Chapter 20: The Team Rocket Five
"Shadow, Haunter, and Butterfree went that way," Emily spoke, pointing off to the east and down an alley, "so we should probably take that path as well. If we stick to our Pokemon, we can probably make it through here with little trouble."
Kiai put his fingers up to his temple, and focused his thoughts on Haunter. Closing one eye, he could see through Haunter's eyes. "It's clear for two blocks, there's a pair of guards walking down the street toward us... No, Butterfree knocked them out… it looks clear for another block after that, but then we're getting close to Sylph Co. Plus, the street is well-lit, and we need to watch all sides... we'll have to move slow, and stick to the shadows."
"Right," Emily spoke with a nod. She looked forward, then began to walk forward into the alley. The group of trainers followed her and Kiai slowly as the made their way down the alley and down a couple blocks. They then stopped, noticing they had caught up with their Pokemon, who were carefully inspecting their surroundings. Shadow quickly jumped towards one of the buildings, then used its Agility to allow it the ability to bounce between the walls of two buildings and quickly make its way to one of the rooftops. It glanced around a moment, keeping itself hidden in the shadows. After a moment, it returned to the ground and made a gesture with its head to indicate where to go next. It then quickly dashed forward into one of the other nearby shadows. Haunter and Butterfree followed close behind, and after a moment, Shadow leaped forward again, quickly passing through a lit area in a split second to reach another shadow. It stopped, and when it was sure it wasn't spotted, it gestured for the others to quickly follow.
"Umbreon umb," Shadow spoke to Haunter as it stopped beside it and it pointed forward. Silph Co was only a couple buildings away now, and there were only a few shadows left between them and it.
Kiai knelt down in the shadows. He motioned behind his back for the troupe to hide themselves. There was a quiet shuffling as they slid into alleys and behind staircases, or into empty shops. There was a small crowd of people hanging out by the door. Since they were not walking away or talking, Kiai assumed they were Team Rocket guards. "If we don't take down all of them at once," Kiai mumbled, mostly to himself, "they're going to call for backup, and we'll be known… but Butterfree can't take out a half dozen fully grown men… even if they all attack at once, it's a slim bet that they'll manage it… the only way we can get in is by removing them, but we can't fight them…" He looked at Emily, somewhat at a loss. "We need a distraction…"
"A distraction, huh?" Emily thought for a moment then pulled out one of her pokeballs. "I...might have an idea...but it's kind of risky..." She held out the pokeball. "I can use Kabutops..." She dropped the pokeball to her feet, allowing the Rock-Water type to appear from its ball. Kabutops turned its eyes to glare at Emily, then looked forward. It's eyes caught upon the guards before it, and it pulled itself back, as if preparing to charge. It spoke only a single word, one that Emily would interpret as "prey" before launching itself forward at full speed.
"What the-" was all a guard managed to speak out before Kabutops knocked the guard down with one of its sickles. It roared loudly and the guards quickly drew a pokeball each.
"No one messes with Team Rocket," one of the guards spoke and tossed a pokeball forward. Quickly, Kabutops swung one of its sickles, slicing apart the releasing mechanism on the pokeball before it could activate. Kabutops then roared again and jumped at the guards, quickly slashing two of them down, then turning to a fourth.
"What is this creature?" one of the guards asked and drew his pokeball. At once Kabutops unleashed a massive blast of water from its mouth, knocking the guards back, and causing their pokeballs to drop to the ground. It quickly slashed the pokeballs around it, destroying each of the releasing mechanisms. It then growled and quickly slashed up the remaining guards. Its eyes darted left and right, the look of an animal seeking more prey could be seen in its eyes.
The glass doors to Sylph Co. shattered stupendously as a large Machamp crashed through them, ramming its shoulders into Kabutops and sending it soaring through the air and into a shop window across the street. Several other men, all wearing black uniforms with a bright red "R" on their shirts, including a few vicious-looking pokemon, ran out through the enormous hole. A few of them knelt down beside their fallen comrades, and they were all muttering what sort of beast had done this. Kabutops crawled out of the shop, clearly injured but a fierce look in its eyes. The Team Rocket members pointed and shouted. One spoke, "It's a pokemon! Where's its trainer?"
A few looked around, and one of the men lying on the ground spoke, "It's too vicious to have a trainer, it's a renegade!" As Kabutops advanced upon them, the men released a few more of their pokemon. By now it was at least ten-to-one against Kabutops, and the Machamp was cracking its knuckles. Realizing the odds were against it, Kabutops slammed its scythes into the street, unleashing a massive Earthquake and splitting the road down the center. It ran off in the ensuing chaos, and all of the Team Rocket members began pursuing it.
Kiai gasped, and hissed, "Haunter! Invisible, get in there!" He placed his fingers to his temple again, and closed on eye. There was a moments pause as an invisible Haunter slipped into the foyer of the enemy stronghold. "It's… it's empty!"
"It probably won't be for long if we stay here. We've got to move quickly." Emily turned to the trainers. "Everyone ready? We're going to go in and make our way to the basement. We have to move quickly. While the guards may be gone for now, there's no doubt there a more inside the other floors. It won't take them long before they notice something is amiss and send guards down to check it out." The other trainers nodded. Emily then turned to Kiai. "We're ready, so let's go, unless you have another plan?"
Kiai turned to her and grinned. "Intelligence, subturfuge, misdirection, negotiation, psychology and common sense are all used up at this point." He leaned closer to her, and she caught that familiar glint in his eye. "Now, we charge." He stood up, turned around, and waved his arm for all the trainers. "LETS GO!" he shouted, tense and commanding. Every trainer grasped their weapon tightly and ran close behind him as he dashed down the last length of the block to the smashed doors. Immediately when he did, he unleashed Raticate. "Raticate, Quick Attack the security cameras!" Raticate launched off in a green blur, and returned to him as the trainers filled in the foyer. It was completely empty, save for some half-drunk coffee cups on the front desk. There were two elevators on either side. Kiai turned toward the group as Haunter and Butterfree reappeared over his shoulders. "This is where we split up. We don't know where they're keeping our pokemon, but they'll likely be in the labs in the basement. First one to find them, alert the rest of us." He turned toward the nearest elevator, but stopped after a few steps and turned back, a wicked grin on his face. "I don't care how." With that, he and Emily jogged toward the elevator, and stepped into it.
"All right, let's go!" one of the trainers shouted, and with that, the trainers dispersed, moving out to search the building. Shadow, Raticate, Haunter, and Butterfree all rushed into the elevator with Kiai and Emily, and she quickly looked up at the buttons. "Three basement floors," she spoke as she pushed a button at random. "Looks like we're going to Basement Second Floor." The elevator slowly descended down, and their pokemon readied themselves to jump out and attack the moment the doors opened if the need arose.
Kiai recalled Haunter, Butterfree and Raticate, then just as the doors to the elevator opened, he mashed the button for the top floor. They caught a quick glimpse of some crates of food and assorted gambling equipment. Emily turned to him, prepared to tell him all sorts of things, but he quickly pressed his finger to her lips. "Cut off the head, and the body will fall. The thugs will be on the upper floors. They'll have pokemon. The scientists will be in the labs. They won't have pokemon. We need to even the odds and take down as many thugs as we can and, if at all possible, cut off the head. If nothing else, we can buy the rest of them some time." He looked at Emily, his eyes very stern and serious. "This is not going to be easy. The numbers are against us and Team Rocket cheats. I can't do this alone. I know you want to be a breeder, but today, you need to be the best damn trainer in this city. Don't forget, there's only two left... and they're right here, in this elevator."
Emily nodded with a serious look. "I understand. Then we're going after the new leader of Team Rocket. If we can take him out, we'll do serious damage to Team Rocket as a whole. They're already disoriented from the loss of Giovanni, this will just make it worse." She pulled out two of her pokeballs. "We'll need everyone..." she tossed them down, releasing Goldy and Shellshocker from their pokeballs. "Sorry I had to do that, Shellshocker." Shellshocker looked up at Emily and nodded, as if understanding. "I can bring out Lapry when we get there...Lapry won't be much help if she's stuck in the elevator, after all."
Kiai turned toward Hypno. "Listen.. now that we're closer, can you locate Sabrina?" Emily looked at him inquisitively. Kiai glanced at her, and spoke, "I have a hunch. Team Rocket has always been vain, so I'm guessing they'll keep their trophies-" He got cut off as Hypno looked up and pointed toward the ceiling. Kiai grinned. "... nearby. He's probably got her in his office… that means… that means... Shit… not good... this is not good..."
"Then to get Sabrina, we'll have to take him out. That won't be easy, but we were going after him anyway..." Emily turned to her pokemon. "You guys ready for the fight of your life?" Her pokemon nodded, showing they were ready. They turned to the door and readied themselves, pulling themselves back into a position to launch off from to attack if necessary.
The elevator stopped. Kiai grasped a pokeball from his belt. His shoulders tensed. The doors opened to a lavish foyer with ornate lamps and a large, curved front desk at the end. It looked very much like the main entry foyer to the building, with two doors on either side of the desk which presumably led to the main office. There were four men who each wore a black suit coat with an "R" in the upper-right corner, black shirt, and black pants, hanging around the desk, and all of them turned to look at the people and pokemon strolling out of the elevator. One of them shouted the obvious, "Hey, you shouldn't be here!" and the rest of them reached for pokeballs on their belt.
"Very true," Emily spoke. "Shadow, hit them with a Confuse Ray." Shadow's eyes quickly flashed but it seemed to have no effect.
"Did you really think something like that would affect us, girly?" one of them asked with a smirk. "We're Team Rocket's head executives. We're ready for anything." The executive tossed a pokeball forward which instantly released a rather tall, green colored Machamp. It's skin seemed to shine brightly and Emily growled, recognizing exactly what this was.
"The Pokerus..." she spoke and the executive laughed. "Right you are, girly, all of us have Pokemon of this nature." In an instant, the other three all released a pokemon each of their own. One was a rather powerful looking Arcanine with golden fur, while another was a Golem who looked as if his body was made of gold, the last was a rather large Charizard, it's skin black as pitch. The four rockets laughed. "Let's see you take us on, girly."
Kiai drew out two pokeballs and dropped them onto the floor, releasing Haunter and Gyarados. The grunts on the other side of the foyer laughed. "C'mon kid, you've got to have at least six, right? You better bring out the rest of them, otherwise you're going to get flattened."
Kiai smiled serenely. "Oh, I've got six. I just don't need 'em for you guys." The goons gritted their teeth as Kiai sized them up. He stroked his chin, then pointed to the pokemon in front of him. "I'll take the Machamp and the Charizard. Emily, you can have the rest."
Emily nodded. "It shouldn't be a problem for my water-types."
"You think so? We'll show you the power of the Pokerus! Golem, use Thunderbolt on that Squirtle!" Golem roared as its eyes began to glow red and rose its hand into the air. Electricity began to collect in its hand and it swung it forward, unleashing a blast of electricity at Shellshocker.
"Lapry, protect!" Emily shouted and tossed Lapry's pokeball forward. The moment it appeared, it put up a barrier which blocked the Thunderbolt from striking it. "Now, Shellshocker and Goldy, use Water Gun!" They quickly breathed in, then unleashed blasts of water forward at the Golem. The Golem rose its hands to block, and afterwards, it smirked, appearing unharmed. "But how?"
The executive laughed. "My Golem can't be stopped by a simple Water Gun, little missy!"
"Now, Arcanine, unleash Fire Blast on that Lapras!" the other executive shouted and Arcanine breathed in, unleashing a blast of fire forward.
"Protect, Lapry!" Emily shouted, but it was no use, the barrier did not appear, and Lapry was knocked back by the force of the attack.
Kiai watched, non-plussed. He twitched an eyebrow as Lapry was knocked back. "Clever." He turned toward his foes. "But not clever enough." He grinned, and placed his fingertips onto his temple once again. Haunter vanished, and Gyarados unleashed an Ice Beam at the Charizard, which smacked it away with its tail. The two executives facing him stared with wide eyes, the one pointed at the Hypno behind him.
"He's using the Psychic type to relay orders! Machamp, deprive him of that ability!" The green Machamp lumbered across the room, flexing its massive muscles. As it neared Kiai, it raised two of its fists, then suddenly, its eyes turned into a black fog as Haunter reappeared, launching a Nightshade attack. The Machamp stumbled backwards and flung its fists blindly, breaking through walls as if they weren't even there.
Before the Executive had a chance to give it another order, the other one shouted, "Charizard, Fire Spin!" A massive wall of flame engulfed Kiai and Gyarados. Kiai screamed in pain as the fire licked his flesh, but it was only for a moment before Gyarados began dousing the flames with a Water gun.
"All right, guys, time to step it up a notch and give it everything we've got," Emily spoke and stared hard at the two pokemon before her. "Arcanine and Golem...fire and rock...both weak against water, but trained so that they're strong against both...which means..." She turned to Shadow. "Shadow, Faint Attack!" Shadow rushed forward, then began to swirl around the Arcanine, it's eyes followed it closely and Emily smirked. "Keep it up, Shadow!"
"What the hell are you trying to do, girly?"
"Just watch." After a moment, the Arcanine's eyes began to swirl as it became dizzy from watching Shadow run circles around it. The Golem roared and turned towards Shadow. "Lapry, use Ice Beam!" Suddenly, a beam of ice shot forward from behind Emily. Her Lapry had been knocked back, but it wasn't out. The Golem roared as the beam of ice slowly seemed to surround it, encasing it in a solid sheet of ice.
The executive smirked. "That won't be enough to stop my Golem, little girl!"
"Whoever said that was what I was trying to do?" She rose her hand. "In a battle like this...I have no choice but to go all out..." She looked at Kiai. "So...I apologize now for revealing this to the enemy..." She turned back. "Thunderbolt!" she shouted and unleashed a bolt of lightning straight at the encased Golem. The lightning shattered the ice, and with it, broke apart many of the rocks on Golem's body. "Shellshocker, Water Gun! Goldy, Hyper Beam!" Shellshocker unleashed a blast of water against the now exposed body of the Golem while Goldy unleashed a massive of beam of energy upon the same spot. The Golem roared before being thrown forward from the force, shattering through the window and crashing to the ground below.
The executive quickly looked down only to find his Golem was wiped out. "No! Golem!"
Kiai straightened up, brushing his wet hair out of his eyes and checking his arms for burns. They were red, and much of the hair was charred, but there was nothing too serious. He watched as Golem got thrown out of the building, then he pouted and turned toward Emily. "You stole my idea… darn it, now I'm going to have to knock them out the hard way." By this time, Machamp was regaining its vision, and Charizard looked set to deliver another vicious blast. Kiai sent a few more quick orders to his pokemon, his eyes flashing at the Charizard. Instantaneously, the Charizard unleashed a massive Flamethrower at Gyarados, who countered with a Hydro Pump. Steam quickly filled the room as the two combatants met, but very slowly, Gyarados' water was being pushed back. The Executive laughed gleefully as he saw his victory at hand, when suddenly, Haunter materialized behind Charizard, and spit out a mouthful of water onto its tail, temporarily dousing it. Charizard's flame immediately weakened, and Gyarados' water shot straight through and into Charizard's mouth. As Haunter fled, it grabbed Charizard's tail and forced it into the torrent, dousing it completely. Charizard fell, fainted.
"We still have Machamp and Arcanine, so don't think you've won yet!" the Machamp trainer shouted. "Machamp, use Seismic Toss on that Gyarados!" Machamp rushed forward but Emily smirked. Suddenly, Machamp doubled over, grabbing its stomach in pain. Shadow stood at its feet, a look of determination on its face.
"Machamp may be strong, but Shadow is fast. Shadow, give it a Psychic!" Shadow's eyes began to glow purple and Machamp felt like a great weight was beginning to crush down upon it. It struggled to stand, but Shadow's Psychic was too strong and was slowly forcing it down. "Now, everyone together on this one! Lapry, Goldy, Shellshocker, combine your Water Guns and hit that Arcanine!" At once all three of them unleashed blasts of water forward at Arcanine which combined at a point and shot a much larger and much stronger blast of water forward.
"Arcanine, Fire Blast!" the Arcanine Trainer shouted. Arcanine unleashed the blast of flame forward, but even that wasn't enough to stop the triple attack, and Arcanine was quickly knocked back by the torrent.
"Now, Goldy, Hyper Beam! Lapry, Ice Beam! Shellshocker, Skull Bash! All on that Machamp!" Shellshocker pulled its head back as it rushed forward at Machamp and Goldy and Lapry both unleashed their beams forward. The three attacks collided, knocking the Machamp back, knocked out. "Your Arcanine is all that's left, and it's too weak to fight all of us."
The Executive stood there, facing down his opponents. He gritted his teeth, and stood in frustrated contemplation. His eyes darted to the door next to him, and when they did, a brief flicker of fear crossed his face. He forced out his last shred of pride, and shouted, "Never underestimate Team Rocket! Arcanine, Self Destruct!" Arcanine howled and launched itself toward the group, glowing a brilliant gold-red. Shellshocker, Lapry, Goldy, Gyarados, Haunter and Shadow all launched counter-attacks, but when Arcanine detonated, the vast expanse of energy knocked all of them back, tearing through their defense like it wasn't even there. The lot of them, including Emily and Kiai, were thrown against the wall. Kiai himself was nearly knocked out, and all the pokemon took severe damage. The walls in the foyer all shattered, and several pieces of the ceiling broke and collapsed, revealing the starry sky. Kiai slowly got to his feet, rubbing his bruised head. Hypno, too, stood up, but Gyarados and Haunter were damaged. Kiai recalled them, then stooped to help Emily to her feet.
"Damn..." Emily spoke as she held her head. "That...was not fun at all..." She grabbed Kiai's hand and pulled herself up. "Well...that's all four of them I guess..." She looked around, noticing the executives were gone. "Did they get caught in the blast? Or did they just escape?" She then turned, noticing all of her pokemon had been wiped out from the blast, all except Shadow, who had taken quite a bit of damage from the blast. "Everyone, return!" She returned her pokemon, then looked at one of the pokeballs. "Sorry again, Shellshocker...I know you hate your ball...but there's not much choice..."
Kiai surveyed the foyer, and seeing it empty, he began to make his way across it, heading toward the doors on the far end. When he reached them, he felt an odd tingling in his fingertips, and Hypno stopped following him. Kiai glanced at Hypno, noticing that it was unwilling to go further. He stood there, at the closed doorway, as the pieces fell together. "I know where Sabrina is… and I know what's beyond this door… and it's not going to be pretty…" He raised an empty pokeball and recalled Hypno. Turning toward the door, he grasped the knob, took a deep breath, and walked in. There, sitting behind a cherry red mahogany desk was a thin, grim-looking man with a hooked nose and straight, black hair. Behind him were the four Executives, as well as a scientist clutching a small case. Kiai felt a knot appear in his throat as he noticed who was chained to the wall.. Sabrina, unconscious, her long, black hair hanging in front of her face. Her skin, however, was an odd shade of green, and her fingertips were longer and sported claws.
The man behind the desk spoke, his voice deep and sinister, "How long until she awakens, doctor?"
The scientist replied, "Any second now, Sir." Sure enough, just after he spoke, Sabrina gave a stir. Kiai recoiled as she opened her eyes… and revealed what were no longer human eyes.
Emily slowly walked towards Kiai, seeing the look of terror on his face. When she turned in to look, she saw what had struck him. "What did they do to her?"
"Ah, welcome," the thin man spoke as he turned to Kiai and Emily, a smirk on his face. His eyes were covered in shadow from the light that seemed to shine forth from the window behind him. "You are the ones who defeated my executives, are you? Clever, very clever. I assure you, they will get quite the punishment for failing." He stepped forward, away from the light, and his face was soon visible. At once, Emily's eyes went wide. She knew this man somehow, but from where?
"So, you're the girl with the electric powers, huh? Yes, I remember you. My name is Alfonzo Elenoi. Several years back I was the scientist in charge of a special project. We called it the 'Pocket Human Project'. Our goal was to create a human with the powers of a Pokemon. The finances came from a young lady who had lost her only daughter, and she tried to clone her in an attempt to revive her. There was a finished project, but someone stole it from us one day. That must have been you." Emily's eyes went wide. She recognized the man now. She had seen him in the vision Mew had given her. Alfonzo laughed. "Yes, you recognize me now. We've since upgraded the project. Behold, our first successful attempt at converting a human into a pokemon." He waved to Sabrina. "Isn't it just delightful?"
"It's despicable!" Emily shouted, tears forming in her eyes. "I can't believe it...do you think you can just do whatever the hell you want?"
"Yes, actually," Alfonzo spoke and laughed. "In fact, I'll clue you in even deeper. I have been the head of Team Rocket since our leader's unfortunate demise at Mt. Moon...May Giovanni forever rest in peace." Emily growled even more. "Since then, I have completed our research we were doing at Mt. Moon. The Pokerus we developed has been perfected, and also..." Alfonzo pulled a small chip from his pocket. "I believe you know what this is. Your Kabutops had one implanted in his skull. It didn't work, but we have perfected it as well."
"The Rage Enhancers..." Emily spoke. Her body was shaking from anger.
"Yes. All we needed after that was a way to mass produce both products. Silph Co. is the group responsible for producing Pokeballs and other similar Pokemon items. We knew we would need a place like this, so we built an army and attacked Saffron City. Our greatest threat was Officer Jenny and Sabrina. We first hit Sabrina, wiping her out. After that, we stole her psychic pokemon and used them to hypnotize Officer Jenny and the entire Saffron police force!" Alfonzo bellowed a laugh. "After that, we took the Pokemon of all of the trainers inside of Saffron. Knowing people would try to call for aid, we also cut all communication to the outside. From there, we created a web of lies to make people believe Kanto was coming to save Saffron, but in reality, no one in Kanto would even know that Saffron was in any form of danger. That is, of course, until it was too late. Once we were ready, our army would go out and wipe out the Kanto region, and leave us, Team Rocket, as rulers of the land! From there, we would spread out and eventually the world would be ours!"
Kiai, who was listening intently to his speech, barely stifled a snicker at the last portion. Alfonzo glared at him. "Cheeky boy. I heard how you took the last battle. You better not be so immature for this one."
Kiai straightened up and returned his glare. "Come on, now. Take over the world? Impossible. Even if we don't stop you here, every trainer in Kanto knows what you're doing, and every single one loyal to oppose you is on their way, now, tonight." Alfonzo's confident sneer began to melt away as he spoke. "Ash Ketchum will probably be here in a few hours, and we all know how much trouble you've had with him. Not to mention every active Gym leader and every Officer Jenny that you haven't corrupted, and let me tell you, the latter group is not going to like what you did to their cousin. You should give up now, before we have to hurt you."
Alfonzo stared at him, dead-pan. His eyes had glazed over, and his lips twitched as he considered the onslaught converging upon him. Overwhemled, he turned to rage. "Impossible!" he shouted, "With Sabrina under my control, I can get away with anything! And you kids don't have any pokemon left to stop me with!"
Kiai smiled serenely and unclasped a ball from his belt. "Don't you know? Save your best for last. Raticate!"
"And she may be injured, but Shadow is still able to fight!" She tossed Shadow's Luxury Ball forward, unleashing Shadow. It growled as its feet landed squarely on the ground and its rings began to glow as it seemed to absorb the moon light from outside of the windows. Its wounds quickly healed up, and it smirked, showing it was ready to fight. "And you've got me as well. If you think we'll only let our Pokemon do the fighting, you're sadly mistaken. Because even if our Pokemon fell, we still have our fists, and our feet, and I have my electric powers. So give it up, because there's no way you can win!"
"Foolish girl! Fine, I will teach you both the meaning of respect! Sabrina, come forth and deal with this!" Without moving her head, the chains binding Sabrina rattled, then splintered. Her feet touched the ground for a minute before she floated into the air. She slowly looked up, glaring at Kiai with unblinking eyes. A pokeball rose from her vest and hovered in front of them. In a splintered second, it released an Alakazam, its body a swath of blood red and sky blue. It held up two spoons, bent and twisted like something out of a horror movie. The air in the office felt like it was filling up with static electricity. Kiai swallowed hard, and Raticate growled with its hair on end.
Emily bit her lip and growled as she stepped back a little. "All right, we know Psychic types are weak against Ghost type moves, and also Shadow can't be hurt by Psychic type moves. So we do have some advantage that way...but not much..." She looked down at Shadow. "Shadow, use your Shadow Ball!" Shadow nodded and opened its mouth. A ball of ghostly energy appeared in front of it, and after a moment, it shot forward at Alakazam. However, Alakazam simply rose its spoon up, and the ball stopped in mid-air before swirling back at Emily, knocking her in the chest. "Augh!"
Kiai stared back at Sabrina, desperately trying to match her unflinching gaze. He ran through scenarios in his mind, but each time, he felt a presence, as if someone was trying to force their way into his thoughts. It was all he had to keep the presence out, and his heart rate quickened, as he realized he couldn't form a strategy whilst keeping up a defense against the mental attack. He both felt and saw Sabrina smile, and he knew that that was her very intention. "Clever girl.." he spoke. "Figure out my plan, knowing that once you know it, I won't be able to use it against you…" A grin suddenly flickered into his lips, and his eyes lit up. The smile on Sabrina's face faded away. "But if I didn't know what was going to happen, neither would you." He continued to match her gaze, when, without warning or command, Raticate's body began to vibrate. It became tense as a bowstring, ready to pounce. Sabrina's eyes flickered down toward it, and Kiai saw his chance. He focused his mental energies not on his strategy, but on Sabrina. He sent her the thought, "If you can do it, I can to!" and grinned when he felt his consciousness stab into hers.
Sabrina growled and looked back up at Kiai. Alakazam then rose its spoons and aimed them forward. Suddenly, a huge beam of psychic energy short forward from its eyes towards Raticate, but Shadow quickly jumped in the way, blocking the attack. "Good job, Shadow," Emily spoke and Shadow smirked. The attack had had no affect. "Shadow, try using Confuse Ray!" Shadow's eyes flashed, but the Alakazam simply closed his eyes. It seemed to have blocked the attack, but when its eyes opened, they flashed and Shadow found itself confused and it immediately began to lash out at the nearest object. "Shadow!" Emily growled. "That Alakazam can reflect our attacks right back at us."
Sabrina's face contorted with effort, and Kiai's grew more cheerful as he realized he could combat Sabrina at this level. Raticate's claws dug into the wooden floor as Alakazam prepared another Psychic blast, this time aimed at Kiai. Raticate growled menacingly, and Alakazam realized what it meant; if it had launched the attack at Kiai, it would leave him open for Raticate. Alakazam switched its target to Raticate, who leapt quickly, almost instantaneously to the side. Alakazam paused again, realizing that it wouldn't be able to hit Raticate at that speed.
Emily watched Alakazam and Raticate for a moment, noticing their stances. She closed her hand, a plan formulating quickly. "Shadow, return!" she spoke and zapped Shadow back into its ball, only for her to toss it out once more. "Returning a Pokemon breaks confusion effects," she spoke more to herself then anything. "Now I just need to..." Shadow seemed to sense what Emily was planning and nodded. It turned and rushed over to Raticate, giving Alakazam two targets to focus upon. Emily waited a moment, then, right at the moment when Alakazam unleashed a blast of psychic energy forward, she rushed forward. Electricity shot through her arm and she quickly brought her fist up to strike. "Thunder Punch!" she shouted striking the Alakazam in the head in its moment of vulnerability. This caused Alakazam to stumble a little, allowing Shadow to unleash a quick Shadow Ball, followed up by a Quick Attack from Raticate directly into Alakazam's side.
Outraged by the onslaught, Alakazam threw a powerful Psychic blast in all directions. Emily got thrown back against the wall, but was protected by Shadow. Raticate dashed away and evaded it. Kiai took it, full force, but his eyes never left Sabrina's even when he crashed into the wall. He slowly approached her, Alakazam made a move as if to attack Kiai, but was stopped by a silent command. Everyone watched as Kiai stood face to face with Sabrina. He slowly raised a hand to her cheek. "I found you.. I'm sorry I didn't come sooner. It's ok. It's over now." Sabrina's gaze softened, and she fell to her knees, her eyes closed. Kiai dropped down with her, supporting her as she fell. Alakazam flinched, shook its head, then roared in anger.
Alfonzo stared, horrified. "Without Sabrina to control it.. there's no telling what it will do.." he spoke. Sure enough, a moment later, Alakazam released an immense blast of Psychic energy, crumbling the walls and sending Alfonzo, Kiai, Emily, Raticate, Sabrina and Shadow tumbling through the collapsed wall and into the foyer. The rest were not so lucky, being launched out of the building.
"You fool..." Alfonzo spoke as he pushed himself to try and stand. "Look at what you have done...the Alakazam is out of control!"
Emily slowly stumbled to her feet, then looked down to notice Shadow was standing, relatively unharmed. It bent down, it's rings glowing brightly once again as it began to take in moonlight. "We have to stop it..." Emily spoke and closed her eyes. "Shadow, you're the only one who can break through its psychic blasts. You have to stop it!" Shadow nodded. It took off to its right, increasing its speed slowly as it began to spiral towards Alakazam. As it grew closer, the psychic waves grew stronger, but Shadow pushed hard against them. Finally, when it was as close as it could go, it opened its mouth and a ball of ghostly energy formed once more. It absorbed as much power into it that it could, then unleashed the ball forward into the Alakazam's back. This made it roar loudly as it felt itself falling forward. It's psychic blasts stopping while it was momentarily distracted. Quickly, Raticate rushed forward, striking the Alakazam in the chest with a Quick Attack, while Shadow followed up by striking it in the back with Faint Attack. It fell to the ground, and Shadow sat on Alakazam's neck, unleashing a Shadow Ball into the back of it's head. The final attack knocked the pokemon out for the moment.
Kiai laid Sabrina down and quickly got to his feet. Raticate and Shadow backed off from Alakazam as Emily and Kiai cautiously approached it. A tense, silent moment passed before Emily spoke, "Is it-" She was cut off as an enraged Alakazam sprung back to its feet, its eyes glowing blood red. It lashed out with its mind, throwing Emily, Kiai and Raticate back, though not as forcibly. It's anger, this time, was directed at Shadow. It approached the dark pokemon with it's arms outstretched, then summoned a massive Thunderbolt, which struck it hard. Raticate, sensing its chance, leapt at Alakazam, biting its wrist. Alakazam threw down its twisted spoon, grasping Raticate and throwing it across the room, launching a Psybeam after it, hitting it in mid-air, and causing it to fall to the ground, completely knocked out. Kiai took one look at his injured friend, and threw a vicious right hook at Alakazam, knocking it to its knees. Alakazam responded with another Psybeam, doubling Kiai over in pain and sending him tumbling in a heap next to Raticate.
"Damn it, there has to be a way to stop this thing!" Emily shouted as she pulled herself to her feet.
Alfonzo laughed. "There...is no way...the Rage Enhancer has reached Critical! There is no way to stop it now! The Pokemon will be enraged forever now!" He bellowed out a laugh, only to have Alakazam unleash a Psybeam at him and knock him down and out.
Emily growled as she stretched her hand forward. "I have to stop it now...it's up to me...I have to-" Emily stopped as she stared forward. A large scythe grabbed the edge of the building, then another did the same. They pushed together, and from them came Kabutops. Its feet landed upon the ground and it looked up at Alakazam, rage showing in its eyes. "Two enraged Pokemon..." Emily spoke. Alakazam and Kabutops seemed to stare each other down now. "Who could possibly win this?" Kabutops roared and rushed forward, slamming head first into Alakazam. Alakazam immediately unleashed a Psychic blast at Kabutops, pushing them both back.
"Kabu, kabutops!" Kabutops spoke.
"Alakazam!" Alakazam responded then threw its hand forward, unleashing a psychic barrier in front of it. Kabutops didn't care and ran headlong into the barrier. It was deflected off, but a moment later, it dug its scythes into the barrier. The two seemed to stand at a stalemate as Alakazam fought to keep the barrier up, while Kabutops fought to break the barrier down.
Emily bit her lip and closed her eyes. "Please...let this end all of this..." she spoke as she clenched her fists. Electricity began to store in her body. Her body began to glow from the charged energy and she rose her hands up into the air. It was as if nature then reacted and dark clouds began to form overhead. Emily screamed in pain as her body wasn't used to storing this much electricity at one time. However, she refused to let go as more filled her body. "Thunder!" she shouted after a moment and the electricity shot up from her body into the dark clouds above. A moment later, and it came down, striking Alakazam and Kabutops hard. The release of so much electricity at one place then caused an explosion that forced shrapnel and smoke all around. A moment later and Alakazam was down once again with Kabutops barely standing. Emily's eyes then went dim and she collapsed to the ground completely knocked out from the move.
Kabutops, with great effort, lumbered over to the fallen Alakazam, dragging its scythes and tail behind it. As it reached its fallen foe, it put one clawed foot on its chest and roared triumphantly. The roar shook Kiai awake, and he turned, painfully, to seek Kabutops scornfully kick Alakazam, then walk over to a cracked wall. With one swift kick, the wall shattered, revealing the open air. It dug one of its scythes into the wall and slid down, disappearing into the night. Kiai pulled a pokeball from his belt and recalled Raticate, then slowly attempted to sit up. As he did, he saw Alakazam stir. His heart gave a great leap; he knew there was no one left to combat it. Alakazam rose and glared at Emily. It raised one of its hands, and a dark orb gathered in its palm. Kiai struggled to crawl over to Emily, hoping to shield her from the blast, when suddenly, it stopped and lowered its hand. Kiai stared at it, shocked. Before he could determine what happened, the answer was given to him; Sabrina, propped up on one of her elbows, one hand grasping a pokeball reaching toward Alakazam, spoke softly, "Stop… no more… come back… now…" Alakazam obediently returned to its pokeball, and Sabrina collapsed, unconscious. Realizing it was finally over, Kiai allowed his weak body to overwhelm him, and fell unconscious as well, by Emily's side. Several hours later, when the sun was shining through the cracked and crumbled walls and ceiling, and several voices from all around stirred him, he woke up and looked around. It took him a moment to get his bearings. He saw that Emily was still unconscious, and Shadow had curled up with her. Sabrina was where she was left, but he was shocked to find that Alfonzo was missing.
"This looks like the most beat down place, let's check there," came a voice and Kiai turned. From the direction of the sun, he could see a dark silhouette. It looked like a small bird at first, but its size grew as it grew closer. Then, when it was finally close enough that its size blotted out the sun, he saw what it was. A large Pidgeot landed on the edge of the building, and from the Pidgeot slid a male trainer. Kiai stared at the man a moment, noticing the blue jeans and the white shirt along with a red jacket with a red hat. When his face finally came out of the sun, he recognized the man right away. It was Ash Ketchum. "Hey, Kiai."
Kiai tried to stand, but when he did, he realized his entire body ached. Surrendering the effort, he flopped down onto the floor and stared up at Ash. "Hey, Ash. How's it hanging?" As soon as he finished speaking, a feathery ball landed beside him and began nuzzling him. He chucked, even though it made his chest howl with pain. "I missed you too, Fearow. You did a good job." He looked up at Ash. "Alfonzo got away… Shadow, Emily and Sabrina need medical attention… in fact, all of our pokemon do… but whatever you do, don't release Sabrina's… it's got the pokerus, and a rage enhancer…"
"Alfonzo?" Ash blinked. "You'll have to explain later. You're right, though, you all need medical attention." He quickly released a Machoke. "Hurry, Machoke, get them onto Pidgeot. Pidgeot, take them to the Pokemon Center." Machoke and Pidgeot nodded and grabbed up both Emily and Kiai and set them on Pidgeot's back. Ash then lifted Sabrina up himself and walked her over to his Pidgeot and set her upon it. Pidgeot then took off and Ash turned back to the mess. "Looks like one heck of a battle took place here..." He then knelt down and picked up a small chip off the floor. "Wonder what this is..." He looked up and Pikachu hopped off his shoulder. The rest of Ash's time was spent looking over what was left of the computers to see what information he could get from them. When he was done, he returned to the Pokemon Center, where he found Kiai and Emily and their Pokemon were being treated. Officer Jenny was there as well.
"Good news," Jenny spoke with a smile. "Saffron's back in our hands. The Trainers are getting their Pokemon back, and a good majority of Team Rocket's forces are under captivity. There's some that we're missing, such as the Team Rocket Five, along with other possible grunts, but it seems the majority of Team Rocket's force were here."
Ash smiled. "That's good to know. Now we just wait till they wake up. After that, we'll see what happened here."
The day crawled on, and Emily and Kiai slept until nearly the afternoon. Kiai was the first one awake, and like before, it took him a minute to get his bearings. Once he realized he was at the Pokemon Center, and he remembered Ash, he knew all was well. He slowly, painfully sat up and slipped out of the bed. Emily was in the bed next to him. They weren't in a room, rather they were in hospital beds where they could be monitored. He hobbled over to Emily and put one hand on hers. He smiled at her as he stroked it gently. "We did it, kid… we beat 'em…"
"We...did?" Emily asked as her eyes slowly opened, a smile appearing on her face. "That's great..." She turned her eyes to look at Kiai. "Do me a favor? Next time...should I try to conduct that much electricity again...warn me it'll hurt like a bitch." She tried to laugh, but she felt pain in her whole body when she did, so she switched to just smiling.
Kiai smiled and brushed a piece of hair away from her eyes. "No problem, kid." They shared a brief smile before being interrupted by a very irritated Nurse Joy with her fists on her hips.
"What are you doing out of bed, young man?" Nurse Joy shouted. Kiai felt far too tired to give her an explanation, so he reached over to his hospital bed and dragged it across the floor until it was closer to Emily's. Nurse Joy's fair cheeks paled as she watched, and Kiai smiled, almost apologetically. Once he hopped back into bed, not without a grimace, Nurse Joy began angrily busying herself with things, muttering under her breath words that sounded very much like "irresponsible", "dangerous" and "could have died."
"Hey, Kiai," Emily spoke after a moment as she looked over at him. "Thanks...for being on this adventure with me...I think I've said it before, but I don't know where I'd be without you." Kiai was about to speak when the door to their room flew open and a very irate Amy stepped into the room.
"Hey, you can't be in here right now," Nurse Joy spoke up.
"I don't care," Amy spoke as she stormed over to her sister, giving a death glare. "I heard you and Kiai went after the head of Team Rocket yourself..." she spoke in a very monotone voice.
"Y-yes..." Emily spoke. Amy was always a nice person to her, but when Amy was angry, Emily knew she was a force to be reckoned with.
The dam broke. "WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU THINKING THIS IS TEAM ROCKET, THE MOST NOTORIOUS VILLIANS IN THE WORLD OF POKEMON, AND YOU WENT STRAIGHT INTO THEIR LAIR WITHOUT ALERTING ANYONE! YOU COULD HAVE DIED, YOU COULD HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED, YOUR POKEMON COULD HAVE BEEN STOLEN AND TORTURED! THAT WAS THE MOST IRRESPONSIBLE THING I'VE EVER HEARD OF ANYONE DOING! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD BE SO IGNORANT TO FOLLOW THIS ADVENTURE -HUNGRY BASTARD-"
"Amy!" Emily shouted and Amy closed her mouth. Emily sighed. "Look...yeah, it was stupid...yes, I was ignorant...but the fact is, we saved all of Saffron City by doing it...and we stopped their plot."
Amy growled. "I don't care!" she shouted and Emily flinched. She breathed in deeply, then exhaled as well. "The truth is...I could have lost you…I don't care if you're my real sister or not...I still care about you all the same. I want you to be safe. Going up against Team Rocket is one thing, but going straight to their base of operations? To their very headquarters? Team Rocket literally set up their main headquarters here in Saffron. All other Team Rocket bases have been more or less emptied. What haven't been emptied were left with a skeleton crew of six or seven grunts. The Team Rocket Five themselves were even here for heaven's sake, and from what I'm told, you even went up against them!" Amy turned away and growled. "It was reckless, it was stupid...and you should have at least called me first...I could have helped...you're nowhere near as strong as me, sis..." She turned back to Emily. "You and I both know that."
"True..." Emily spoke and smiled, "but that just means, I have to get stronger, and to do that, I have to keep fighting, right? You never turn away from a battle, so neither do I."
Amy sighed. "True...and I guess...it wasn't so reckless...after all...I did fight that one Pokemon..."
"Truth be told," spoke Kiai, trying to remain calm as he spoke, "we did send a message to Ash the moment we heard.. but we also couldn't wait. Sabrina was captured and being tortured… I couldn't leave her like that, it would have been ungentlemanly. Plus, if they weren't stopped, more things would have happened… they were trying to conquer the world. We probably all would have been killed in a month if we didn't stop them now. So… it was really the best option." Amy stared at him for a few moments. He tried to stare back, but couldn't match her piercing gaze.
Finally Amy relented, and spoke, "You're right.. I just don't want to admit that you're right."
Kiai laughed as much as his tight chest would allow. "And that's what makes you a good sister." he spoke, smiling at Amy.
Amy laughed a little. "Yeah, I guess you're right." She then sat down in a chair next to Emily. "So, Emily, other then Team Rocket, how has your adventure been going?" Emily smiled and immediately began to ramble about their adventure. Kiai filled in some minor points she either forgot to mention or just completely forgot, and in the end Amy turned away with a smile. "Sounds a lot like me when I was young like you." She sighed and stared at the ceiling. "I have to go...but I'll leave you with these parting words." Emily and Kiai looked at her curiously.
"Professor Oak wants you to call him once you're okay, Mother still hasn't received a call from you since you left on your adventure, and your next step should be to Celadon. If you're good enough to journey by next week, they've got a Pokemon Convention going on called 'Sinnoh Con'. Last year I picked up some nice Pokemon there. If you want to flesh out your team better, you might try checking that out." Emily nodded. "And, I said it already, but I'll put it this way as well. If I get one more call from Mom asking 'When is Emily going to call home?' I'll be sure to come to wherever you are, pick your ass up, and drag you kicking and screaming back home. So call your Mom the moment you're able to!" Amy shot Emily a death glare and she quickly pulled the covers over her head. Amy laughed, then walked out of the room.
Kiai chuckled softly. "She's always an interesting one. But that Sinnoh Con sounds cool. We'll have to check it out. Plus, why haven't you called home? Can't you just use your pokégear to call?"
Emily blinked. "I...hadn't thought about it..." she looked away and sighed. She pulled her pokegear off her wrist then looked up at Nurse Joy. "Is it okay if I call home?"
"After the way your sister reacted, I'd say it's a good idea," Nurse Joy responded. Emily quickly opened the phone menu on her pokegear and selected her mom's number. The next several hours were spent with Kiai and Emily talking to her Mom on the phone. They discussed everything from their adventures so far to what they had discovered about themselves and each other. Finally, Emily put her pokegear away when she finished and she turned to Kiai. "We'll call Professor Oak in the morning...see what he wants. Then we can head off for Celadon once we're able to get out of here."
Nurse Joy sighed. "I'm afraid that's not all. Your story was kept secret by all of those in charge, so, of course, everyone knows about it. You'll have to talk to Officer Jenny at some point.. she'll need to question you... and oh, this is all just a big mess. Just for now, get some rest you two. There will be plenty of time for discussion and story-telling later."
Kiai nodded, but wasn't really listening. "How are our pokemon, and how is Sabrina?" he asked. Joy looked at him. "Your pokemon are fine, just very tired. Sabrina will be fine… she's just very, very tired… and… I don't know about.." She trailed off, but Kiai finished it for her.
"Her condition?"
"Yes," responded Nurse Joy. "It is… unique, to say the least."
"Seeing as this is the first time you've encountered such a thing, I'm not surprised..." Emily sighed. "I wonder if there's a way to remove the change Team Rocket did...and if so...I wonder if...it would work on me..." she looked down at her hands. After a moment, she shook her head. "What am I saying? I have no need to get rid of this...it's helped us a lot...and it probably will continue to. I should be happy I have this..."
Kiai nodded. "Also, yours comes from birth. At that level, everything becomes much more ingrained. Even if you did remove some of it, I doubt you'd be able to remove all of it. As for Sabrina, her genes were artificially spliced very recently… it could be that she'll just get a similar antidote.
Emily nodded. "Yeah...besides, it's not really a curse to have these powers...if anything is a curse, it's the fact I'm a clone and not a natural born human...but regardless of that, I really have no reason to hate my powers either...so I'm not sure why I even thought of it..." She sighed. "In either case, let's get some rest. We'll deal with whatever comes tomorrow when it comes, like we always have. For now, I just want to sleep..." She rolled onto her side and closed her eyes.
Kiai smiled at her and relaxed into the soft hospital beds. The last thing he did before falling sleep beside her was to reach out and gently grasp her hand.