It's time to reveal the dark secret of the Game Corner!

Disclaimer: I do not own any Pokémon characters! I only own my OCs!

Chapter 20: Invading Team Rocket's Hideout

After the victory in Celadon City's Gym, my brother, friends, and I stayed in the city for a few more days to restock on supplies and look around a little more. I took the opportunity to visit a bookstore to buy a new book about dragon-type Pokémon and Pokémon that were in the dragon breeding group. It had been written by Champion Lance himself, so I wanted to learn all little secrets of becoming a dragon tamer.

If I ever stumbled upon Lance, I was going to ask him to sign the book…if I would have the courage to do so while facing my biggest idol.

And what about the blue ribbons I bought? I tied one each on my Pokémon to show they were my partners. They got very surprised by the ribbons at first, but they soon got over it when I told them the reason why they were going to wear them from now on.

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Brock wanted to visit his idol's salon before leaving the city, so we followed him to the street where Suzie's salon was located. The street was called Scissor Street and there were so many different salons and makeup shops everywhere.

"Wow, look at all those beauty salons!" Misty gushed joyfully. "I should've come here sooner for a makeover."

"I think you look good just the way you are, Misty", I told her as I stared at the people and Pokémon with weird and unnatural appearance. "I really don't like…makeup."

"Yeah, there's no need for a makeover", Ash said. "You're looking good as a girl, Misty."

"Was that meant as a compliment or an insult, Ash?" Misty asked with a twitching eyebrow.

"Compliment!" Ash responded quickly before he could get a beat-up.

I looked up ahead and saw two police cars parked outside of a salon. Brock gasped in horror at the sight. "That's Suzie's salon! Something's happened to her!" he exclaimed in shock.

"What?!" the rest of us exclaimed.

Brock ran to the salon and forced himself through the off-limits tape. We hurried after him before entering the salon. I looked to my right and saw the windows had been shattered, so someone had vandalized the place.

Once I was inside, I spotted a young woman with dark teal-green hair sitting on a chair crying onto her hands while she was being interviewed by a male officer. That woman must be Suzie.

"Suzie!" Brock called as he ran to the woman and got down on one knee in front of her. "What happened?! Are you okay?! Did someone hurt you?!"

"B-Brock…", Suzie looked up with her wet and sad face. "V-V-Vulpix was stolen…by Team Rocket…!"

"Team Rocket?!" we all exclaimed in shock.

"Are you Trainers acquainted with Suzie?" one of the male officers asked.

"Yes!" Brock nodded before he gently grabbed Suzie's hands. "Did you see what the grunts looked like?"

"All I saw was their black uniforms and black caps…", Suzie hiccupped.

"That doesn't sound like Jessie and James", Misty commented.

"That means other grunts could be here in the city!" Ash added.

"First they tried occupying Lavender Town and now they're after Celadon City…?" I mumbled out loud.

"Excuse me, Trainers!" Officer Jenny walked to us. "Are you familiar with the case of Team Rocket occupying the Pokémon Tower?"

"Yes, Officer Jenny!" Ash nodded. "In fact, we were the ones who defeated them!"

"Oh… So you must be Ash, Misty, and Brock!" Officer Jenny said in realization.

"You've heard of us?" Misty asked.

"Why yes! I heard the details from my eldest sister in Lavender Town!" Officer Jenny answered. "This must mean you're familiar with Team Rocket too, right?"

"Well, yeah, we've had multiple encounters with them, including the S.S. Anne incident", Ash replied.

"In that case, as Celadon City's police chief, I request your assistance!" Officer Jenny saluted.

"Huh?" my brother, friends, and I said confusedly.

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We were escorted to the police station where we got to hear the details of what was going on in Celadon City. We sat in a private room with Officer Jenny as she showed us some pictures of crime scenes on a large computer screen.

"Recently, we've received reports after reports of Pokémon getting stolen by Team Rocket in Celadon City", Officer Jenny explained. "Our intel has told us they've been seen nearby the Game Corner before they lost track of them and the stolen Pokémon."

"Game Corner, huh?" Ash mumbled.

"Um… That's where people gamble and waste their money, right?" I asked softly.

"Correct", Officer Jenny nodded. "This casino is legal on the outside, but we believe there's a black market going on behind the fake facade."

"A black market?" Brock repeated before he gasped in realization. "Are Team Rocket selling the Pokémon they've stolen?!"

"That's our theory, yes", Officer Jenny nodded. "We also believe the Game Corner is allowing people who gather enough coins to buy Pokémon, depending on their price."

"That's so disgusting! Pokémon aren't dolls!" I exclaimed angrily.

"Yeah, how can Team Rocket fall so low?!" Ash growled in agreement.

"I can't imagine what all those Pokémon are going through!" Misty added with an angry expression

"And Suzie's Vulpix's gonna get sold off to some lousy Trainer!" Brock growled angrily.

"That's why we've been preparing for a raid to storm the Game Corner and arrest Team Rocket and rescue the Pokémon", Officer Jenny said. "The only thing we're waiting for is more information when the admins or even the boss, Giovanni, will show up, so we can arrest them as well."

"Giovanni… One of the Rocket grunts at the top of the Pokémon Tower mentioned that name", Misty pointed out.

"He's considered one of the most dangerous men in the world", Officer Jenny explained. "That's why we're desperate to capture him when he least expects it."

The door to the room slammed open so suddenly I almost jumped out of my seat. Eusine stood by the threshold while panting deeply.

"Eusine?" Ash said confusedly.

"Officer Jenny, I've got new intel!" Eusine called before he realized we were in the room. "Oh… Ash and Ashley! I didn't expect you two and your friends here."

"Yeah, we're here because we helped with Team Rocket cases before", Ash explained.

"And my idol's Pokémon got stolen and I'm here to rescue it!" Brock declared determinedly.

"Great, the more the merrier", Eusine nodded before he walked to Officer Jenny with some documents. "Anyways, my Haunter's grabbed some documents from the underground hideout. They're saying Giovanni is coming to the hideout in two days for an exclusive auction."

"Great job, Eusine", Officer Jenny nodded before she grabbed the documents. "We'll start organizing our teams for the raid. Gym Leader Erika said she and her Gym Trainers will join forces and you and these Trainers will help us out as well."

"Erika too? Everyone's coming…", I mumbled softly.

"Have you been able to locate every exit of the hideout?" Officer Jenny asked.

"So far, Haunter has only found three of them", Eusine replied.

"Okay, with this information, we can seal off the exits and arrest everyone!"

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Two days later, it was time to invade Team Rocket's hideout. The Game Corner had closed early in the evening, but we knew the owner and the employees were preparing for the auction. Ash, Misty, Brock, and I were with Eusine in an alleyway as we waited for our cue to raid the casino with the officers. A spy had snuck into the hideout with a fake invitation and they were going to give us a signal as soon as they would confirm that Giovanni was there to observe the auction.

Our mission was to rescue the captured Pokémon and, of course, defeat the Rocket grunts and make sure they wouldn't run away, including the guests on the auction.

Eusine held a walkie-talkie that buzzed for a second before Officer Jenny's voice spoke from it. "It's time! Commence the raid!"

"Copy! Commence the raid!" Eusine responded.

Several groups of officers and Gym Trainers ran out from the shadows and crashed through the three secret entrances to the hideout, including the front door of the Game Corner. Eusine led us to one of the secret entrances while we made sure we stuck together and didn't lose sight of each other.

Groups of Team Rocket grunts ran everywhere and called out their Pokémon to stop us. I called out Firered while Ash called out Bulbasaur and Haunter to counterattack. Eusine joined forces with his Haunter, Misty with Staryu and Starmie, and Brock with Geodude. It was very chaotic and I had a hard time comprehending the environment, but one thing I focused on was to hold Ash's hand so we wouldn't get separated.

Moments later, Team Rocket's Pokémon were defeated and we tied up the grunts and handed them over to the standby officers. Eusine forced one grunt to spill out where they kept the stolen Pokémon before we moved on.

It took minutes before we found a large room with cages in different sizes with all kinds of Pokémon. There were all from Sandshrew, Abra with collars that probably prevented them from using Teleport, Scyther, Ekans, Psyduck, even a Dratini, and more.

"C'mon, let's release them all!" Ash called before he ran to a cage.

The rest of us split up and ran to different parts of the room and started unlocking the cages. Our Pokémon helped out the best they could and comforted the caged Pokémon that were scared to trust humans.

"Vulpix!" Brock exclaimed in relief. "I'm so glad you're okay! C'mon, Suzie's waiting for you!"

I opened a cage where an Eevee was trapped. It was shaking in fear as it went to the back of the cage.

"Eevee… I know you're scared, but we're here to save you", I spoke calmly and slowly reached my hand in so Eevee could smell it. "Please, let me help you."

"Char char", Firered added.

Eevee stopped shaking and hesitantly smelled my fingers. It then gave me a small lick before it slowly walked to the front of the cage. I gently picked it up and held it in my arms.

"You were so brave now, Eevee", I smiled softly. "Everything will be okay now."

An alarm was suddenly set off, surprising me so much I felt like my heart got ripped out of my chest.

Eusine grabbed his walkie-talkie. "Eusine here! What's going on?!"

"The alarm's been set off by a grunt to alert the leader Giovanni about the raid!" Officer Jenny's voice responded. "We're still battling grunts and arresting them, so we've got our hands full!"

"We have to stop Giovanni before he flees!" Misty said.

"But we've gotta bring the Pokémon out to safety!" Brock said while holding Suzie's Vulpix.

"You guys head out with the Pokémon! I'll go and try stalling Giovanni's escape!" Ash shouted.

"No, Ash! Giovanni is said to be a very powerful Trainer!" Eusine argued. "Your Pokémon are no match against his!"

"I don't know until I try!" Ash responded. "We can't let a dangerous man get away!"

"I'm going with you, Ash!" I declared. "I won't my brother go alone!"

"Sure, Ashley!" Ash nodded.

"But do you even know where Giovanni is?!" Misty pointed out as she picked up a stiff Psyduck. "This place is huge!"

"Eevee!" the Eevee in my arms jumped down to the floor and signed with its head to follow it. "Vee ee!"

"Eevee seems to know where Giovanni is!" Ash said.

"Then we follow it!" I nodded.

"Be careful, kids!" Eusine called. "I'll help Misty and Brock to evacuate the Pokémon!"

"Don't get hurt, you two!" Misty shouted.

"We won't! Be careful, you too!" Ash waved before we and our Pokémon followed Eevee.

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I couldn't count how many Team Rocket grunts there were in this large hideout in total. It felt like it was a never-ending sea of grunts as we kept switching Pokémon when the ones they were out got tired and needed rest.

We both had our Primeapes out now as we defeated the last grunts outside of a locked double-doors room. The double-doors had a large magenta R on them, so I assumed this was the place where Giovanni was.

"This must be the room", Ash said.

"Eee-vee!" Eevee nodded in my arms.

"Eevee says so, so, yeah", I nodded.

"Alright. Primeape…"

"Bruce…"

"Use double Cross Chop on the door!"

Bruce and Primeape charged forward and punched the metal doors off the hinges. The doors crashed on the floor with our Pokémon before we ran inside. The room looked like a combination of an ordinary living room and a modern laboratory. There was a whole wall at the other side of the room that was covered by multiple screens that showed the current raid in the hideout.

But we weren't alone.

A tall man dressed in an orange suit stood in front of the screens while a Persian stood behind him and glared threateningly at us. Bruce and Primeape jumped up on their feet and stood ready for the next command.

"Hrm! So two young Trainers managed to get past my grunts", the man snorted. "That's very impressive."

"Are you Giovanni?!" Ash called. "We're here to catch you and stop Team Rocket!"

"Prime prime!" our Primeapes growled.

"Oh really?" Giovanni chuckled deeply. "Well, you should've come with adults, so they can arrest me. Unfortunately, my time here has run out, but I shall remember you two."

"Raah!" Persian shrieked loudly.

On that command, smoke erupted in the room from smoke balls scattered around. I quickly covered my mouth and nose while coughing and closed my eyes since the smoke burned them. I could hear our Pokémon cry in pain as the thick smoke slowly faded away.

I opened my eyes to see Giovanni and his Persian was gone and Bruce and Primeape were lying on the ground with claw marks on them.

"Primeape!" Ash shouted worriedly before running to his Pokémon.

"Bruce!" I ran to my Pokémon and helped him sit up. "Are you okay?"

"Primeee…", Bruce mumbled in pain.

"Was this Persian's doing? How could a normal-type Pokémon defeat two fighting-type Pokémon?" Ash asked in shock.

"Eusine was right…", I mumbled in disbelief. "Giovanni's Pokémon are stronger than ours… We could've gotten seriously hurt…"

Panic was getting over me when I thought of what else could have happened if we had ended up battling Giovanni and his Pokémon. I was slowly losing myself in a trance, but I snapped out of it when Eevee bumped its head against my arm.

"Eeeva?" Eevee looked at me with big concerned eyes.

I picked up Eevee and hugged it close to me. I said nothing as I softly cried on his fur. I was already overwhelmed of the whole raid and I just wanted to get out and rest.

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I didn't remember much of the aftermath. My brother, friends, and I were escorted back to the Pokémon Center by the officers after we made it out of the hideout. I fell asleep right away with Eevee in my arms and woke up the next day with a heavy and groggy head.

I barely managed to push a sandwich into my mouth for breakfast. Eevee had refused to leave my side, so it ate breakfast with our Pokémon. I found out Eevee was a male and it was a rare Pokémon, but I didn't know yet whether he already had a Trainer or not. I was eager to catch him, but I wanted to be sure he wanted to be part of my family.

A couple of hours later, my head was clear enough we could go to the police station and get an update of last night's event. It was quite crowded with Trainers reuniting with their stolen Pokémon, which made me a little teary at the sight. I was so happy to see the reuniting scene. I carried Eevee in my arms as we were led to the same meeting room as before, but this time Erika and Eusine were there as well.

Not much of interests were said; we mostly gave a summary from our parts to Officer Jenny of what happened during the raid. Ash and I told everyone we might have encountered Giovanni and his Persian, but they managed to escape with the help of smoke balls. Officer Jenny was disappointed that she and her colleagues failed to capture Team Rocket's leader, but she said that was expected from a dangerous and cunning man.

After the meeting, I asked Officer Jenny to check if Eevee had a Trainer and needed to be returned. She looked it up, but said this Eevee was actually a wild Pokémon, so I asked Eevee if he wanted to be part of the family. He nodded yes, so he got a blue ribbon tied around his neck like a scarf. Since I still didn't know which evolution I wanted him to evolve to, I sent him to Professor Oak's lab, hoping Mom would take good care of him. I didn't give him a nickname right away because I wanted it to be based on his future evolution.

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We were ready to leave on our journey the next day, but we went to Suzie's salon to see how she and Vulpix were after the whole ordeal. The windows had been repaired and the place looked nice after it had been cleaned up. Just before I entered the salon, I swore I saw something yellow moving in the corner of my eye, but I ignored it.

"Brock! Everyone!" Suzie smiled widely when we entered the salon. "I heard from the officers you saved my Vulpix. Thank you ever so much!"

"No problem, Suzie!" Brock smiled widely. "As your admirer, I had to step up and help you get Vulpix back!"

Suzie slowly shook her head. "Please don't call yourself 'admirer', Brock. After you showed me your skills as a Pokémon Breeder, I realized I still have much to learn. From this moment on, we are rivals."

The woman held out her hand for a handshake. Brock was stunned by the declaration for a second, but he got over it and shook hands with his idol and now rival.

"It's an honor to hear such compliments!" Brock blushed brightly. "I promise I won't disappoint you as your rival!"

Suzie's Vulpix had been resting on a red velvet chair, but it jumped down now and walked to Brock and nuzzled against his leg. "Vuuul…!"

"Vulpix…?" Brock mumbled confusedly.

Suzie giggled softly. "Brock, I'm asking this as a friend; will you look after Vulpix for a while?"

"W-What?!" Brock stuttered in shock.

"Vulpix has been my partner since I began my career as a Pokémon Breeder, so I'd like to see how well you can take care of her until we meet again", Suzie smiled with a wink. "Consider it a test for your breeding skills."

Brock lost his words for a moment as he was getting over the shock. "I-I-I won't disappoint you! I'll take care of Vulpix as if she's my child!"

"That sounded a little weird…", Misty commented, making me a little confused.

"Huh?" I mumbled softly.

Suzie giggled before she handed over Vulpix's Poké Ball to Brock. "I entrust Vulpix to you, Brock. Take very good care of her."

"I will!" Brock nodded before he crouched down to gently pat Vulpix's head. "I'll take good care of you and make you the most beautiful Vulpix in the world!"

"Vuuulpix!" Vulpix howled happily.

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We were on our way leaving Celadon City to head to Fuchsia City for the next Gym, but I couldn't help but feel like we were being followed. I looked over my shoulder when we reached the outskirts of the city and saw a Psyduck walking couple of meters behind us.

"Um… Guys, a Psyduck is following us", I spoke up.

The others turned around to see what was going on and Misty gasped in shock. "It's the Psyduck that doesn't want to leave me alone!"

"What do you mean?" I wondered.

"That's the same Psyduck Misty saved from Team Rocket's hideout", Brock explained. "When we got out of the hideout with the other Pokémon, it stayed with Misty the whole time."

"It was annoying to say the least…", Misty muttered. "It kept following me around no matter where I went."

"Why is Psyduck annoying, Misty? It's a water-type Pokémon and water Pokémon is your forte", Ash said. "Shouldn't you catch it?"

"Psyduck is a Pokémon that constantly has a headache! It's useless in battle!" Misty yelled angrily at my brother.

"Actually, it's natural that Psyduck has a headache", I explained. "It's also thanks to the headache that Psyduck is able to use psychic-type moves, like Confusion or Disable."

"Really?" Misty perked up.

"Yes", I nodded.

"Every Pokémon has their unique way to battle, Misty", Ash added. "Just because of its headaches doesn't mean Psyduck is incapable."

Misty pondered for a moment, but she snapped out of it when Psyduck walked to her and gently wrapped its arms around her leg.

"Psya ayay?"

"I think Psyduck chose you as its Trainer, Misty", Ash chuckled.

"Well… It is true I want to become a great water-type Trainer and Gym Leader, so…", Misty began hesitantly.

"It's a challenge for every Trainer to raise and care for all kinds of Pokémon", Brock said. "This could be your challenge like mine with Vulpix."

"Okay, I made up my mind", Misty said before she grabbed an empty Poké Ball. "Psyduck, do you want to come with us on the journey?"

"Psyduck!" the water Pokémon bumped its beak against the Poké Ball before it got absorbed into it.

The device shook three times before it released the usual ding noise when a Pokémon was caught.

"Congratulations, Misty! You got a Psyduck!" Ash grinned widely.

Misty sighed softly as she looked at the Poké Ball containing her newest addition. "I just hope I won't regret this…"

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Ashley's party:

Firered the Charmeleon (male)

Bruce the Primeape (male)

Luna the Clefairy (female)

Kobra the Arbok (male)

Wanda the Gyarados (female)

Oliver the Gloom (male)

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Ashley's Pokémon at the Lab:

Eevee (male)

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Ash's party:

Bulbasaur (male)

Charmeleon (male)

Haunter (male)

Primeape (male)

Beedrill (male)

Pidgeotto (male)

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Ash's Pokémon at the Lab:

Squirtle x5 (males)

Krabby (male)

Pikachu (male)

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Misty's party:

Goldeen (female)

Staryu (genderless)

Starmie (genderless)

Horsea (female)

Psyduck (male)

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Brock's party:

Geodude (male)

Onix (male)

Zubat (male)

Vulpix (female)