Pokémon: 11 Deaths: 14

With no moon, the sky was pitch-black and the autumn night was thick and stifling. The guards on the East Gate flashed their torches back and forth through the blackness, but there was nothing to see.

Among the shadows of the guardhouse, nobody noticed one or two more shadows slipping through. Especially when the guards began to fall unconscious, one by one, keeling over as something blue flashed in the air.

"We could've used poison," Janine grumbled as Saylee walked into the guardhouse. Several of the men around her were snoring. "Same effect... more or less... but they wouldn't be sleeping so peacefully."

"We're trying to defeat them, not become them," Saylee said severely, taking care to tread on some of the sleeping men. "Just take their Pokémon away from them and tie them up."

"You'll take care of any of them that wake up, right, sisters?" Carrie said to the contingent of Marowak that followed Saylee into the guardhouse. "And be careful. As soon as they figure out that something's wrong at the guardhouse, they'll send backup."

"You think we can't handle some of these human scum?" One of the Marowak said scornfully. "We will not lose again. We're stronger than we were before. They will not take this guardhouse, and nobody will pass through."

"Besides, they'll have plenty else on their hands once Father and the others take the other gates," Janine added. "You'd better go, Saylee. This needs to go through as quickly as possible. We'll handle things here."

"Good luck, I'll be back soon," Saylee promised, heading out of the guardhouse and into the dark streets of Saffron.

She could see lights shining in some of the houses, but nobody was outside. There was probably some kind of curfew; Rockets were patrolling the streets. Carrie visibly wanted to beat all of their heads in, but Saylee pulled her into the shadows of the back streets. She managed to blend into the darkness well enough in the dark grey cape that Janine had given her.

She stopped in one dead-ended alley that was easily viewed from the sky and looked up. She saw a light approaching her across the pitch-black sky and a few minutes later Chaz landed by her side. Pedro appeared a moment later, followed shortly thereafter by Valerie.

"The gates are taken, but scumbags in black are startin' to head for the south an' west," Pedro muttered.

"I saw quite a number of them rushing about as it is," Valerie said. "There seems to be some kind of commotion in the extremely large building." Saylee looked up at the skyscraper that dominated the skyline, visible from every part of Saffron and from some distance outside of it.

"We might as well go for it, then," Saylee said, releasing Elric and hauling herself up onto Chaz' back. "We're heading for the skyscraper. C'mon."

They were able to get to the front of the building down a back alley, but were astonished to find the front guards already unconscious and the front doors smashed aside. The floor was soaking wet. Pedro took to flying over the huge lobby with Elric and Carrie on his back while Chaz carefully held his tail out of the puddles of water on the floor.

"Looks like someone got here first," Elric said, peering down at the slick floor.

"Could it be Misty?" Chaz asked. Saylee shrugged.

"I don't know," she said cautiously. "There's the staircase. Be careful going up it."

"I'll go up first, in case someone's up there," Elric volunteered, leaping from Pedro's back to a point halfway up the staircase and bounding up the rest of the way.

"Energetic now that he's evolved, ain't he?" Pedro said, folding his wings so that he could fit into the stairwell and flapping up the steps in somewhat awkward small bursts. Saylee ducked as Chaz folded his wings back over her to do likewise.

The next floor was littered with unconscious Rockets. Several of them had unconscious Pokémon such as Raticate and Grimer slumped next to them.

"Whoa... a real tornado hit this place," Pedro observed.

"Someone else already headed in," Saylee said, looking around. "We'd better go up and find out who."

"Whoever they are, doesn't look like they'll need much in the way of backup," Chaz opined, climbing the next flight of stairs.

Six floors up, Elric was taking his turn as the vanguard when he barely managed to dodge at attacking Machop. Machop turned to attack him again, but Pedro caught the small fighter from behind, knocking it across the room with a flick of his wing.

"You!" A Rocket yelled as Saylee ran around to check on Elric. "I heard a kid was running around, causing trouble! That's you, isn't it?"

"Is it?" Saylee asked, nonplussed. The Rocket scowled and released a Machop, which Pedro promptly attacked, taking it out with another sweep of his broad, powerful wings. "Where's your boss?"

"Like I'd tell you!" The man snarled. A moment later, he was borne to the ground by two hundred pounds of irritated Charizard.

"Be good and answer her questions," he growled, casually spitting embers at his captive with every word. The man gulped.

"...my brothers will avenge me!" He spat. "Those above me will take you out before you reach the Boss!"

"So he's above us? Thank you," Saylee said, nodding to Chaz. He let the man go, but whacked him on the head with a wing. The man fell unconscious. "Let's go."

There was, as the man had warned, a second brother on the next floor. This one, however, transpired to have escaped Lavender Town with a pair of young Cubone.

"I'll let you have this one, Carrie," Saylee said. The two Cubone froze slightly as the elder Pokémon stepped forwards, and then just ducked as her bone weapon sailed over their heads and cracked into the Rocket.

"Grave robbers," Carrie snarled, catching the returning weapon as several other Rockets hurried over from other rooms along the floor. "You will pay."

Vengeance ensued.

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"My brothers will pay back the favour!" The man spat, struggling against Pedro's grip on his upper arms. Saylee frowned.

"We already beat up three guys claiming that they had brothers elsewhere in the building," she commented. "So is this a gang thing where you call your comrades "brothers", or are you just part of a big family?"

"...three, you said?" the man said, suddenly nervous.

"Oh, so you're the last one?" Saylee said brightly, stepping forwards with Chaz leaning over her shoulder so that they could give the man synchronized death-glares. "Then tell me: Where. Is. Your. Boss?"

"INTRUDER!" The man yelled at the top of his lungs. "PROTECT THE BOSS!" Elric and Valerie moved forwards to face any oncoming foes while Carrie leapt forwards to knock out the captured Rocket Brother.

"We've got one incoming!" Elric yelled. "Halt right there, or it's ten thousand volts right where it hurts!"

"Looks like he already took a beating," Valerie commented. "Whoever else it was must have been up here already."

"Just one?" Pedro asked, turning to appraise the new threat. He promptly burst out laughing. "Chill, Elric. That's no Rocket. I won't say it's no tailfeather..."

"Yeah, yeah, nice to see you too, Pedro," a familiar voice called. Saylee leapt over the fallen Rocket and ran past her Pokémon to greet him.

"Blue!" She yelled, surprised and happier than she'd admit to see him. "Are you alright? You don't look in very good shape..."

"Yeah, well, that's what I get for taking on a building full of these idiots on my own," Blue said, nudging a knocked-out Rocket with his toe. Gary, who was trotting along at his heels, briefly lifted a back leg over the man's head, but merely sniggered before following his trainer. "You took your sweet time." Despite his casual tone, he was visibly tired, and had a bleeding scratch across one cheek and bruised knuckles. Gary was also panting heavily.

"Yeah, well, you missed a few," Saylee said, joining in the casual joking in tone but simultaneously reaching up to wipe the blood off of his cheek. She cleaned off her hand on her shorts— they were red anyway. Blue looked surprised and jerked a little at the gentle touch. "You look like you could do with patching up. You too, Gary. How're your other Pokémon?"

"Pretty worn out after fighting most of the building," Blue admitted. "Adam's meditating to recover, but the others are exhausted. I wish I could find fire and leaf stones, it'd give Gary and Ed some more power and energy. Pete's in a bad way, too— there was a surprise Magneton..."

"I've still got some healing supplies, we'll have a look at him," Saylee promised. She looked back at her Pokémon as Gary wandered over to say hello. Chaz leaned down and breathed heated air over Gary, making the small canine relax visibly. Valerie and Elric both looked confused. "Oh, yeah. Valerie, Elric, this is Blue. He's an old friend of mine. C'mon, we'd better check on his other Pokémon."

"This way," Blue said, jerked a thumb over his shoulder. He grinned slightly at her. "So, we're friends again?"

"Of course we are," Saylee said, linking her arm in his as they headed towards the overturned office where Blue's Pokémon were resting. "Always were."

"Oi, tailfeather," Pedro said, flapping over to his semiconscious kin. "You look dead."

The other Pidgeot cracked an eye open. "Tailfeather yourself," he mumbled. "Could still beat you with my wings clipped."

"Speaking of clipped wings, I have some fantastic paralysis solution in here," Saylee said, digging in her bag for the yellow bottle. "Carrie, can you apply that to him? I also have," she added, rummaging around again, "some Paras-spore salve..." she came up with a small red tub. "Works wonders on human wounds. Here," she said, unscrewing the lid and holding the tub out to Blue, "rub it into your hands. Looks like you were trying to do a Mega Punch yourself."

"Yeah, turns out a punch to the jaw is supereffective on thieving scumbags," Blue said, dipping his fingers into the salve and rubbing it over his hands. "There were enough of 'em to rush me on the lower floors, so everyone had to pitch in."

"How's life, Sam?" Chaz said, spotting his old friend, retracted into her huge shell— she was clearly a Blastoise now. She popped her head out at his voice.

"I see you evolved too, flyboy," she said, nodding at his wings. "I still think I look cooler." Two sections of her shell clicked back and a large pair of cannon emerged.

"I bet I can still beat you easy," Chaz teased, cracking his claws. Sam gave a derisive snort.

"Bring it on, flyboy," she said, before retracting her cannons. "...Later. I'm rehydrating, so go bug someone else." She retracted her head as well. Valerie was scattering some dust over Edgar. It seemed to be sealing up a crack in one of his eggs.

"Y'know, I still have a Leaf Stone that I never used," Saylee said tentatively. "I found it a little while ago, but, well, I'd already lost Olivia..."

"You know, I was starting to tire out," Carrie commented, "but suddenly I'm ready to punish every Rocket in the building all over again."

"I'm with you there," Pedro said, bumping his beak against Carrie's skull affectionately. "Someone go wake some of them up so we can take them out again."

"I can have this?" Blue said in surprise as Saylee held out the leaf-printed rock. She nodded.

"I don't need it anymore," she said sadly. She looked down at Edgar, who was crowding around her, looking curiously at the stone. "Do you want to evolve?"

"Thanks," Blue said, taking the Leaf Stone. He nodded at Edgar, who began bouncing up and down. "Ready, Ed?"

"Yessir!" Edgar called in unison. Blue set the stone down amidst the six eggs, which immediately began to glow. He and Saylee stepped back as the glow rapidly expanded, an actual tree shooting up and sprouting long green leaves. A moment later, an Exeggutor was standing in the middle of the office, dancing back and forth experimentally on his new legs. Blue's Pokémon crowded around to examine their friend's new body and congratulate him.

"Time to give that new power a test run," Blue said, pointing a finger up. "The boss isn't far off. I found a shortcut to where he is, but it's heavily guarded, so I stopped back here to patch up and hope some backup turned up. A good chunk of the thugs in the building already went out to the gates, but the boss just went straight up to the top floor. I think they found something, but I don't know what. The archives below were utterly trashed."

"I noticed." Blue's hands already looked a lot less red, and he flexed his fingers experimentally. Saylee dipped her fingers into the salve and rubbed some over the cut on his cheek. Blue didn't jerk away this time, but did kind of freeze, eyes sliding to the side to watch her clean his wound. When she caught his look, Saylee blushed and looked down at the tub of salve. "Geez. Remind me to get another tub off Brock before he heads home. I can't believe I've already used up nearly the whole thing." She frowned. "Though I guess I used most of it when Vick died..."

Blue mirrored her frown, snapping his fingers. "Wasn't he an Electrode? What happened?"

"He exploded," Saylee said shortly, twisting the cap back onto the tub. "We'd better move on. I'd like to take out Giovanni as soon as possible. I just know that he's up to something."

"Hey," Blue said, catching her arm as he stood up. "Sorry about that."

"Not your fault," Saylee muttered. She noticed that Sam had appeared out of her shell again and that she and Chaz were watching the pair of humans avidly, clearly giving up on being subtle. Saylee almost jerked her arm away, but instead just sighed, then nodded at Blue. "Lead me to Giovanni. I need to kick his ass. For them."

"Sounds like a plan," Blue said, letting go of her arm. Ignoring the staring— and, in some cases, sniggering— Pokémon, he bent down to check on Pete. "How're you feeling?"

"Mmmm... much better," Pete sighed, stretching his wings. "Thanks."

"No problem," Pedro said. "Now get off your lazy tail and let's go."

"You saw the funny raised pads at the end of some corridors?" Blue said as the resting Pokémon got to their feet, paws and claws. "Teleportation pads. They're set up in a fairly random system. A hostage I found said that they're set up weirdly so that employees can move around the building much quicker than any intruder, as well as making some rooms only accessible by concealed pads. I found the teleport pad that goes up to the executive suit on the top floor. It's at the back corner of another office down here. C'mon." He grabbed her hand and tugged her down the hallway.

"Wait for us!" Carrie called, running after them. Saylee grinned, gripping Blue's hand and running after him to the teleport pad.

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The Big Battle starts... Carrie actually kicked the ass of just about everything in the building on her own. It felt like she was actually going all-out to avenge her mother. Also, I was always weirded out by Blue challenging you to a battle in the middle of a Rocket-infested building which was surely on high alert by this point, and it doesn't fit his character development in this fic, so that fight doesn't happen.

I do not own Pokémon. That happy right is Game Freak's.