Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 50: BattleBlock Theater.
As Peter was about to face one of Darkness Gang's officers, he didn't realize that he was facing the same man that Red and others encountered when they first visited this facility. Just like back then, he was using some kind of slime that came from his body in order to stick to a wall. He moved upwards and forwards until he was on the ceiling almost directly above Peter. The Admin took a look around since it didn't seem like his opponent was in a hurry to start the battle. The inside of the dome was like a small biome, there were multiple trees and enormous mushrooms as well as some type of moss that covered almost every surface. There was even a small pond and big boulder with what looked like an entrance to a cave.
"So you're the clown I have to defeat first." Peter commented while looking up at the man.
"A clown? Don't you have better insults? I'm not someone you can take lightly. My name is…"
Before he finished his sentence, the man jumped off the ceiling and by grabbing onto one of the trees, he used his slime to slide down while spinning around it before landing on the mossy floor.
"...Krote!"
"As I said, a clown." Peter repeated himself.
"It's not actually my real name. It's just a codename that I got when I received my powers in an experiment."
The man was about to say something else but his voice cracked immediately after his mouth opened. He felt a sudden pain in his abdomen. He looked to the left and saw that the reason for that was an attack from Haunter who managed to sneak up to him by using intangibility to move below the floor before surfacing next to him.
"You just got sucker punched..." Krote heard Peter's voice and he could tell that his foe was much closer than before but it was too late.
Peter's fist reached Krote's face and struck him so hard that the man's head flew backwards and hit against the tree he used to descend.
"...Twice." added Peter.
Krote's eyes closed for a while and it looked like he would pass out but he opened them suddenly and one could easily tell how furious he was.
"I'm not going down like that again!" he announced before thrusting his tongue forward.
It was extremely long and at that distance Peter was barely able to avoid it, but that was part of Krote's plan. He wanted the Admin to focus on the tongue so that he could use his slimy hands to reach towards his face. Krote felt something grab his hands. His first instinct was to look at where Haunter attacked from before but the Pokemon was already gone. He looked back at Peter and saw the Admin already in his merged state, using Haunter's hands to stop the second attack, and one of his own hands to grab Krote's tongue. He reached for one of his knives and before his enemy could plead with him, he cut off a large portion of the tongue. It snapped back and flew towards Krote's mouth while losing some blood. He managed to escape Haunter's hold and before he could choke on the blood he did a maneuver that no other human could use to save themselves in a similar situation. He stretched the tongue a bit and tied it to stop the blood flow. That meant that his already distorted voice was even harder to understand but it was obvious to Peter that whatever Krote was yelling towards him wasn't very nice.
"Dark Pulse!" Peter announced the next attack.
As he saw the wave of purple energy approaching him, Krote jumped backwards and by putting his hands on the tree behind him, he managed to slide upwards and avoid the attack. At the same time he gave his order, Peter unmerged and jumped up. Krote wasn't able to escape far since, while being mid-air, Peter threw knives at both of his opponent's hands and nailed them to the tree. With only legs left to protect him, the Darkness Gang officer wasn't able to protect himself against the next attack.
"Shadow Ball!"
The sphere hit Krote in the head and knocked it back against the tree, making him pass out.
Peter put Haunter back in its pokeball and started heading outside when he heard some movement behind him. He instinctively jumped to the left and, after getting up, saw that he barely managed to dodge an attack from something that until that point was hiding in the point.
"This freak got his powers from an experiment involving a long-tongued Pokemon. I guess this is the Pokemon in question." Peter thought as he observed a green creature crawling out of the water "But if I managed to beat the human version then this one shouldn't give me much trouble."
"Go, Gengar!"
. . .
While Peter was fighting against Krote, Alex managed to find his way to the underground part of the base. He looked around before picking one of the four walkways that were still moving.
"I wonder if I picked right by getting on this one. Tarieli probably found this place which could mean that the one that's not in motion is like that because of something she did. Unless there are other ways to get down here. In that case it's possible that either Peter or Archer are responsible for this."
Soon after his path started splitting from the other ones, he noticed that it was leading him towards one of the domes. As he got closer, he saw something else. He hesitated for a second but he decided to take a risk and jump off the walkway before running towards Tarieli whom he saw not too far away. The girl was lying on the floor and it was unclear if she was unconscious or worse. That's why the Admin was worried that something like an electric floor may have been implemented, but he didn't feel anything after stepping on it so he quickly moved towards the girl. He checked her breathing and found out that at least she was alive. He grabbed one of her hands and turned it around to make sure that he saw correctly that she was clutching a pokeball. That meant that she wanted to protect herself against whatever knocked her out but wasn't able to react in time.
"Go, Jolteon!" he shouted as he threw a pokeball of his own.
The dog appeared in front of him and immediately jumped towards its trainer, used his shoulder to get itself even higher and attacked something that tried to get to Alex from behind.
"In hindsight, I should have used you to check if the floor was electrified." the Admin realized while standing up and turning around.
He saw Jolteon standing next to a drone it tore apart with its fangs. The Pokemon looked proud but its expression suddenly changed and its trainer quickly understood why. Several identical machines started appearing from openings in the ceiling.
"Pin Missile!" the trainer decided that instead of taking on these things directly it would be best to keep them at distance since he didn't know what method they used to knock out Tarieli.
. . .
Somewhere far away, beyond the borders of Kanto region, a lone man walked through a desert after leaving the helicopter he arrived in, and its pilot, a couple kilometers away from the place he was moving towards.
"They really like to make their bases in inconvenient places." Giovanni said to himself as he approached a rock formation that looked weirdly similar to a pile of tophats.
He found a place where a brown tarp covered an entrance to what looked like a cave but was actually an entrance to a facility as advanced as the other Darkness Gang bases. The main difference being that it didn't seem to have any precautions against intruders.
"Are they that confident?"
Even the large metal doors leading inside didn't require any identification and opened as soon as he approached them. Giovanni walked through a hallway, passing a couple rooms on the way but he imagined that the last room was the one he was searching for. He reached it quickly and the doors once again opened without him having to do anything.
Inside there was a single big chair which had its back turned to him. There was someone sitting in it but they didn't seem to notice him. He imagined the reason for that was a multitude of screens covering the walls of the room. Each of them was showing a live feed of what was happening inside the Darkness Gang base that Red and the others attacked. He saw Peter leaving the dome he was in after the Admin quickly defeated his second opponent, as well as Alex's struggle against the drones. It also looked like Green and Archer were about to run into each other.
"What is going on here?" Giovanni asked.
The person in the chair turned their head a little after hearing his voice before completely spinning around. It was only then that Team Rocket's boss could see that they were wearing a mask and an armor that made it impossible to tell this person's identity. The outfit was colored a mix of black and purple, had a lot of unnecessary spikes and even a red cape.
"You're finally here!" the person announced.
As far as Giovanni could tell the voice belonged to a male but it was at least slightly altered.
"You were waiting for me?"
"Of course. Think about it. How would your people find out about this base that none of the Darkness Gang beside me know about? And I made it so you could get inside without me needing to authorize your entrance since I didn't want to miss any part of the show. Although now that I think about it, I don't have a second chair. Do you mind standing? If not then we can get back to watching."
"Is this some kind of joke? Wait. Questions like that won't get me anywhere? Are you or are you not the boss of Darkness Gang? Why did you arrange it so the two of us could watch the battle in that base?"
"I guess you could call me a "boss" but that's kinda boring, don't you think? I mean it sounds like some kind of manager or even a shop owner. I'd rather be called an overlord or something like that. As for why I did this, it's the same reason for why I do anything… I was bored."
Giovanni stayed quiet but the other person could see how irritated he was.
"During my life I amassed a vast fortune and at some point I realized that fast cars, beautiful women, alcohol and drugs just weren't doing it for me. I'm still technically the CEO of a big company but I don't put any work into it anymore. Instead I thought it would be fun to create a criminal organization and use it to take over Kanto. Some crimes here, some experiments there. My hunger for amusement was satiated for some time. I heard about your M2 thing recently and I thought to myself that I'm missing out on something even more entertaining. I was about to make some moves when I learned about a couple of your people sneaking into that base. That's when I started preparing for this."
"So that's it? You wanted to see both organizations fight against each other and see who would come out on top?"
"Something like that. Also, before you try to attack me as I feel you're about to do, I should warn you that all of the bases, including the one we are in, are rigged to explode. So just sit down or stand or whatever, and watch this with me. Win or lose, as long as I'm satisfied, nothing will get blown up. Unless you think I'm bluffing and want to risk it?"
Giovanni unclenched his fist and said "I'll stand."
. . .
Archer perfectly retraced his steps to get back to the place where split up with the rest of the group but halfway there he ran into Green.
"Oh, Green. Unfortunately that place is a dead end." he said, but he noticed that the boy didn't intend to turn around.
"I'll better check it in case you missed anything. If you go back, you could try going the same way as Peter since…"
He couldn't finish because Archer grabbed him by the arm.
"If I said it's a dead end then it's a dead end." Archer said in a more assertive voice.
"Okay, okay. You can let go of my hand." the boy said in a joking tone which the other man noted as unusual.
They stood there for a while, looking each other in the eyes.
"You don't trust me? Is that it?" Green inquired.
"I could ask you the same." stated Archer.
"Do you want to turn this into a thing? Right here, in the middle of the enemy base?"
"No… I… I just don't want you to see what happened back there." Archer explained while struggling with the words.
"I'm not going to fight you but if you don't want me to see then at least tell me if it's possible."
Archer was worried about how Green's opinion of him would change if he learned about what he did to the scientist so he didn't want to tell him the entire truth. He hoped that half of it would be enough to convince the boy not to go that way.
"That place is a dead end in the sense that there's no one there that's alive."
"So you're saying that there's someone who's… dead?"
"The experiments Red talked about… The place looks completely abandoned, all the documents are gone and the Pokemon… I tried to check but it looks like all of them are…"
Archer felt that Green began to tremble and seeing his face made him gently let go of the boy's hand.
"Was… Was one of the Pokemon a Mankey?"
"The bodies were so disfigured that it was impossible to tell what they were before they died."
Archer began to worry about how far he could go with his lies since he didn't actually see any of the dead creatures. Green walked past him and used one hand to lean on a wall while lowering his head. The boy's breathing got heavy and Archer became worried that he would become so overwhelmed that he would become useless for the rest of the mission. Green wasn't able to do what he wanted to so he used the fingers on his other hand to give him some assistance and soon vomited on the floor, making Archer cringe in disgust.
"This place can't be completely abandoned. There has to be someone who's still here. Otherwise there wouldn't be those people that we fought outside." Green stated after wiping his mouth.
"So what you're trying to say…"
"We'll go back and follow the path Peter took. We'll find whoever we can… and then you'll have to hold me back from killing them." Green answered before turning around.
Archer swallowed some saliva, worried about how serious the boy was about what he said. The two of them started running towards the entrance.
. . .
"Is it just me or are there more of them than there were at the beginning?" Alex asked as he watched Jolteon dispatch another group of drones.
Several of them were lying on the floor but new ones kept popping up. He went as far as having Ditto transform into another Jolteon so that he could double the number of Pin Missiles, but it still wasn't enough.
"Won't I look like a fool if it turns out that there's a machine that keeps producing them, hidden somewhere in the ceiling?"
As he looked back to make sure that Tarieli was still passed out, and also that he wasn't about to be attacked from that side, he noticed something moving in the distance.
"Is that…? Hey, Peter! Over here!"
They were far from each other but Alex could tell that the other Admin glanced at him before ignoring him completely as he continued onward.
"That asshole!"
He heard one of the Jolteons bark at him and as he turned his gaze back towards them he saw a drone that slipped past the Pokemon and was about to fly into him and electrocute him with something similar to a prod. He reacted by lifting his left leg above his head and bringing it down onto the drone, causing the machine to break as he slammed it into the ground. Moments later, a stream of fire suddenly rushed past him and he jumped back before looking at where it came from, ready to deal with another foe.
"Red?!"
The boy was standing there looking kind of embarrassed while his Charmeleon looked at him worried if it did something wrong.
"Sorry. I was hoping to save you and make a dramatic entrance but you defeated that thing on your own."
"I'm also here." Nets said while popping up from behind his friend's back.
There wasn't too much time for niceties since the droids seemed intent on treating these new arrivals the same way they did Alex.
"Flamethrower!" Red ordered.
Charmeleon used the move as it turned around, destroying every drone around them. Right as it did that, more started appearing from the ceiling.
"It's no use. There's no end to them." Alex explained.
"This one isn't too damaged." Nets stated while grabbing the drone that Alex knocked down.
The three Pokemon continued to destroy the machines but a couple seconds later all of the enemies suddenly fell to the floor and there was none coming from above anymore.
"Whaaa…" Alex and Red were left speechless.
"They're linked to each other. I just used this one to disable the rest of them." Nets explained.
"That's like… way too convenient." the Admin said in a dry voice "But I'm not about to start complaining. Jolteon, Ditto, rest up."
After putting the Pokemon back in their balls, Alex looked around but he didn't see anyone besides the two boys.
"Where's the rest of you?"
"Don't worry. Everyone in our group got to this underground place but we decided to split up. Roger's Weezing has fainted and we can't risk Otari getting hurt since otherwise we'll lose access to his items. That's why the two of them stayed behind near the elevator. After that, Nets and I went one way while Angie and Mary went another." explained Red.
"As for me, I just saw Peter going to one of these domes. I'm not sure about Green and Archer since the two of them went in another direction inside the main base and Tarieli… Well, you can see."
"Hmm. So Faust and the other officers are probably inside the domes. Doesn't this seem too… structured, I guess?"
"Like they wanted to split us up and have one on one fights against them? Yeah. Definitely."
"I want to check out one of those places but we can't just leave Tarieli here. Nets?"
The red-headed boy started waving his arms in protest.
"There's no way I could carry her. I'm just not strong enough."
"I'll do it." Alex said, surprising the other two.
"Are you sure?" Red asked.
"Yeah. I'm a little tired from dealing with these drones. I'll take her to the entrance and rest up a little and then pick one one the remaining domes. Just show me which way you came from."
"Over there." Red said while pointing behind himself.
Alex carefully lifted Tarieli and slowly walked away.
"Good luck."
The two boys looked at him for a while, contemplating if he was being truthful or if he was actually worried about the girl in his arms, when Nets suddenly came to a realization.
"Um, Red. Do you remember which walkway we picked at the beginning?"
"Aaah… No? Wait a second. That one over there isn't moving so it's not that one but… we don't know which dome Angie or Peter went to. I guess we'll have to pick at random."
"No, no, no. I feel like if I let you choose you'll only get us into trouble."
"Then you pick."
Nets looked around nervously before pointing at a dome that was far from them.
"Maybe that one?"
"Alright! Then let's go!"
"Wait, wait! I changed my mind!" the scientist protested but his friend already started moving towards their destination.
. . .
Angie and Mary carefully entered one of the domes, with and Sandslash ready to protect them against any surprise attack, but what they saw inside wasn't what they expected. The inside of the dome was bigger, extending even further below ground. They found themselves atop a balcony that circled the room while below them they could see someone in the middle of the dome. There were six massive chains spread between the person's limbs and the walls, seemingly keeping them in place.
"Should we even do anything? I thought we came here to fight but they're… already defeated?" said Mary.
Angie was equally confused so she decided to better survey her surroundings. She started walking around the balcony, looking up and down but she couldn't find anything. She was almost back to the entrance when she heard a male voice coming from below.
"Huh? Is someone there?"
Up until that point, the person couldn't see them because their head was lowered and their hair was quite long and messy, obscuring their view.
"Should we respond?" Mary asked.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Angie addressed the man.
"Is it feeding time already? Or… did you want to play more?" instead of answering, he asked his own questions.
"He doesn't seem to get who we are." Angie thought.
"We're not here to feed or play with you. Who are you? Why are you chained to the walls? Answer us or we'll leave."
"No, no. Don't leave. Stay. Play with me."
"Only if you answer our questi…"
"Play with meeeee!" the man's voice bounced off the walls, making it so loud that Mary had to cover her ears.
Angie continued moving towards the entrance and the man reacted immediately. The chains snapped because of his sheer strength, leaving most of them still attached to his limbs. He was quite tall and bulky, had grayish skin, four arms, and what looked like a tail. He swung one of his arms, using the chain connected to it like a whip. Sandslash had to jump in front of Angie in order to deflect the attack, but the man quickly moved his attention towards Mary, repeating the movement. Instead of hitting her, the chain wrapped around her leg and the man pulled it before she could break free. Mary hid her head in her arms but she couldn't protect the rest of her body from the fall and she felt the bones in right leg shattering. Her cry was even louder than her aggressor's.
"Oh no. Oh no no no. I did it again. Bad Kette. Bad" the man said to himself as tears started to form in his eyes.
He didn't have a lot of time to beat himself up about what he did since a moment later he was hit in the stomach by Sandslash who used Rollout to turn himself into a spiky ball.
In the meantime, Angie and used invisible stairs created by the latter to get down and free Mary from the chain.
"Can you get her out of here?" the Admin asked the Pokemon "We will protect your escape and try to follow since I have a feeling that I won't be able to defeat him by myself."
looked worried, but after hearing Mary's distorted breathing, he carefully picked her up and used the stairs to get back to the balcony before making them disappear.
"No! I'm sorry! I won't hurt you but… Don't leave!"
This time the man swung two of his arms so that he could block the Pokemon from running in either direction.
"Slash!"
Sandslash jumped in front of and used his claws to cut both chains, making them fall down to the bottom of the room.
"You can't do that!" Kette shouted at Angie before using a third arm to throw a chain at her. The girl did a cartwheel in order to avoid the attack and immediately after took out a pair of goggles and put them on. Seeing that managed to leave the dome, she was free to give the next command to her Pokemon.
"Sandstorm!"
Sandslash jumped off the balcony and spun around, creating a whirlwind of sand that soon enveloped the entire room. Kette reacted to this by swinging the chains at random. Angie noticed that when one of them struck the floor near where she was standing.
"Use Slash to cut them off as close to him as possible!"
The Pokemon's speed was boosted by its ability, Sand Rush, so it was able to swiftly dodge the unpredictable attacks while shortening the chains. The opponent seemed to realize what was happening since at some point he started using the ones attached to his legs. When Sandslash ran up close in order to cut them off, it was met with a surprise attack as Kette spun around and hit it with his tail. The Pokemon got thrown against a wall but it wasn't too badly damaged.
"I wonder if I should send in someone else to help it out. But then we would need to get rid of this sandstorm and I would be putting myself at risk." Angie analysed the situation "Sandslash will have to hang in there. If it gets knocked out, I'll send in the other two."
. . .
"I had to run into you, huh?" Peter said after he saw the person waiting in the second dome he visited.
This place was mostly empty with only a few big, metal cubes laying here and there but there was an ominous air that made the Admin convinced that there were traps waiting for him if he advanced carelessly. On the other side of the dome, looking at him was none other than Faust. It seemed like he was using some charging station to power his robotic body.
"You sound disappointed." said the cyborg.
"Well, I was looking for a challenge but, since you were defeated by someone like Red, I don't expect you to give me one."
"So you know Red, huh? But I've gotta ask… who are you?"
"What?"
"It's a simple question. I was sitting here, waiting, hoping that Red would be part of your mission, that he would reach the underground and that he would pick the path that would get him to me so that I could get my revenge. As for all you Team Rocket people, I don't care for you so I didn't bother to remember everyone. I know there's these two girls but you… You're a nobody."
"I know you're just trying to get me riled up but…"
"Are you still here? Leave. I don't want to hear whatever you have to say."
"Go, Dodrio!"
It may have looked like Peter fell into Faust's trap but his plan was actually to stand back and see if his Pokemon would trigger any of the potential traps the man was worried about. When Dodrio was passing some of the metal cubes, Faust used his regular hand to click some buttons on the other one, and the cubes started to move. A bunch of them blocked the bird's way so it quickly changed direction but another cube was waiting there for him. Dodrio slammed against it but it didn't get discouraged from trying to reach Faust.
"Since he has to control them by hand, it'll get harder with each opponent he has to focus on." Peter realized "Go, Haunter and Gengar!"
Peter was considering a four way attack but he surmised that in that case he would be the one to be targeted. To decrease the chances of him getting hurt he decided to merge with Haunter and take the left side of the room while Dodrio would take care of the right and Gengar would try an aerial attack. As they moved through the room, more of the cubes started to move. Peter was about to jump over one of them when suddenly it opened, revealing a Clefable hidden inside. It looked like the Pokemon was about to attack him so his first instinct was to counter with Haunter's Shadow Punch. Clefable got hit by the attack and fell over but it wasn't defeated so Peter wanted to follow up with another Shadow Punch but, even though he willed it, nothing happened.
"An ability?" Peter questioned what transpired but he didn't have a lot of time to ponder it since Clefable went on the offensive.
The Admin unmerged from the Pokemon and gave an order "Haunter, Gengar! Switch roles!"
The first Pokemon was a little confused but it still listened and started moving towards Faust, while the second one disappeared making it so its trainer had to try and avoid the incoming Meteor Mash. When it was clear that he wouldn't be able to escape, he put two of his knives forward so that they would absorb some of the force of the attack, possibly allowing him not to get his face completely pulverized. The knives easily broke but they gave enough time for Gengar to reappear behind Clefable and use Phantom Force. Peter wasn't sure if that was enough to defeat their opponent so he decided it would be good to push it away in case it still wanted to fight. He did so by kicking it like a football while it was still dealing in pain from Gengar's move.
"Nice shot." the Admin heard from behind and he tried to turn as quickly as he could although at the moment it felt like it was taking him an eternity.
He knew who the voice belonged to so he jumped back before even seeing the face, but Faust was faster and reached towards him with his pincer arm, grabbing Peter by the leg. The Admin risked looking in the other direction so that he could at least understand how his enemy reached him before he would die at his hand.
The cubes stacked on top of each other, creating two walls that must have obscured the Pokemons' view and made it hard to attack while Faust moved through it and circled around in order to flank the Admin.
"Any last words?" Faust asked while slowly increasing the strength of his grip.
"Stall."
"What?" Faust asked while loosening the pincer a little.
"Stall."
"What does that mean?"
"It means stall."
"Why are you saying stall?"
"Because I'm stalling for time."
"Iron Tail!"
Faust instinctively let go of Peter, hoping that he could drive himself forward and avoid the attack but at that moment a stream of fire flew right next to his face, literally stopping him in his tracks and making it possible for the attack to strike him in the side of his torso.
"That was a clever way to keep his attention." Red said to Peter while stretching his hand out toward him.
The Admin didn't want to accept at first but the damage done to his leg was bad enough for him not to be able to get up on his own so he had to accept the help from the boy.
Faust was quick to regain his composure. He looked around and saw Red's Charmeleon perched atop a pyramid of cubes and Raichu who backed away so that it would be right next to the entrance where he was accompanied by Nets.
"This is what I've been waiting for. I hope you're not thinking of running away this time." Faust said to Red.
"After seeing Darkness Gang's experiments the last time I was here, I did various things to distract myself, to hide how angry it made me. Even when I was having fun with my friends, each day I thought about how much I wanted to hit the person responsible for all of this. With how things went so far I don't think your boss is anywhere in this base. I also haven't seen any of the so-called scientists. Since you're basically like a second-in-command, I chose you to be the one to receive the full brunt of my anger." the boy explained.
"Then what are you waiting for?!" Faust yelled so loudly that it almost felt like the room shook "Let's get this party started!"
The cyborg input some commands into his arm and immediately after started rolling towards Red and Peter. Charmeleon felt that the cubes it was sitting on started to move. It jumped off them but then another cube flew across the room and smashed into it.
Red separated himself from Peter, hoping that Faust would follow him instead of the Admin who would have trouble running away in that state. He was right about that since Faust changed directions even though he was within striking distance of Peter. But the Admin wasn't about to sit out this fight just because of some cracked bones.
"Drill Peck!"
The walls of cubes created earlier got disassembled after Faust messed around with this hand so Dodrio had a clear view of the enemy. Haunter decided to follow it while awaiting an order. Seeing the approaching Pokemon, Faust stopped, although not without looking at the floor around him. Right as the attack was about to reach him, a tower of cubes appeared between the two of them and stopped it.
"Wait. What was that?" Nets said to himself.
Raichu had a confused expression as it watched the boy crouch down and pull out a small object that inflated itself and turned into what looked like a laptop.
"It looks like I'm safe over here so you should go and help your trainer." the boy said to the Pokemon who nodded and ran off towards the part of the dome where the battle was taking place.
Red noticed that Faust's movements were suspiciously careful and wondered if using Smokescreen would help them take control of the pace of the fight, but since they didn't understand the movements of the cubes he would risk one of them getting hit by them.
"Metal Claw!"
After hearing Red's voice, Faust looked at Charmeleon and started moving to a different position while perfectly avoiding the cubes moving around him.
"Thunderbolt!"
"Agility and Drill Peck!"
The trainers hoped that their opponent was distracted enough for the other Pokemon to attack him from different directions. Even though Dodrio reached him, he used his pincer to grab all of the beaks at once. He lifted the bird off the ground and started smacking him into the cubes that were flying by. He pointed his other hand at where the electric attack was coming from and, once it reached him, the energy got sucked inside a hole that opened in his palm. While his treads stayed static, the upper part of his body spun around so that he could throw Dodrio at Raichu. The bird got knocked out but the mouse could still continue the battle. Peter tried to put his Pokemon back in its ball but he was suddenly tackled by Red. He saw that the boy saved him from a flying train of cubes that was about to ram into him.
"How do we even fight in this kind of environment?" Admin asked angrily while pulling Dodrio inside the pokeball.
"We already have someone working on it." Red said while once again helping Peter stand up.
The latter looked at Nets who was passionately doing something on his laptop. One one hand, the boy still didn't do anything to prove that Peter's opinion about him was wrong so it was hard to put any faith in him at that moment, but on the other hand, he didn't have another plan and what he was doing up until that point didn't work out.
"We'll see." he stated before summoning his remaining Pokemon to his side.
His usual style of battle heavily relied on him getting merged with Haunter and running into the fray while showering the opponent with knives but with his leg in its current state he would only slow down his Pokemon. But if he tried to stand back, it would be easy for him to get hit by one of the cubes, so he decided the best course of action would be to proceed forward while being shielded by his ghosts. When one of the cubes was about to knock him off his feet, Gengar grabbed it with one hand and knocked it back with a Drain Punch.
Seeing that Peter came up with something, Red met up with Charmeleon and the two of them started moving around the room so that they could attack from another direction, while also drawing attention away from Raichu who also was on the move.
"Let's test how durable these things are. Metal Claw!"
When a bunch of cubes got in their way, Charmeleon turned its claws into steel and jumped forward. The cubes were hard enough to do some damage while hitting someone but they couldn't withstand this kind of attack. Once split into two, a cube would fall onto the floor and stop moving.
Seeing that Faust was concerned about Red's discovery, Peter took the chance in order to throw a set of three knives in the foe's direction. Two of them got stopped by a cube but the third one got past it and hit Faust straight into his mechanical eye which caused it to explode and electrify him a little. He was stunned but it lasted only a couple seconds during which no one was able to get another attack in. Once he shook off the shock, he seemed to be too angry to notice the blood slowly dripping from inside his head.
"Wouldn't that mess with his brain? Just thinking about that is making me nauseous." Red said while waiting for Charmeleon to cut them a path to the enemy.
While Haunter stayed beside his trainer, Gengar rushed forward, punching aside the cubes to make the next throw easier. Peter lifted his hand, holding another set of knives, but that was something Faust hoped for. The cyborg reached forward with his hand and the Thunderbolt stored inside it was released. With his leg in its current state, Peter wouldn't be able to escape. He let go of the knives, realizing that they would attract the electricity, but it was too late. He felt a shock that started at his hand but proceeded to move to the rest of his body. He fell backwards and Haunter swooped in from a cube that would hit him. As he lay on the floor, he gritted his teeth, trying to withstand the pain. It seemed like he wouldn't be able to use that hand for some time but he didn't want to give up as long as he was able to stay conscious. The worst thing was that compared to him, Faust seemed to be completely fine despite his injury.
Charmeleon got through the last cube it needed to destroy but Faust noticed that the Pokemon was getting closer and drove around a bunch of other cubes in order to launch a surprise attack from another direction. Seeing how the previous attack was used against them, Red hesitated to give his Pokemon an order but the lizard itself decided to use Flamethrower since it was worried about the enemy getting too close. The fire was sucked up into Faust's hand and the pincer fell down on him like a hammer.
"Quick Attack!"
Even though Red suspected that Faust wasn't able to store more than one move, his instincts were to stick to physical moves for some time, so he had Raichu run towards the opponent while jumping from cube to cube.
"Iron Tail!"
Because of the direction it was running from, Faust wasn't able to reuse Flamethrower so he had to block the attack with the pincer, giving Charmeleon a chance to escape.
Peter, who managed to get up with the help of his Pokemon, used his working hand to throw more knives but he was so exhausted that his aim was off and he barely missed Faust's face. The cyborg spun around and waited a second for three cubes to pass before aiming his hand at the Admin. Before Flamethrower could be shot out, a sticky substance appeared to block the hole in Faust's hand. He frantically looked around before realizing that the attack came from above. Everyone looked up to see Nets flying across the room thanks to his shoes.
"I figured it out!" he shouted with a big smile on his face.
Even from some distance, Red could see the sweat running down the boy's face. He must have struggled to be able to help them out in the way only he could.
"What the hell is he talking about?" Peter wondered.
Nets landed in a place where he was sure he wouldn't get hit by any of the cubes.
"I found the pattern! I know how each of the cubes is going to move!"
Faust waited for the boy's next move in order to see if he was bluffing or telling the truth. As Nets was about to fall down to the floor, he angled himself in a specific way and a moment later bounced off a cube that wasn't there before. His eyes darted around before as he flew between the maze of moving cubes. He bounced once again, used his gun to glue two cubes together and stop them in place so that they wouldn't block his path. The way he jumped around, it was hard for Faust to follow his movements. Although the man knew the pattern himself, without his robotic eye he not only lost half his vision, but also the ability to remember things that were outside of his vision. He was used to moving in ways that wouldn't leave him open to a cube hitting him from the back, but now if one of them would come at him from his blind side, it would be harder to remember if he needed to avoid it or not. Nets' mind was built differently. Even though he knew the movements, he wanted to experience them first hand so that his mind and body could work together and make it so he could make instantaneous decisions even without using any senses.
"How about this?"
When Nets suddenly disappeared, Faust realized where his attack would come from, but a moment of confusion was all that the boy needed to throw a spiky ball that embedded itself in the enemy's neck and released a jolt of electricity. Faust was able to mostly shake it off but seeing Nets that close to him was a clue about how to catch him, even with how fast he moved. What he needed was variation. Although his mind worked fast, it still took Nets a couple minutes to learn how this room worked. If one cube was suddenly out of place, the boy would probably need a second to enter that into his memory bank, so the more cubes Faust would be able to displace, the more time he would buy for himself.
"Don't forget about us!" he heard Red's scream from an awfully close distance.
The boy and his Charmeleon were already close to him and he would be unable to block the Metal Claw coming towards his face. He had to execute his plan instantly. His hand was already pointed at the floor so all he had to do was to fire Flamethrower despite the glue blocking the hole.
The fire burned down the glue but it took relatively long and Fausts' arm wasn't able to withstand the pressure and exploded. Flamethrower shot out in all directions. Charmeleon used its body to protect Red from the attack, while many of the cubes were pushed from their paths by the fire, hot air or scraps of metal. Peter foresaw something like that happening so he kept his distance. Unfortunately, Nets was still fairly close and a piece of metal pierced his leg and got stuck inside. The scientist fell down, unable to dodge a cube, that was pushed away from the explosion, he got hit by it and thrown into another one before finally landing on the floor.
"He didn't win us the fight but it's thanks to him that he's now like that." Peter thought as he observed Nets and Faust.
The latter was now left without one of his two weapons, with burns all over that side of the body, and with some pieces of metal stuck inside him. Even though he was definitely more hurt than Nets, Faust almost didn't show it.
"He either went insane or…" Peter pondered as he looked towards the place Faust charged himself in before the battle "...or he used something that would prevent himself from feeling pain for some time. That would mean that anything short of killing him wouldn't stop him."
"Chance! Chance! Chance!" Faust screamed suddenly.
He turned his treads into high gear and started quickly rolling forward while using the pincer to knock away the already displaced cubes that were either stuck in place or trying to return to their paths. Everyone quickly realized that he was riding straight at Nets.
"Charmeleon! Raichu!"
"Gengar! Haunter!"
Red and Peter called their Pokemon's names before simultaneously shouting "Go!"
"Too late!"
Nets used one hand to shoot with his glue gun and the other to throw the electric, spiky balls, but Faust didn't even slow down. Instead of grabbing the boy, like he did with Peter, the cyborg thrust the pincer forward. He struck Nets in the abdomen, immediately causing the boy to throw up, but his attack didn't end at that. He put more force behind it, causing it to break through the skin and then the insides, finally coming out on the other side and hitting the floor. He barely started to pull it out when he felt something on his cheek. He turned his head to the side and saw that Charmeleon reached him and used Metal Claw to slash half of his face, leaving bloody marks. Raichu appeared in front of him and spun around while using Iron Tail to hit him in the head and knock him away from Nets.
"Scyther!" Nets summoned another Pokemon while running towards his friend "Go outside and find Otari! Hurry!"
The bug Pokemon didn't even look around. It heard the urgency in its trainer voice and rushed out of the room after boosting its speed with Agility.
"It's useless." stated Peter.
While his Pokemon joined the attack on Faust, the Admin reached the boy and saw that whatever they would try to do it would be too late. He wasn't sure how he felt about this situation but he noticed something on his cheek. He touched it and realized that there were tears coming from his eyes.
"I have one last thing I could do for the two of you." he said "Haunter! Merge with him!"
The ghost stopped its attack and flew to the two of them. Moments later they were joined by Red.
"What is this going to do?" he asked Peter.
"It won't save him but… I think it'll keep him alive a little longer…"
Haunter entered Nets body and the eyes that were left by light suddenly became surrounded by the same lines as Peter's when using this form.
"Red?" Although his lips moved normally, Nets' voice was very soft "What is going on? Did we win?"
"We…" Red bit his tongue before he would say something bad.
As hard as it was to him, he had to understand that these would be the last words Nets would hear before his death, so he wanted to send him off with something good, even if it was a lie.
"Yes. We won. It was all thanks to you."
"I'm… sorry I doubted you…" said a third voice "...I should have trusted in you…"
Since Red's eyes were full of tears, it was hard to see if Peter was actually saying that or if it was something he imagined hearing.
"That's great. There are more enemies, aren't there?" Nets asked.
Although he turned his head, Red and Peter positioned themselves in such a way that he wouldn't be able to see that the battle was still going on.
"Don't worry about them. You did your job... We'll take care of the rest!"
"Okay. Go get them… I don't know why but… This isn't what I set out to do as a scientist… but I feel like I would want my parents to see me right no…"
His eyes closed. Haunter left his body by sinking beneath the floor and coming up in another place. Red's body trembled as he reached his fingers towards his friend's face. He stopped himself. He slowly stood up and looked around, making sure that this place was far enough for any cubes not to come there.
Red and Peter stood side by side. The former wiped the tears from his face while the latter tore his cape in order to tie a part of it around his leg, so that he wouldn't lose too much blood even if he overexerted himself.
Faust spun around while holding his pincer out to the side in order to hook his opponents on to it and throw them away. Gengar stopped in the air while Raichu and Charmeleon were thrown towards their trainer. The electric Pokemon got knocked out after being thrown around too much so Red put it back in the pokeball.
"You going to use someone else?" Peter asked.
"No. I have enough firepower with me." Red answered.
Charmeleon got up from the floor and swung its arms around before angrily releasing a Flamethrower straight above. As it did so, its body started to glow. The flames and the Pokemon grew in size. Wings sprouted from its back and the horn on its head split into two. The fire bounced off the ceiling and fell down on the Pokemon before dispersing moments later, revealing a fully evolved Charizard.
"I'll need to do something to keep up." Peter surmised "Haunter! Gengar! I'll merge with both of you!"
Since combining with Haunter was usually enough to earn him a victory, Peter never tried to do the same with Gengar, let alone with both of them at the same time. The ghosts didn't hesitate a bit and flew inside Peter. The lines around his eyes grew, turning into patterns that made them look similar to a rorschach test. His skin took on a slightly purple hue and his hair became so spiky that he decided to take off his cape by throwing it away.
Faust, who finally began to feel some of the pain from the damage accumulated through the battle, looked at them with madness in his eyes.
"I guess it's two on one." said Red.
"This place will be your f #$%^g grave." added Peter.
So here it is. The big 50. This time you didn't have to wait half a year. It still took longer than it should, mostly because I forced myself to not end the chapter until Charizard evolved. I thought that evolving it on the fiftieth chapter would be a cool thing to do but in the end it wasn't even the biggest event in this chapter. But at least it's longer because of that decision.
I wondered about what to do with Nets for some time. At one point I even considered making him like a spy that reported directly to Giovanni or something but there was always a need for him to leave the story before everything with Team Rocket would wrap up and since this arc is about a battle against people who have no problem with killing there had to be at least one significant death. Even though Nets didn't do much before, his role being just Red's smart friend, since the beginning of this arc I've introduced the narrative of him wanting to prove himself so the fact that Peter showed care about him in the end works for both of these characters, since before now Peter not only didn't care about others but outright distrusted everybody.
I wanted to show Giovanni's and Otari's reactions to Nets' death but it would be weird to stick them at the end so I'll probably write them into the next chapter.
Another thing I wanted to do is to have the cubes be more besides simple obstacles. One of them had Clefable and I thought about putting other Pokemon inside or maybe having cubes that shoot fire, cubes that shock you etc. but the fight was already a big mess. Like, I feel like this was the longest fight against a single opponent(not counting the slight interference flom Clefable) and it's still not over. I hope the end comes out good. Even then, there still will be the chain guy and two others left.
As for naming schemes, I wanted to title the chapter after another game, something that would bring to mind Charmeleon's evolution but instead I had it be related to the entire battle that took half the chapter rather than to the evolution that took was a couple sentences.
And I'm not sure if it was mentioned before but for the Darkness Gang members, I basically gave them names that are german words describing their characteristics so the chain guy is called Kette because from what various sources tell me that's the german word for chain.
If you want to get the full Nets experience, a trip down the memory lane, he appears in chapters 29, 32, 40-41, 43-49, although he's also mentioned by Red in other chapters.
I literally killed a characters that I created over two years ago. I feel kinda horrible.
Red. Team: Eevee, Gyarados, Pidgeot, Raichu, Charizard, ?.
At hand but not officially his: Scyther.
At Team Rocket Base: ?.
Badges: 4
Green. Team: Venusaur, Jigglypuff, Nidorina, Hitmonlee, Vulpix, Seadra.
At Team Rocket Base: Jynx.
Badges: 3
Blue. Team: Weepinbell(Bell), Blastoise(Tori), Golbat(Ken), Graveler(Grimm), Ponyta(Dasher), Electabuzz(Buzz).
Badges: 3
Alex. Team: Ditto, Vaporeon, Jolteon, Flareon.
Angie. Team: Dragonair, Sandslash, Seaking.
Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, Gengar.
Blaine. Team: Magmar, ?, ?.
