Ash watched as Bulbasaur gently carried a man to a hole in the wall. The man's leg was covered in bandages that were soaked red with blood. He moaned as Bulbasaur lowered him into the waiting tendrils of Vines below. Leaf's ivysaur and her hitmonchan then lowered the man to the street, placing him on a stretcher next to several other people in similar conditions.
Ash, Leaf, and their squad were helping evacuate a street of inner-city town homes near the northern edge of Saffron. A few explosive attacks had hit the buildings, pelting the people within with shrapnel. Thankfully out of the forty or so people in the buildings at the time, only three people had died. Everyone had taken cover as soon as they realized that a battle was going on.
Their squad's main goal had been to open pathways to the street, allowing most of the population of the town homes to escape on their own. After that Jared's squad had started extracting people who couldn't move.
The man with the torn-up leg had been one of the last to go. After he was evacuated, Bulbasaur lowered Ash to the street and then Ash recalled his pokémon. Ash felt something wet on his head and then held out his hand to see if it was raining. He sighed when he realized a drizzle had started and then walked over next to Leaf, who was preparing a stretcher for an airlift.
"Need help?" Ash asked.
"No," Leaf shook her head as she tightened a strap. "Go take a break. I'll be done soon."
"No thanks," Ash replied. "I want to keep moving."
"There's nothing for you to do though," Leaf said, checking another strap while the woman on the stretcher drew shaky breaths.
"I just don't want to sit around while people are…" Ash looked down the rows of stretchers at another woman, who had been in worse shape than the one on the stretcher that Leaf was currently preparing, that was no longer moving. "I don't want to do nothing while people are in trouble."
"There's nothing for you to do and we don't know where we need to go next," Leaf told him. "Don't be stupid, go have some water."
Yeah, Pikachu said, from Ash's shoulder. Quit being an idiot.
I'm not being stupidstupid, Ash muttered at Pikachu and then turned to Leaf. "I'm not an idiot."
"You might not be an idiot, but you are being stupid," Leaf told him with a huff.
You are an idiot and you're being more stupid than usual, Pikachu said. Go drink some water, I don't think you've been having enough today.
Fine, bossypants, Ash said.
"Well, stress induced code-switching is a great way to find out that someone's bilingual," Leaf sighed. "I'm glad that fact was a secret in school, otherwise Gary-" Both she and Ash tensed up when she said the name. While Ash fought down the sudden cold sick feeling in his abdomen, Leaf took in breath and continued, "-would've probably tried to become a polyglot to compete with you."
"I- I can't- I don't want to rest," Ash admitted, looking at the ground and clenching one hand into a shaking fist. "I don't want to have to think about what happened to Garry."
"I know," Leaf agreed in a soft voice. "I keep seeing him like- like those kids from the first building."
"I keep thinking that he's hurt and alone," Ash said.
"He'll be alright," Leaf said, mostly to herself. "He's Gary. He'll probably do something stupid, trying to be impressive, but he'll be alright."
"Yeah," Ash said, but his voice rang hollow in his ears.
Ash, I'm sorry about Gary, Pikachu said softly from his shoulder. But you need to rest and have some water. You've been careless about speaking properly and you're usually so good about that.
You're right, Ash whispered. "I'll go have some water," he told Leaf. "Baijanthi said there were water bottles in a fridge on the first floor. Do you want one instead of using your canteen?"
"Sure, thanks Aaron," Leaf said.
Ash walked inside and retrieved the water, taking it back to Leaf. Wordlessly he offered it to her while she was working on a final stretcher. She finished off one last strap and then took the bottle.
They sat on the curb, drinking silently, while Jared and some of the other airborne members of SAR came gliding low over the rooftops. Jared landed next to Leaf and Ash, while the other members began carrying away stretchers. They departed, swiftly evacuating the civilians while still flying low over the rooftops.
"Crazy risk we're taking here," Jared commented as he watched them go. "We don't know how low their AA can reach. But we don't have a choice. How are you two doing?"
"Fine," Ash said immediately, trying not to glare at his commander.
"Same," Leaf said, looking off to the side.
"Stubborn, aren't ya," Jared said, giving them a soft, wry smile. "Alright. You two have done some great work, and I'm not just saying that. So if you two or your pokémon need to rest-"
"We're good," Leaf said.
"Yay-yay-yay," Jared rolled his eyes. "You don't like being babied, I get that, but don't get yourselves in trouble by being stubborn-"
"INCOMING!" One of the other members of the squad shouted. Ash, Leaf, and Jared turned their heads and saw their squad mate pointing down the road to the intersection. A bloodied group of people and pokémon, the humans wearing the Team Rocket uniform, were coming around the corner, expression of shock on their own faces as they spotted the League squad.
"Wheel Wall!" Jared screeched pointing at the street between his squad and Team Rocket. His pidgeot, Gale, jumped into the air and swung his wings in vertical circles. Rushing, howling air echoed the movements, a whirling wheel of wind blasting upwards from the streets just as Team Rocket ordered their pokémon to attack. Fire, needles, sharp leaves, and blasts of water were swept up by Jared's move, sailing safely over the heads of his squad.
"Thunder!" Ash shouted, pointing at the enemy squad.
Fry, bastards! Pikachu shouted, launching himself from Ash's shoulder. A column of crackling power rushed out from him, writhing as it blazed down the street, arcing around the Wheel Wall and engulfing the Rocket squad. People and pokémon became screaming black shapes in the yellow light of Pikachu's attack.
"Razor Leaf and Bulldoze forward!" Leaf shouted, while the Rocket squad staggered or fell from Pikachu's attack. White light blazed, Vines and Dugtrio sprang into existence, already attacking. Asphalt cracked as the street buckled, Dugtrio sending a shockwave through it. The enemy was thrown off their feet while sharp greenery curved around the Wheel Wall and into them.
"Pneumatic Bullets!" Jared shouted. Gale, soared above the street, rapidly swinging his wings at the enemy below, blasts of air flying down. Asphalt cracked in the wake of the blasts and people and pokémon were toppled.
The rest of the squad joined in and the last of the enemies died under a deluge of special attacks.
Pale faced, Jared turned to look at Ash and Leaf. Ash met his eyes, his own face calm. He glanced over at Leaf; her expression was resolute, but she was shaking; either from adrenaline or fear.
Jared closed his eyes and let out a deep breath. Ash noticed that he was also trembling. When Jared opened his eyes again, they were set in a glare.
"You can't be mad at us!" Ash protested, guessing why his commander was angry. "We didn't have time to run!"
"What?" Jared's glare fell from his face. "No, that's not- Sorry, you were fine. That was some quick thinking. It's- never mind."
"Thanks," Ash said, crouching down as Pikachu slowly came back.
Let me rest before we do something like that again, Pikachu groaned, climbing up Ash.
"Aren't you glad that I started you on endurance training as soon as we met?" Ash asked, smirking at Pikachu.
I hate you and I hate that you're right, Pikachu whined as he clambered onto Ash's shoulder.
"Everyone!" Jared called out to the squad. "Recall your pokémon! We're withdrawing and heading to Second and Jackson, it's too hot in this sector. Get moving!"
While the squad gathered, Jared began to fiddle with his headset and Ash heard him reporting the encounter. The squad regrouped around him and then they all began to head out.
"That was…." Leaf said, taking a deep breath as her shaking stopped. "That was…. something."
"You get used to it," Ash said, rubbing the back of his head.
"I don't know if that's comforting or not."
Gary had been bothered by his own smell after days of captivity, but it had been nothing compared to the stench of his hiding spot.
Somehow a family of trubbishes, green pokémon that looked like garbage bags with arms that looked like junk poking out, had established a nest in the Silph building; Gary guessed that they had hitched a ride on a shipment from Alola or Unova and then wormed their way into the walls. They had established themselves in the building's core superstructure, corroding their way into concrete and steel.
He was surprised that they hadn't been discovered; the warrens around their nest were absolutely rank. It was enough to make him gag. But Gary soldiered on through. The nest offered safety.
And he didn't want to offend his 'hosts', if such a thing were possible. The trubbish family seemed friendly and Gary could quite literally hold his nose for them; it was miles better than solitude or the company of Team Rocket.
"Thanks, but I can't eat that," Gary said as one young trubbish offered him a rotting apple core. He gently pushed the rotten fruit and pet the top of the pokémon's head, the tuffs on the top of its head lifting up as it leaned into his touch.
(Had Gary not been under so much stress, he would have made a mental note to wash his hands)
"Okay," Gary said when the young trubbish lost interest and wandered off. "We're going to need a plan and to do that we're going to need to gather intelligence. Are there spots where we can eavesdrop?"
Squirtle and Eevee turned to the biggest and what Gary guessed was the oldest trubbish. Noise was exchanged. The elder trubbish called out to another trubbish, one fussing over the young trubbish that Gary had been petting. More noise were traded back and forth and then the fussing trubbish came over and tugged on Gary's sleeve.
"Thanks," Gary said.
The trubbish led him and his pokémon through more tunnels, Gary crawling and wriggling through them, heart in his throat when anything creaked or the tunnel floor felt thin. Muffled footsteps and voices sounded from below, each noise making Gary tense.
They came to a dark, flat, open area, a space between the ceiling panels and the next floor. From there it went across a support beam. Gary cautiously probed the beam to make sure it could take his weight and then followed along.
Points of light, warm and dim, marked their destination, the trubbish pointing insistently at them. It was a spot where the ceiling was starting to crumble, a few tiny holes above a hallway. Gary peered down, taking care to hover and not touch the ceiling.
"League's up to Sixth street," what looked to be a Rocket executive said. He was bandaged and dirty, his arm in a sling and half his face covered in bandages. "But their advance has slowed. I thought they'd have run into the defenses we've got set up at Ninth."
"Any idea why?" a muscular woman with a buzz cut and two scars on the side of her face, wearing what looked like a fancy grunt uniform, asked.
"Initial assumptions were that their scouts had infiltrated the city up to Ninth and had warned them about what we had prepared, but we're getting reports that there's a mass evacuation in the parts of the city that the League controls, so it might just be they're getting the civies out of the way first."
"Awfully considerate of the fuckers."
"Gives us time to reinforce the line at Ninth at least." The man said, and then winced, gently touching his face with his free hand.
"How'd they get you?" The woman asked, leaning back against the wall.
"We were in close combat with two League squads," the man replied. "We were driving them back when some shitheads from a nearby apartment building decided to play hero. Hit our long-range pokémon with a Sing attack and then some League fire-types used the opening to hit us."
"Ouch," the woman winced.
"What about you? Why're you here?" The man asked.
"The high-leveled squad we've been hearing about smashed through our position. I'm down two pokémon and the only member of my unit who can still stand."
"I'm sorry."
"Don't be. Let's make the League sorry instead."
It was at that point Gary withdrew. He slowly crawled backwards until he was back in the tunnels corroded into the central superstructure, his pokémon and the trubbish following.
Only when he was engulfed by the trubbish stench again did Gary let out a sigh of relief. And then he promptly gagged at the stench.
Once that was under control Gary curled up into a ball.
"The League's here," he said, half to himself, half to his pokémon. "If we can reach them, then we'll be safe.
"I think," Gary went on. "I mean, they're evacuating people, but it sounds like they might be running into obstacles?
"What are they trying to do?" Gary asked.
Eevee chirped at him.
"Thanks, if I could understand that, I'm sure it'd be very helpful," Gary replied, rolling his eyes. Eevee giggled and Squirtle chuckled at that.
"I guess we should just try to get out of here and find them?" Gary said, mostly to himself. "They're somewhere near Ninth Street, if we can believe what those Rockets were saying.
"And this building is at…." Gary racked his brain. He had just memorized the address a few days previously, but that seemed like decades ago. Remembering the answer felt like a sock to the gut and he closed his eyes as the urge to cry returned.
"Sixteenth and Wobbuffet," Gary whimpered. "We'd have to cross… I don't know, a quarter of the city to get to them? I can't do that.
"Maybe we won't have to?" Gary said, perking up. "Maybe they'll come here?
"I mean, this is the Rocket headquarters… at least I think it is," Gary opened his eyes again, peering into the darkness of the warrens. "It sounded like it was.
"If it's not, then they might not come here, not for a while.
"I need to find out if it is. If it isn't, then we'll need to try and escape. If it is, then…. then, can we just wait?
"I really hope so. I don't- I don't want to have to…. I just don't want to do it.
"Trubbish, do you know of any other places we can listen in on Team Rocket?"
Onix thundered down another street, chasing after a group of Rockets who had been harassing SAR and irregular units. Brock and the other gym brats rode on Onix's back.
"Watch out!" Kayden shouted, pointing at the ground floors of a shopping complex. Brock caught glimpses of movement from behind the display windows.
"Let's get some armor on Onix!" Brock shouted. "Everyone off! Onix, protect us!"
"We've got the top half," Misty called out, vaulting off of Onix, Starmie's pokéball in her hand.
"Then we've got the bottom!" Amanda replied. "Jynx! Ice Amor, Onix!"
Starmie and Jynx materialized, blue-white light shining as they acted, and within two seconds, Onix was covered in segmented rings of hard ice, gently attached to the very surface of his rocky hide. None too soon either, for as Misty and Amanda dove under his coils, the Rocket trainers and their pokémon in the complex smashed through the windows, running onto the streets and launching attacks.
Water and grass attacks rained down on Onix who bellowed as he was battered. Ice creaked and cracked.
"My turn," Misty growled. "Brock, have Onix to give us a foot. Starmie, Staryu, Surf at their feet when Onix moves!"
"Onix, rise up a foot!"
Onix moved and then Misty's pokémon sent a short and fierce wave of water rushing down the street. Roiling water swept feet out from under trainers and their teams. The attacks against Onix let up as most of the attackers fell and the rest scrambled back to the safety of the shops.
"Scarbolt, Thunder Wave in the water!" Visquez ordered. Scarbolt stuck her forelimbs in the water and smiled maliciously. Rings of electric power flowed down her limbs and into the water. A crackling wave of electricity followed the path of the previous wave. Everyone who hadn't gotten out of the water locked up, paralyzed.
"Let's get the rest!" Amanda called out. "Freeze and Follow, Jynx!"
Jynx put her hands down in the water, faint purple light mixing with white-blue light as she focused. The water rose up, waves rushing into the shops on either side of the street, freezing into spikey walls of ice as they hit.
"Let's finish them off," Kayden shouted. "Muk, gas 'em!"
Muk began to ooze from ice sealed window to ice sealed window, finding a small opening in each and then pushing a piece of himself through. There were pounding noises on the other side of the ice after each visit, which slowed and then stopped soon after.
"Everyone who survived the ice is going to have a rather unpleasant nap," Kayden smirked. "Getting knocked out by muk gas tends to give one a rather severe headache."
"They'll wake up with a figurative headache of being in League custody too, or at least they will if we can hold this part of the city," Cindy said.
"Let's keep moving," Brock said. "Everyone back on Onix."
The group recalled their pokémon and jumped on the rock-type's back. Onix set out once again, shedding the icy armor as he moved.
"This has been going well," Visquez said, frowning. "Too well."
"I know what you mean," Misty said, sitting behind her. "I keep looking over my shoulder expecting to see Sabrina."
"They couldn't still have her under control," Amanda said, clenching her fists. "There's simply no way…"
"If they did, wouldn't they have deployed her by now?" Cindy asked, sitting just behind Brock.
"Not necessarily," Kayden said from the back. "They could be keeping her in reserve. They might be waiting to see the extent of our forces. Or just saving her while they prepare a nasty surprise."
"Or maybe…" Brock began and then sighed.
"Or maybe what?" Visquez asked, giving the back of Brock's head a sharp look.
"Maybe… maybe they disposed of her because they knew they couldn't control her long enough to keep using her," Brock went on, grimacing as he heard Amanda's sharp inhalation.
"No," Amanda gasped. "It can't- they couldn't- and the rest of the gym…."
"Would've been dealt with the same way," Visquez said, also grimacing. "I wouldn't put it past them."
"No…" Amanda's voice was barely a whisper. Cindy reached back and grabbed her hand and Visquez put a hand on her shoulder.
"We don't know anything," Brock said. "This is all conjecture."
"We won't know until after we've taken back the city," Kayden said. "Not for certain."
"And we're going to need to wait for reinforcements to do that," Amanda whispered. "Which means waiting an indeterminate amount of time, wondering if each counterattack will be led by a Sabrina who's will has been stripped from her."
"But if she's there, that means she'll be alive-" Kayden said.
"And if she's alive, we can try to rescue her," Cindy finished.
"It's no use worrying about it now," Brock said, tapping Onix to get him to turn a corner. "We've got a job to do."
"They'll kill me now for sure if they catch me," a shaking Gary said. Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he drew back from another peep-hole.
He had been eavesdropping on Team Rocket from various parts of the building for what had to have been close to an hour at that point, though his lack of timekeeping equipment made it hard to tell. During that time, he had overheard information about Team Rocket's fortifications, troop movements, supply depots, and more.
Gary would overhear a grunt reporting to one of their CO's in a hall, where they mentioned which depot they stopped at on the way back. Or he'd lurk above a squad that was gathering, listening as they discussed their orders. He made sure to repeat what he had learned over and over again, trying to memorize it.
And at his most recent peephole, he had heard something very important.
"Break's over," a Rocket executive had said to a group of people wearing coveralls with the Rocket emblems emblazoned upon them, Rocket technicians, Gary guessed. "We need you all up at the control device and broadcasting station on the fifty-seventh floor. The brass might be deploying Sabrina soon and they want to make sure nothing goes wrong."
It was then Gary had backed away, his heart hammering away at his ribs.
Gary could recall hearing about how Team Rocket had been moving tech to one of the other floors…. And they had said something about butterfrees in cages, Gary remembered.
Whatever was going on with Sabrina and the Saffron gym was connected to the Silph building. Gary clenched his fist as he tried to reign himself in. It wasn't just about confirming whether or not the building was the headquarters anymore, now he had to tell the League what he had learned.
Somehow…. With Team Rocket still probably monitoring communication… not that he had a communication device…
Was there nothing he could do? Gary asked himself, and felt a strange sort of relief at the question. He wouldn't have to risk being caught again. He could just hide with the trubbishes….
"This is probably a longshot, but do you know if there's a radio station or anything in this building?" Gary asked his trubbish guide.
The pokémon nodded.
"Fuck," Gary whispered, the trembling and the adrenaline resuming. There might be a way for him to tell the League about what he knew. He'd have to quit hiding.
"They'll kill me," Gary whispered to himself. "If they catch me again, they'll kill me."
And if they didn't kill him, they'd just stick him back in that room and his pokémon wouldn't be able to help again, Team Rocket would be prepared for that.
He wasn't Aaron, he wasn't used to dealing with psychos and thugs trying to kill him. Gary liked competing with the other boy, it wasn't all about that strange low anger he got when Leaf paid attention to Aaron instead of him, but he never thought he'd be in a position to compete with him over this.
But these were the creeps who had tried to kill Aaron twice, Gary remembered. They were the creeps who stole half the pokémon in the city, tearing them away from their humans. They had been abducting pokémon and ruining lives since before Gary had been born.
They were the creeps who thought they could lock Gary Oak up in a dark room and throw away the key. Raising one trembling hand, Gary clenched it into a fist.
He'd just have to be smart, Gary told himself. He'd need to be in and out of there quickly. No getting caught this time.
"Please Cresselia," Gary whispered. "Don't let me be caught."
AN: I'd like to thank Amationary for beta reading.
Hopefully the pacing in this arc is better. And hopefully I didn't overcorrect.
Don't forget to review! Concrit is welcome!