Author's Notes: And here's the stuff with Team Rocket. Umbra gets to be awesome… And Gin gets her head handed to her.

Chapter Thirty Seven: Vs Houndoom!

Gin sighed heavily as she, Suishou, and Kin climbed the staircase to the second floor of the Radio Tower. Their footsteps echoed ominously on the stairs, and none of them had said a word since encountering Whitney. When they arrived on the landing, however, they saw several men in black uniforms near the back of the room. Fortunately, they hadn't spotted the trio yet, and Gin beckoned to the two boys.

"Okay, we need a plan," she hissed. "You guys can distract the grunts at the stairs while I go up."

"Why do Suishou and I have to stay here?" Kin protested.

"Well, for one thing, you're stupid, so if there's anything dangerous on the upper floors you'd probably start babbling that we're all here. And for another thing, I just don't want the kid to get hurt."

"Um, G-Gin?" Suishou mumbled, blushing slightly.

"It can wait. Let's go!"

With that, Gin darted forward, purposely making sure that the thick soles of her shoes smacked loudly onto the floor. Kin and Suishou blinked at each other before scrambling after her. As they got closer to the Team Rocket grunts, the men looked up suspiciously, and their hands instinctively dropped to their belts for their Pokéballs.

"What do you children think you're doing here?" one of them glared.

"Oh?" Gin smirked as she slowed down. "I don't see any children. And let's just say we got a tip-off that you guys were here."

"And whatever it is you're doing here… I'm taking you down!" Kin smirked.

"Kin! You don't know what you're talking about!" Gin whispered. "Besides, you're not doing this alone!"

"Y-yeah, I can help," Suishou stammered.

"You think you can take us down, huh? We'll teach you a lesson!"

Each of the grunts simultaneously took a single Pokéball off of his belt, and each of them released a Koffing. The purple Poison-Types grinned cheerfully as they hovered in front of their trainers.

Suddenly, an idea popped into Gin's head, and her smirk widened. "Hey, how about you just tell your Koffings to use Smokescreen?"

"What?" Kin, Suishou, and all the grunts gasped in unison.

"Are you out of your mind?" Kin grunted indignantly.

"No, I know what I'm doing. Trust me."

"Okay, we'll do it. Just don't say we didn't warn you!" As one of the grunts grinned confidently at the trio, the rest of them called, "Smokescreen!"

Green-gray smoke poured out of the Koffings' pores, and with all of them releasing the Smokescreen at once, it was nearly impossible to see what was going on. As the grunts shouted and Kin and Suishou tried to fan the smoke from their face, quiet footsteps sounded. The Smokescreen cleared a few moments later, and when it did, Gin was no where to be found.

"Where'd that gray-haired brat go?" one of the grunts howled.

"He had to have gone upstairs!" another grumbled.

As the grunts turned towards the stairs, Kin frowned. "For some reason, I have no desire to correct him."

"Yeah, but… We need to stop them, right?"

Kin and Suishou nodded to each other and reached for Pokéballs of their own. Suishou released Geo, and Kin released Needle.

"Needle, use Thunder Wave!"

The Jolteon's fur bristled, and small sparks shot out of his needle-like hair. Each of the Rockets was hit by the attack, and they fell to the ground in surprise as their limbs numbed. Suishou then nodded to Geo, and the Graveller flexed its four arms.

"Geo, use Rock Tomb!"

Geo securely tossed several large boulders around the group, making sure that they wouldn't be able to escape if the paralysis wore off. Kin slapped Suishou on the back, and the redhead stumbled slightly.

"Hey, Suishou, that was pretty clever. I bet we could show Gin a thing or two if she was still here!"

"R-Really?" Suishou blinked, smiling. "Well… Oh! Shouldn't we go up too? I mean, just in case…"

"I guess. Come on!"

Suishou immediately followed Kin over to the stairs, and as they went up, he sincerely hoped that Gin was okay…

Gin finally pounded up to the fifth and final floor of the Radio Tower. Apart from the grunts on the second floor, there really hadn't been too many Rockets around the tower. Fortunately, she'd managed to sneak around DJ desks to avoid being seen. She realized, however, that the top floor would be the riskiest… But she wanted to get this little escapade over as soon as possible.

When she came out on the fifth floor landing, there was one Rocket at the large recording panel in the back, and he was adjusting a few sliders. He then reached for the microphone next to him and cleared his throat. Gin frowned, realizing his uniform was slightly different from the other Rockets'… He had to be a higher rank than the rest.

"Hey, you. What do you think you're doing?" she droned.

"Wh-What?" The executive spun around, glaring. "How did a civilian get in here? I had guards!"

"Well, they weren't very good guards, were they? Now answer my question."

"All right, I suppose it couldn't hurt… I can just silence you in a few minutes anyway. Now then, I suppose than even a brat like you has heard of the Team Rocket debacle in Kanto, haven't you?"

"Yeah, it was about three years ago," Gin yawned. "I wasn't paying that much attention to it at the time, but it was all over the news… Even here in Johto. You guys are really idiotic, aren't you?"

"Hmph. Well, that's why we're here in Johto now. We're hoping that by taking over the Radio Tower, we can broadcast messages to our former leader to show him our progress and make him come out of hiding."

"Not if I have anything to do about it."

"Cheeky, aren't you? But you can't stand up to Houndoom."

The Rocket executive released a particularly large Houndoom, and it snarled at her as its forked tail twitched. Gin simply shrugged, reaching for a Pokéball of her own.

"Whatever. It can't attack me if I attack it. Come on, Umbra!"

The Eevee materialized next to Gin, glaring up at Houndoom. Her fur bristled as she tried to look threatening.

"You think that little fur ball can take out Houndoom? Ha. Houndoom, go get yourself a new chew toy while I make sure this thing is working properly."

He turned back to the microphone, and Houndoom leered down at Umbra. Her glare intensified, and she impatiently looked back at Gin, waiting for orders. The gray-haired girl smirked, looking out towards the small windows in the room—by now, a few rays of dim evening light were sifting into the room. If she could make this work…

"Okay, Umbra, go teach Houndoom a lesson. I know you can," she said confidently. "I'm trusting this one to you, okay?"

Umbra blinked, looking surprised, but then she grinned and nodded. She closed her eyes and started to glow, and a few moments later, she stood several feet taller. Her fur was jet black, and golden rings ran around her body.

"Umbreon…" she hissed.

She then darted forward, crashing into Houndoom for a Faint Attack. However, the larger Pokémon looked unfazed, and it easily clamped its jaws around the newly evolved Umbra. It then picked her up and threw her backwards, causing her to crash into a shelf.

"No, Umbra, get up! You can do it…" Gin whispered quickly.

"That runt won't help you. Just admit it, you've lost and nobody's here to help you."

Gin clenched her teeth as she whirled around to face the executive. However, suddenly, something collided with her head, and her vision went black as she slid to the floor.