"What a pure waste of my time…" said the Team Plasma commander with an amused yawn to the trainer in front of her, "Obviously you never stood a chance, but I expected this to be a little more interesting." Even though she was talking like the battle was already over it technically wasn't over yet. Jake's Charmander, while barely hanging in there, was still standing on her feet with noticeable determination. The commander's Boldore seemed quite fatigued from all the Flamethrowers it had directly taken (and from chasing Charmander around), but its so-called trainer was so sure of her victory that she didn't seem to even notice the rock-type pokémon's exhaustion.
Jake made no reply to the commander's taunting attempts. He, unlike her, was paying more attention to the details and he was able to tell that winning the battle would be possible if Charmander kept dodging Boldore's attacks for just a little longer while continuing to attack it from a safe distance. "Now that I'm thinking about it," continued the commander, who was still in her own little world made of death and no sparkles whatsoever, "a pokémon as useless as your pathetic Charmander can't possibly be of any use to the greatness of Team Plasma. I think that after taking your pokémon away I'll just throw it into a pond to save myself the trouble of feeding it!"
Jake found himself staring at the Team Plasma commander with a look of disbelief and even horror. Was he just incorrectly interpreting what she had just said or had she really just spoken of the possibility of killing a pokémon? "What did you say?!" he asked, his expression of shock replaced by an enraged one.
"This Charmander obviously won't be of any use to me, so why bother with it?" asked the Team Plasma member with another yawn. "If a pokémon's weak and useless you should just let it go!" Jake clenched both of his hands into fists and gritted in teeth. A person like that should be just thrown into jail without the option of seeing the light of the sun ever again. He was about to tell Charmander to use Flamethrower again, but that was when he saw that the fire-type pokémon was charging directly at her rock-type opponent, much to the commander's amusement. "Oh no, I'm so very scared!"
Charmander then used what appeared to be a simple Scratch attack but, to the surprise of both Jake and the Team Plasma commander, Boldore let out yelp of pain and even staggered a few steps backwards. "What?!" exclaimed the Team Plasma commander with surprised. How could a normal-type move with a small amount of power like Scratch cause a rock-type pokémon like Boldore so much damage? "That's impossible!"
Jake didn't have even the slightest clue as to how had Charmander managed to cause that much damage to Boldore using only Scratch, but he definitely wasn't going to complain. "That was Metal Claw!" Jake turned around and saw that it was Aaron who had just spoken to him. He and Bugsy, from the looks of things, were still busy fighting the other 4 Team Plasma grunts, but the Elite Four member must have seen Charmander use the attack in the corner of his eye. "It's a steel-type move! Pokémon learn new moves on their own by gaining experience, and Metal Claw is one of the moves a Charmander can learn." *
"Steel, huh?" asked Jake with a grin as he looked back at the Team Plasma commander (who had a look of disbelief on her face).
"You've got to be kidding me!" she exclaimed in frustration.
"Charmander, if you'd be so kind…" Before the commander could even tell Boldore to dodge or use another move Charmander leapt at the rock-type pokémon and hit it with Metal Claw again, causing it to collapse and faint.
"What?! No! I couldn't have lost to some kid!" exclaimed the defeated member of Team Plasma, enraged.
Charmander meanwhile turned around and ran over to her trainer, who smiled and waited for her with open arms. "Way to go, Charmander! That was awesome!" Charmander smiled proudly, although it was easy to tell that she was still tired from the battle. "That was our first win against a rock-type."
"Char!" exclaimed the little pokémon in delight, waving her little arms in the air.
"Wait here for a second," said Jake, gently placing Charmander next to Eevee and Vulpix, "I'll be right back."
"This can't be! Stupid, useless pokémon!" She opened her eyes with the intention of finding that Boldore of hers and giving it a piece of her mind, only to realize that Jake was standing just a few inches from her face. "What the hell do you want?"
"Just to ask you a small question… What's your problem?"
"What?"
"I asked what your stupid problem is, you pathetic excuse for a human being!" He gritted his teeth in anger, grabbing her by the collar of her uniform. "What the hell's wrong with you?! What kind of person even cracks jokes about killing a living creature?! You disgust me!" He noticed that there was one pokéball attached to her belt, and when he realized what it was he took it and pushed her away, causing her to trip over a branch and fall over.
"Hey, that's mine!" she exclaimed, standing back up. "Give it back!"
"Not anymore." Whether she had stolen Boldore from a trainer in Unova or not (she probably had) there was absolutely no chance that he would willingly hand the pokéball back to her.
"Um… Boss?"
"What?!" asked the commander with rage, turning around and seeing that the other 4 Team Plasma grunts were standing directly behind her. From the looks on their faces she was able to figure out that they had failed in beating Bugsy and Aaron. "You idiots!" She looked back at Jake, who now had Bugsy and Aaron standing behind him. "You can take the useless pokémon! I don't need it, it's worthless! Mark my words, though; this isn't over! Team Plasma will be back!"
Jake rolled his eyes as the 5 Team Plasma members ran away. "Can you believe that?" he asked, turning around to look at Bugsy and Aaron. The two trainers didn't say a word and silently watched as Jake approached the fainted Boldore. The rock-type pokémon was starting to move, which could only mean that it was waking up (at least that's what they all assumed, seeing how it didn't have an actual face). It let out what sounded like grunt of pain followed by a startled yelp as it saw the 3 strangers in front of him, one of which was the trainer he had battled just a few minutes ago. It frantically looked around but soon covered its face with its 2 forelegs and began shaking upon not seeing a familiar face anywhere.
"It must have been horrible being the pokémon under the use of Team Plasma." said Bugsy, making sure not to raise his voice too much so to not scare Boldore even more. "No wonder it's afraid of us…"
Jake looked around for his bag before remembering that he had taken it off and left it next to Flareon and Vulpix before battling the Team Plasma commander. "Flareon, would you mind bringing my backpack over?" The fire-type Eeveelution nodded and grabbed his trainer's bag in his mouth before carrying it over. "Thanks." He opened the bag and began looking through it, eventually taking out a Sitrus Berry. He would have used a Potion, but since that could have caused a stinging sensation he decided not to take any risks. "Here you go!" he said with a smile, holding out the berry in front of the rock-type pokémon.
Boldore slightly removed one of the legs covering its face and looked at the berry. While it didn't really have a facial expression Jake was able to tell that it was hesitating. "We won't hurt you." he said, slowly bringing the Sitrus Berry closer. "This will make you feel better." The rock-type pokémon hesitated for a very long moment before slowly standing up, (with some effort, of course). It looked at the berry and then at the humans and pokémon in front of it, still a little reluctant. "Go on, it's alright."
Boldore then leaned forward and swallowed the Sitrus Berry in one bite, causing Jake to chuckle as it chewed it loudly. It must have been very hungry, something which wasn't all that surprising. Jake went ahead and took out a few Oran Berries out of his bag as well as a Rawst Berry, which was going to help Boldore get over some of the damage from all the Flamethrowers it had been hit by earlier. Boldore happily ate them, this time with less hesitation.
"What are you going to do with it now?" asked Aaron as he watched the rock-type pokémon happily chew on the berries it had been given.
"I'll keep it with me until I find a trainer who I know will take good care of it." said Jake with a smile as he watched Boldore eat.
"What, you'll just walk up to trainers and ask them if they want a Boldore?" asked Bugsy, raising an eyebrow in curiosity.
"There are currently only 3 trainers in this entire world that I trust enough in order to entrust them with a pokémon that is afraid of people because it's been badly treated." His Xtransceiver then began ringing, as if right on cue. "Hey Jacob," he said, after picking up the call, "is there anything new? Have you been at the Pewter City Gym yet?"
"We found Brock there and he said he hasn't seen Team Plasma anywhere." said Jacob, "However there is something else…"
"What is it?" asked Jake, seeing Cynthia and Brock talking somewhere behind Jacob.
"Cynthia told me to ask Aaron whether he happened to receive a text message from Bertha."
"A text message?" asked Aaron, raising an eyebrow, "From Bertha?" He shook his head after checking his cell phone. "I didn't get anything." It sounded quite illogical to him (as well as to Jake and Bugsy) that Berth has sent a text message.
"Yeah. Cynthia got a text from her a few minutes ago that mentioned an abandoned warehouse at the northern part of Pewter City."
"Maybe that's where she is?" asked Bugsy.
Jacob, who was a little surprised to suddenly see the Gym Leader of Azalea Town on the screen of his Xtransceiver, was silent for a few seconds before replying. "Could be, but we don't know for sure. We tried calling her after receiving the message but the line was dead."
"It's worth looking into." said Jake thoughtfully. "Where are the three of you now?"
"We're still at the Pewter City Gym." said Jacob, "Cynthia had just spoken to Lucian on the phone and we're waiting for him and Flint to get here."
"Okay. Wait for us, we'll come too."
"What about you guys? Did you find anything interesting in the Viridian Forest?"
Jake shook his head. "No. A few Team Plasma tards came here to look for Aaron, but we're fine now. Just wait for us there, it'll only take us a few minutes." He then hung up the call and looked at the two bug-type specialists in front of him. "Alright, follow me. I know where the Pewter Gym is." After Jake managed to convince Boldore to get back into its pokéball (since he didn't want to startle it by doing it completely out of the blue) they were on their way.
By the time they arrived at the Pewter Gym Lucian and Flint had already gotten there as well. So, since there was obviously no reason to delay any further, they set out towards the northern part of Pewter City right away. It was already the middle of the night so they obviously couldn't see anybody anywhere as they walked through the streets. Cynthia, unlike the others, was flying on her Togekiss in order to be able to keep an eye out for Team Plasma or anything else that might require their attention. After a matter of about 10 minutes they all found themselves in front of what Brock supposed was the warehouse mentioned in Bertha's message.
"I'm going to say something I've wanted to say for the past 15 minutes." said Lucian all of a sudden. "This might be a trap. Team Plasma might have sent the message from Bertha's phone in order to lure us here."
"Either way," said Flint as he tried to open the warehouses large doors and noticed that they wouldn't budge, "the doors are locked."
"That won't be a problem." said Cynthia, landing next to them. "Stand back. If it is a trap and there are too many of them you can run and I'll fly on Togekiss." The others, deciding not to argue because Cynthia didn't seem to be in a good mood, quietly nodded and went away from the doors of the warehouse. "Grachomp!" The former champion released the dual-type dragon and ground pokémon and pointed at the doors. "Use Giga Impact, bring these doors down!"
The doors creaked loudly and then fell down, resulting in a cloud of smoke. Cynthia (and the others, who were standing some distance away) stood silently and watched as the smoke slowly cleared. Once it was all out of the way Cynthia took a few step backwards, as if in surprise. "What the-" she exclaimed, but the rest of the words never came out of her mouth.
"What is it?" asked Jake worriedly, making sure to raise his voice in order for Cynthia to be able to hear him.
"See for yourself!" said Cynthia, turning her head and looking at them over her shoulder.
They all came over and when they arrived next to Cynthia, to their surprise, they saw Bertha and Melanie sitting on the floor in the middle of an empty room while playing Odds and Evens. "One, two, three, shoot!" exclaimed Melanie as she held out her fist and extended three fingers. Bertha did the same, extending one finger. "Even! I win again, yay!" She smiled and clapped her hands together (her Charmander, who was standing next to her, did the same thing, cheering his trainer on).
Bertha silently smiled and before looking at the doorway where Cynthia, Jake and all the others were standing with looks of surprise and disbelief on their faces. "Hey, the gang's all here." she said with an amused chuckle.
Melanie, who had her back turned on them, looked around and excitedly waved one of her hands. "Hey guys!"
"Bertha, what happened?" asked Aaron, raising an eyebrow.
"Where's Team Plasma?" asked Cynthia, in a more serious tone.
"Oh, you mean that troublesome bunch?" asked Bertha, getting a series of nods from everybody. "Don't worry about them, they're in the back."
Cynthia and the rest of the Sinnoh Elite Four nodded at each other before slowly heading towards the door Bertha had pointed at (with Cynthia and her Garchomp leading the way). Jake followed them while Jacob, Bugsy and Brock stayed behind. They opened the door and saw about 20 Team Plasma grunts. Because of how calm Bertha looked they had naturally expected to see a group of Team Plasma grunts that were tied by ropes, but they definitely hadn't expected to see them all sitting close to one another with Melanie's Onix tightened around them in order to prevent them from going anywhere.
"Is everything alright back there, Onix?" asked Melanie with a smile. Onix gave a loud growl in response, which was followed by frightened squeaks as the rock and ground-type pokémon gently tightened its grip on the trapped Team Plasma grunts a little in order to scare them.
The following day
"Bon appétit!" said Jake with a smile as Jacob, Melanie, Bugsy, Brock, Cynthia and the 4 members of the Sinnoh Elite Four entered Jacob's kitchen. On the table was a delicious looking lunch prepared for exactly 10 people (it was around 2 and a half PM). **
"What is this?" asked Cynthia as she and the others looked at the table in surprise.
"That's just my way of apologizing for my rude behavior when you guys found me yesterday in the evening."
"Oh… that's okay, really…" said Cynthia, "You shouldn't have…"
"This must have required a lot of effort to prepare." said Lucian.
"Don't mention it." said Jake with another smile.
"Are you sure it's okay that I'm staying?" asked Bugsy, rubbing the back of his head with a hand. He had to be back in Azalea Town by the end of the day in order to reopen the Azalea Gym the following morning, and going back to Johto was obviously going to take some time. Because of that (and because he didn't want to be rude by turning down such a generous offer) he wanted to make sure that it was alright for him to be there.
"Sure! You and Brock helped out, so help yourself to the table!"
On the other side of the kitchen (which was basically the living room since the two rooms were combined) some of the pokémon of all the trainers (the few that were outside of their pokéballs that is) were either eating some pokémon food, resting or interacting with one another. Dratini was busy admiring Cynthia's Garchomp (who was surprisingly much more patient towards it than Jake's Charmander), Jacob's Bronzor and Lucian's Bronzong were having a staring contest, Vulpix was busy ignoring both Jake's Flareon and Flint's Flareon and Melanie's Charmander just sat next to Jake's Charmander and silently watched as the female of its species ate some pokémon food.
The only other pokémon other than the ones mentioned above that was outside of its pokéball was Boldore. At first Jake had doubted whether letting it out in a room full of people it wouldn't recognize would be a good idea (for obvious reasons), but he knew that nothing bad could come of it and that Boldore needed to interact with other pokémon and their trainers in order to begin to recover. The rock-type pokémon was quietly sitting in the corner, keeping its gaze fixed on the humans who were standing near the table. Somehow Jake was able to tell that it was hungry and that it was just too nervous to eat with so many people in the room.
The trainers were about to sit down at the table and eat but they all found themselves silently staring as Jake approached Boldore and kneeled in front of it, silently whispering something loud enough so that only Boldore could hear him. The rock-type pokémon didn't seem to be as scared of him as it was of the others, and they couldn't help but smile as it affectionately tackled the unsuspecting teenager to the floor. Unfortunately for Jake Boldore was quite heavy, but he managed to eventually free himself from underneath its weight and, after some more whispering, the rock-type pokémon began to eat.
"You should start eating before it gets cold, you know." said Jake before standing up and heading up the stairs (much to the confusion of all of them because they had expected him to sit down and eat with them).
It was then that Jacob suddenly remembered that Jake hasn't said a single word to Bertha since they had found her and Melanie in that warehouse. Bertha sighed, stood up, and walked towards the stairs while ignoring the fact that everybody (even the pokémon that were present in the room) were looking at her. She and her nephew were going to have to have that talk sooner or later and, now that she knew where he was (and wasn't being held captive), there was no point in delaying the inevitable.
* I remember using Metal Claw against Brock in FR/LG. Oh, the memories.
** Unfortunately my imagination isn't too great when it comes to describing food. The only thing I know how to cook is an omelet… I'll let you use your own imagination for the physical description of what's on the table.
