down to the ground like a schoolyard bully. Her ears and face were red in absolute fury.
"How dare you?!" Dee roared at them with the ferocity of a tiger. She stamped her size ten hiking boot square center in the grunt's chest, knocking the wind out of her. "First off you and your clown friends here laugh at this poor soul challenging you to her first pokemon battle, then you don't even give her and her Piplup a chance! What kind of sick, immoral, sociopathing dickwads are you?! Do you have no sense of personal integrity?! You [expletive deleted] make me SICK!"
The others started to try and run off to the next floor, but Dee grabbed them by the collars and pulled them to the ground by the necks.
"And you sorry sons of bitches!" She thundered. "All three of you are going to let us pass to the top floor, unscathed, or so help me God-don't think I don't see you reaching for a pokeball!" She stamped her other foot on the elbow of one of the other grunts, who dropped his pokeball. "You think you could take me in a battle?! You think YOU are advanced trainers?! I don't need a single second to tell you I can fight whatever you throw at me with my bare fists! We are going to save that little girl you kidnapped, so help me God, if I have kick the ass of every teal-dyed, bowl-cut, conformist mother[expletive deleted] in this whole damn place! Go tell your little friends on the lower floors that this hostile takeover is about to be hostilely destroyed!"
After that long-winded rant, I watched Deadra Thompson pant for air, face even redder than before from lack of oxygen as she verbally abused the poor grunts. I believe the one whose elbow she stood on actually began to cry.
Dee backed off of the two of them, and they stood up along with their friend, scrambling off to the floor below us. Dee clapped her hands together, dusting them off.
"Oh, my God," Natalie's cousin, Carlisle, muttered under his breath. "Ho-oh-oly shit."
After the initial shock passed, Aaron laughed and clapped his hands.
"Allllright, there's our favorite war goddess!" He praised her. Dee high-fived him, but walked directly past him, to me.
"Ohmygosh, Mitchie, sweetie, did I hurt you?" She pulled me into a sitting position. "I'm so sorry, Mitchie...I couldn't stand seeing those assholes being so mean to you."
"Are you and Bubbles alright?" Drew hovered over me, picking me up from under the arms and standing me up. "I can't believe you guys waited so long to intervene...useless adults.."
Dee took offense to that statement, grabbing a fistful of short hair from the back of his head and yanking him away from me.
"Yowww-oww-oww! Easy, easy, Simba!"
"Who gave you permission to lay hands on my baby, boy?" Dee growled. "Did you just terrorize a bunch of terrorists? Huh? Did you?" She let go, wiping her fingers off.
Drew backed away from Dee as if she were dangerous. "You're the [expletive deleted] terrorist!" Drew shrieked, in pain. He rubbed the back of his head. "Jesus Christ, lady!"
We all laughed at the two of them, then headed up to the fourth floor of the building.
I could hear Astro, very softly, mutter, "Oh, but when the actual pokemon wants to use violence, it's 'destructive' and 'does more harm than good'...frickin' Wilkerson logic, swear to God..."