One More Step Up the Ladder 25
"You know," John said as we left the power plant that had become some Voltorb's new home, "You're not that bad at battling!"
I smiled, "Thanks, you aren't half bad yourself!"
John nodded, "Yeah, too bad everyone was too busy paying attention to Red and Blue's victories in the Elite Four," He snapped.
"What?" I asked him. I'd only heard the name Red and Blue when people were referring to some of the best trainers in the world. There was no way they could have over shadowed John. They're twenty-seven now!
"The day after I managed to beat the Pokemon League Tourney, Red and Blue both beat the Elite Four," John growled, "Ever since then I've been living in their shadow."
I thought for a second, I didn't think I was living in anyone's shadow. Well, maybe Jarod's but other than that there wasn't anyone else. I looked at John, "You'll make a name for yourself."
"Oh I know I can," John said, "But let me tell you it is going to be a long time."
I couldn't think of what else to say, so I changed the subject, "We're almost at Olivine."
John looked up and noticed the lighthouse, "Yeah we are, this is a nice place if you love the sea."
"I would guess so," I said as I took a deep breath and caught the salty air before coughing for a second.
John chuckled, "Never take a deep breath here trust me."
I wheezed again before moving my head up and down. John and I kept moving forward and were almost at a loss for words until we got into Olivine. We noticed that several Police were outside the lighthouse with Pokemon ready to attack. Jarod and Tess were looking at the Lighthouse with awe.
"What happened here?" John asked the officers.
"Team Rocket is holding Jasmine, the gym leader here, captive and say that they'll blow up the lighthouse if we don't hand control of the city over to them!" A police man exclaimed.
"We'll see if we can't do anything about that," John smiled.
"We?" The police man said with a puzzled look on his face.
John looked at me and Jarod, "Yeah us."
A wicked grin ran across Jarod's face, "Oh this is going to be fun!" Jarod ran in as John and I chased after him. When we entered the lighthouse, five Team Rocket grunts were waiting for us.
"Look what we have here," One Rocket Grunt said, "More hostages!" Each of the five Team Rocket members took out a Pokeball as I looked at John and Jarod.
"We can take them," Jarod smiled.
All of a sudden, two people slipped through the window, much to my surprise it was Brendan and Connor!
"Fancy seeing you here Jesse," Connor, the boy whose family's Miltank I helped cure, said, "You mind if we join in on the party?"
"I don't mind," I said as the Rocket grunts sent out a Houndour, a Carvanha, a Nuzleaf, a Liepard, and a Bisharp. John sent out a Pidgeot, Jarod sent out his Slaking, Connor was quick to send out a Vaporeon, as Brendan sent out his Pignite. I debated which Pokemon to send out next. Trey seemed like a good idea. My Charmeleon came to the field as each of us claimed a Team Rocket Member to fight. I chose the Bisharp. Trey took a deep breath and sent a tide of flame roaring from his mouth. The attack engulfed Bisharp and caused the Pokemon stumbling back. The Rocket Grunt's Pokemon ran forward and tried to cut Trey. My Charmeleon ducked under the attack and bit Bisharp's leg. The Pokemon howled in pain as hot magma dripped into its body. Trey smiled as Bisharp sent a blast of grey energy at Trey. He jumped out of the way and the metal burst hit Liepard make the Pokemon stumble before it was hit by an ice beam from Vaporeon. Liepard shook off the attack and lunged at Connor's Pokemon.
Trey sent a burst of fire at Bisharp, who dodged the attack and swept Trey's leg. My Charmeleon fell down as Bisharp tried to slice Trey, who rolled out of the way and sent another burst of flame at Bisharp. This time the flame hit and the sparks from the flame flew onto Nuzleaf, who was standing next to Bisharp, and caused it to panic. Pidgeot flew down and hit Nuzleaf with its wing. The Pokemon tumbled backwards but shot up and began to charge a Razor Wind. Bisharp sent another blast of grey energy at Trey and knocked him into Pignite, messing up the Pokemon's attack. Houndour soon bit into Pignite's skin as the pig Pokemon punched Houndour and sent it tumbling backwards. Trey got up and charged at the Bisharp, who spun around Trey's attack and tripped him. The Bisharp then jumped in the air and slammed a fist of dark energy into Trey's hide. My Pokemon yelped but turned around and spat fire in Bisharp's face. The Pokemon reeled from the attack but countered by once again trying to kick Trey's leg. This time, my Pokemon jumped over it and bit Bisharp's face. The victim of Trey's fire fang stumbled around for a few seconds before hitting the ground, knocked out. Just then, Pidgeot flew past me and sliced Nuzleaf with a blade made of air, knocking it out. Pignite managed to sock Houndour in the face and caused it to hit the ground. The next Pokemon to faint was Carvanha as Slaking sent a hyper beam at the fish and sent it through a window and up into the sky. Of course, Carvanha hit the ground a few seconds later. Vaporeon soon finished off Liepard with a high powered blast of water, nailing the Pokemon to the wall before it collapsed.
The Rocket Grunts looked at each other, "Didn't you all bring more than one Pokemon?" They asked each other before hearing a chorus of nos.
One Rocket Grunt took out a walkee talkee, "Admin Waka! Five kids have broken into the building! We need to blow this thing sky high!"
"I would Brudda," A voice from the other end of the walkee talkee said, "But I be in da' midst of a battle too!"
"What!" The Rocket Grunt exclaimed, "How could one have slipped past us?"
"I don't know Brudda, I tink he climbed the lighthouse," The voice said.
"Listen Waka, we're getting out of here! You better come too!" The Rocket grunt said.
"Just wait for me signal!" The voice exclaimed. While this conversation was going on, the five of us snuck past the Rockets and into the elevator. We hit a button and went up to the top floor. Upon exiting, we saw Mike fighting a man with blazing orange hair that stood up straight.
"Now how about we get back to our battle," Mike smiled as he pointed forward, "Numel! Use Inferno on Magenzone!"
Mike's Numel looked at Magnezone and shot a scarlet tornado. Magnezone flew out of the way and attempted to throw a strange ball of grey energy. The attack stuck to Numel and exploded, but the Pokemon hardly seemed damaged. Numel then sent a gush of flame from his mouth that engulfed Magnezone. The Magnet Area Pokemon fell to the ground as Numel finished off it off by using Magnitude. The ground shook for a bit as several rocks came out of nowhere and hit Magnezone, knocking it out.
"You're out of Pokemon," Mike smiled, "Shame that Seymour put up a better fight than you."
"I still have one trick up my sleeve Brudda," The Rocket Admin said and took out a small button. He pressed it as the fire alarm for the lighthouse began to go off, "May you all be buried in a grave of rubble!" Just then, The Rocket Admin jumped out of a window. When we looked to see where he had gone, we noticed that he wasn't there anymore.
"Using a Pokemon to carry him away from certain death," Mike said, "Typical."
He turned around and noticed me and my friends, "What? You're here to defeat the Rocket Admin? Sorry Jesse, you're late. Like you always are," Mike laughed, "But you need to get out of here quick. This building is going to blow any second now!"
"How do they expect to blow up a building of this size?" Brendan asked, "There is no way they could obtain that many explosives."
"They don't need explosives when they have Pokemon," Mike said, "I heard them talking about several Voltorb that were supposed to be hidden here."
"Interesting," John said, "Because we found a few Voltorb's stashed in some kind of hollowed out tree."
The fire alarm went off and nothing happened.
"Perfect," Mike smiled as he went over to girl who had been tied up. I was surprised that the girl had kept quiet this long. The girl soon got up and it was none other than the Olivine Gym leader, Jasmine.
"Thank you all for saving me," Jasmine said, "Those thugs captured me after I came here to check up on Amphy."
"Amphy," Jarod said, "Who names their Pokemon Amphy?"
"She's the Ampharos that powers the light house," Jasmine said, "Recently she's become very sick."
"Team Rocket probably has something to do with it!" Brandon exclaimed and slammed his fist into his palm.
Mike sighed, "Not everything is a Team Rocket conspiracy you dolt, the Pokemon was just sick and Team Rocket exploited that fact to capture Jasmine."
"Anyways," Jasmine said, interrupting the two, "From what I've been able to tell, Amphy will need a few doses of a Secretpotion."
"Where do we get one of those?" I asked her, "I mean I've never really heard of that kind of potion before."
"The Potions are made in Cianwood City and are only distributed to Pokemon in critical condition," Jasmine said as she took out a small file, "I need each of you to deliver this to the Cianwood Pharmacy," Jasmine also handed us five tickets, "These are tickets for the S.S. Cactus. The boat sails between Olivine and Cianwood. It is scheduled to leave in a few hours."
"Alright," Jarod exclaimed like a kid on a sugar rush, "I get to go on a cruise! This is going to be sweet!"
"Jarod calm down," I said, "Thank you Jasmine," I said, "We will try to get back as soon as possible," with that, the five of us headed out of the Lighthouse. After arriving at the ship, with Tess in tow, the five of us gave each other a smile.
"That was fun," Jarod smiled, "We need to do it again sometime!"
"Yes we do," John laughed and went onto the boat. I smiled and looked at the cruise liner, at least I was going to be able to live it up for a few days on my journey to climb one more step up the ladder.