Chapter-13
We were rushing back as soon as we could, on the way I decided to call in some reinforcements from my wild Pokémon friends as I was not sure what we would be up against when we got to town. The smug expressions on the faces of the two Rocket members turned into one of absolute fear when we got a swarm consisting of a few tens of Beedrill and over two dozen Oddish and Paras to follow us. By now our relations with the wild Pokémon were so good that they were even willing to listen to our commands and head into battle once in a while.
As we neared the outer fringes of the forest, we could see a bit of the town not far away through the gaps in the trees and it did not look good. Smoke was rising from several places all over town and we could see a small crowd of people mostly the really young and old being evacuated out of town through the nearest roads. We rush to the nearest Policeman standing by the side of the road and directing the crowd to get more information on the condition in town, he was quite stunned by our entourage for a while before he was able to reply. We learnt that nearly four dozen Team Rocket members had descended into town and were wreaking havoc as they gathered the town's Slowpoke to harvest their tails and plundering anything valuable along the way. A state of emergency had been declared and all trainers in town were requested to help, some of the capable citizens also volunteered to help the law enforcement forces as well.
The three of us didn't dither too long, we handed over custody of the two prisoners and their stolen goods to the Policeman but the three Pokémon adamantly refused to part with us so we had no choice but to hold on to them for now as we rushed into the alleys to help. We split up each taking roughly 20 Beedrill and 10 Paras and Oddish, to cover more ground and stop all the Team Rocket goons scattered throughout town as we made our way to the town square. I soon come across a group of 6 Team Rocket members attacking a family that was rushing to evacuate, there were some trainers trying to help but they were outnumbered and the Rocket members were completely out of control having their Rattatas and Zubats attack the surroundings causing mass destruction. I immediately order the Beedrill to attack those miscreants with Pin Missile and Poison Sting at the same time have the Paras and Oddish restrain them with moves like Stun Spore and Sleep Powder. The Rocket Members are quickly subdued and the family rescued.
"Head towards the forest for now, there is already a large group being evacuated two blocks away join them, it'll be safer."- I tell the family. I then turn towards the trainers and say-"Thanks for helping out, I'd much appreciate it if those with water type Pokémon could help in putting out the fires. There are a lot of these guys still running around so please continue lending us a hand."
I continue moving in a systematic manner fighting everyone from Team Rocket along the way as well as lending a hand to anyone in distress. I am very careful in making sure that the Rocket members I come across are completely incapacitated before moving on, it'd be horrible if they somehow escaped and continued to wreak havoc. Before splitting up from Heart and Soul we'd learnt that the main big wigs of this Gang of Team Rocket had set up a perimeter at the Mayor's house and the main town square in front of it so the three of us took different routes to head to the center of the chaos. On reaching the outer edges of the town square, I was greeted with the sight of over a dozen Team Rocket goons piloting large robots while simultaneously ordering a bunch of their Pokémon- Golbats, Raticates, Ekans, Koffings and Machops to attack the large congregation of trainers, Policemen and some town residents gathered to fight them under the leadership of Bugsy the town's Pokémon Gym leader. Although the Rocket members were outnumbered the ones stationed here were no doubt the elites of the organisation plus they had giant robots so the situation was sort of at a stale-mate with neither side willing to give in.
"Treecko."- The Treecko I was carrying in my arms called out as he cast a fiery glare at the Team Rocket members gathered here, he would constantly glare at all the Rocket members we came across so far but he was not this fierce before. I was sure that if he was in better health he would have rushed to attack them as well.
Charlie from his high vantage point spotted my parents first and as expected they were in the thick of action, I head to join them. When I approach them they are having a fierce battle with a robot, Mom and Dad have mixed emotions as I join them- they're glad I'm here safe and sound but also worried that I came to such a dangerous place; Kurt and his Golem suddenly barge in on the scene demanding to know Heart's whereabouts. They seem to be having many questions regarding my company as well as Soul's and Heart's absence but the situation right now is not appropriate for discussions so after a brief reassurance promising everyone's safety and a short run down of our experience so far we focus on the battle. Charlie joined Dad in battle- he was battling with Jack so far- while I directed the Beedrill and Paras to unleash String Shot on all the joints of the Robot, with its movement severely hampered it became a sitting duck for a Dragon Rage from Chester. The Robot crumbled as it couldn't put up much of a defence; "Aim for the joints to hamper their movement and weaken them first, it'll be easier to take them down afterwards."- I yell out loudly and advice all the trainers on our side.
I spot Soul and Heart as the rush out of an alley and head to our direction as they spot us. We team up together having the Beedrills and Paras focus on using String Shot to tie down the Robots and have the Oddish use crowd control restraining moves like Poison Powder, Stun Spore and Sleep Powder on the opposing Pokémon. Bugsy and the others from his gym also started using this tactic to great effect, with our help restraining Team Rocket, the heavy hitters had an easier time charging up and unleashing their most powerful moves successfully. Soon the entire place is lit up as moves like Hyper Beam, Fire Blast, Thunder, Solar Beam, etc. hit the robots.
The delicate balance immediately starts to tip in our favour; the remaining Team Rocket members start to panic as their forces crumble one at a time. Right at this moment the Team Rocket Officer leading this group focused his attention on the three of us from his spot on the balcony of the Mayor' mansion, identifying us as the main cause for the sudden change in their fortunes he heads back into the mansion; not long after a loud rumbling is heard from behind the mansion. The cause of the disturbance soon becomes apparent as a big robot, twice the size of the ones we were currently facing arrived on scene. The Team Rocket Officer was inside piloting this one himself and the screen in front of him displayed the targeting system which had fully locked onto Soul, Heart and I.
I start to get a bad feeling as soon as the larger robot appears; the few trainers closest to it have their Pokémon attack it instantly but they might as well sprinkle water over it as their attacks barely put a dent on it, its defence is way higher compared to the ones we faced so far. The robot turns in our direction and my discomfort increases; there is a loud swishing sound and a lot of smoke from the robot's sides. I yell and push at Heart and Soul as the projectiles launched by the robot fly our way; we barely escape the attack radius but are still knocked off our feet, we hold on tightly to the Pokémon we had rescued as they struggle in the chaos.
After regaining my balance I find out that the robot still hasn't given up on attacking us and is preparing to fire another round. Seeing this Mom and Kurt go ballistic and they order their Pokémon to attack, Chester used Outrage and Golem used Super Power on the robot, the continuous pummelling pushes it back by a few meters and disrupts its attack causing its projectiles fly off course and miss us. That's still just a small respite though as the robot is still in great condition despite everyone's effort in attacking it and Chester is now confused and Golem enters a weakened state. It fires a couple more rounds at us and we desperately evade; if it were anyone else they would be seriously injured in the first round of firing itself but thanks to our Aura training we were able to evade danger by barely a few inches even if we don't manifest it externally. The fact that Bugsy and Dad also came to our rescue and distract the robot helped, Bugsy had his Scyther constantly harass it by using moves like Agility, Double Team, Razor Wind and X-Scissor while Dad had Charlie and Charlotte skilfully deflect and parry some of the attacks fired at us with Cut and Slash. Though their attacks did not harm the robot much but it sure got it distracted enough to help us out in this mess.
"You two do something quickly."- Heart screams at us as she evades left and right with Torchic tightly grasped in her hands. Our previous tactics of restraining robots is not effective on this one as its too strong and able to break through the restraints we put on it in seconds.
"We're going to have to combine our efforts. Even if its defence is super strong and direct attacks don't work it has to have some weakness."- I say as I rack my brains to defeat this opponent and suddenly I get an idea. I order the Oddish to use Razor Leaf on the robot; even with ten Oddish combined together in this attack it didn't faze the robot but that wasn't my goal, with the dense cover of leaves its targeting system wasn't able to get a lock on us and also provided cover for what I wanted to do next. I then had all the Beedrill and Paras use String Shot at its feet along with some of the Oddish using Grass Knot, the robot was definitely off balance now and just a little more force would drop it.
Heart understanding my intentions asked her Grandpa Kurt to have Golem use Earthquake on the robot and Dad grasping the timing has Charlie and Charlotte attack with Cut to strike the robot right behind its knees. The gigantic robot begins to fall like a gigantic felled tree, taking advantage of the chance I order all the Beedrill, Paras and Oddish to attack with any projectile moves they know, Bugsy's Scyther and Chester having recovered after some time both join in with a Giga Impact and Hyper Beam respectively. Normally these attacks would not be much of a threat to the robot but coupled with the momentum of its gigantic body falling to the ground the effects were stunning, cracks spread all over the body like spider webs.
As the robot was trying to get back up Soul gathered a bunch of trainers with fire and water type Pokémon who attacked alternatively. Due to the massive stresses by rapid temperature changes between the two types of attacks the cracks all along its body spread and the robot was soon sending out sparks from various damaged parts, the attacks seemed to have reached some of the core electronics inside. After a few moments the robot couldn't take it anymore and the Team Rocket Officer opted to eject, moments after he was ejected the robot exploded. The Team Rocket Officer sought to use the cover of the explosion to make a quick get away with his jet-pack but I was already expecting something like this; I had a small pack of about a dozen Beedrill keeping a perimeter around the square by air, as soon as the Team Rocket Officer made to get away the closest Beedrill attacked with Poison Jab. The attack destroyed his jet-pack and also poisoned him, the poisoned and battered Team Rocket Officer dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, the Beedrill then securely tied him up with String Shot. The rest of the stragglers from Team Rocket fell not long afterward and the town Square and Mayor's mansion were secured, after the criminals here were properly restrained squads of trainers and Policemen spread out over town to catch the rest of the Rocket members still on the loose under Officer Jenny's instructions.
A temporary first aid and recovery camp was being set up at the square under the leadership of Nurse Joy to treat all of the injured after the great battle. I decided to help with the recovery as some of the wild Pokémon I'd brought over were injured as well while Heart and Soul took the remaining healthy Pokémon to do a sweep around town. There was a lot of work to be done, Team Rocket had really caused a lot of pain- from the poor Slowpokes with their chopped off tails to the many partners of the trainers/townsfolk as well as any other Pokémon unfortunate enough to got caught in the cross fire. Heart and Soul left the Torchic and Mudkip behind as well for more through treatment, they still hadn't settled down after the whole fiasco apparently as they kept throwing really pitiful looks to them when they were left behind to recover while they went to patrol. They were now being uncooperative as a form of protest and were giving Nurse Joy a lot of trouble.
"These poor Pokémon; to have to experience all that at such a tender age, I'd hate to imagine what would have happened to them if you hadn't rescued them Sage."-Nurse Joy says after hearing my side of the story about what happened in the Ilex forest.
"That's right, these Pokémon are not from this region originally and hence very rare. We need to get them back to the envoys from Hoenn at Goldenrod city as soon as possible, I'm sure they are extremely worried about them. Sage honey, you, Soul and Heart did a wonderfully brave thing in rescuing them."- Mom compliments me as she also lends a hand. Dad and Kurt went along with Soul and Heart; with all that happened so far there was no way they were letting us go unsupervised any longer. Even though we were more grown up now and would even embark on our journey soon it really touched me to know how much our family cared for us.
"I'd be happy to take them back to Goldenrod city myself and I'm sure Heart and Soul would feel the same but the caravan is going to be delayed after this disaster. Nurse Joy, I was wondering if maybe you could get in touch with the police forces from Goldenrod city, I heard that a patrol was sent to rescue the kidnapped Pokémon, they might be close by."- I say, honestly my true inner self definitely doesn't want to part with these guys just yet but I know that they don't belong to me and they are sure to be missing their home. Especially now that Treecko seems to have warmed up to me I was all the more dreading our arewell, it was even helping me pacify the other two now.
"I'm afraid that's not possible right now Sage, the first thing Team Rocket did when they attacked the town was to cut off all the communication lines and isolate us, even the town's satellite communications are down so the Poke Gear's call, radio and mapping functions in this region are also disrupted."- Nurse Joy tells me in a depressed tone. Looks like these three will have to stay in town for a while; I tried to do my best not to let my inner happiness show.
We were finally done treating them and got them to lie down and rest up while we moved on to treat the other Pokémon. I could still feel Treecko's gaze on my back as I left and the feeling didn't go away for quite a while, I decided to stop being so self conscious and put more focus in treating the injured Sandshrew that a trainer brought in, I also did my best to reassure him as he seemed very worried. Finally after a little more than two hours Heart and Soul returned escorted by Dad and Kurt. They joined in to help with the treatment process seeing as there were still many injured Pokémon, it was also a good time for us to exchange information the others had gathered. I learnt that a majority of the Rocket members were captured and were put behind bars along with their leader with only a handful managing to escape; all the goods they had stolen were safely recovered and were being gathered at the square for their respective owners to come and claim them. There were also many missions being put up to help speed up the town's recovery.
"By the way where are those three Pokémon we rescued being kept?"- Heart tries to sound as casual as possible when she enquires about them but I can still hear the longing in her voice.
"They are resting in that big tent over there, the blue one closest to the Pokémon center."- I answer her as I finish treating the last Pokémon in line, looks like we're done for the day.
"Well since we're finished here I'll go check up on them."- Heart declares as she starts to head over there.
"Don't, they're resting, you're bound to disturb them with your personality."- Soul says to her while also following behind her.
"I'm going to disturb them am I? You are the one who is going to disturb them seeing as you're the most annoying person in town. Besides why are you following me?"- Heart shoots back at him.
"To keep an eye on you of course, so that you don't startle the poor Pokémon."- Soul replies with a straight face. It was easy to see that he was just as eager to visit the Pokémon but was just too 'Soul' to admit to it straight up.
"Alright you two if you continue quarrelling like this, both of you will disturb their rest, let's all just quietly look in on them."- I try to make peace as we approach our destination.
"Torrr..chic.."- The Torchic gets up with bleary eyes sensing our approach, looks like we really did disturb them. Just as I was about to pull the other two back and let the Pokémon go back to sleep but-
"Torchic..."- The Torchic lets out a loud joyful cry upon spotting Heart and jumps right into the surprised girl's arms.
"Mudkip..." "Treecko..."- The other two are also startled awake by the commotion, Mudkip also skips along and comes to cuddle up with Soul. Soul not being the type to be very expressive becomes very stiff and his face starts twitching. I try my best to not laugh at this comical scene, looks like Soul just got Mudkipped.
Treecko just keeps staring at me, only occasionally looking at his two other friends getting along with Heart and Soul. "Are you feeling better? Don't worry; we'll help you get back to perfect health and send you home safe and sound."- I say comfortingly as I walk closer and sit beside him. I pull out an Oran Berry from my pouch and offer it to Treecko who accepts it and digs in calmly. Soul and Heart also feed the other two some Berries and watch on as the two happily munch on them.
"Looks like you all are getting along quite well."- Nurse Joy says as she steps into the tent and starts packing up some of the tools here into her bag.
"Nurse Joy... I... we.."- Soul starts to stutter from embarrassment.
"Haha, its alright, in fact I was just about to go look for you three, I need your help with something."- Nurse Joy says in an amused voice as she looks at us and the Pokémon.
"What is it Nurse Joy? We'll definitely do our best to help out."- I reply eagerly as I get up.
"I was wondering if the three of you could look after these Pokémon over the next couple of days, their condition is stable now and I'm afraid I won't be able to watch over them at the Pokémon center what with all the severely injured Pokémon that need my attention."- Nurse Joy requests us.
"Is that something you even need to ask, of course we'll do it."- Heart replies happily, you can clearly see that she is almost going to dance around in joy.
"Oh, the three of you are here. Excuse me Nurse Joy but could I borrow Heart Soul and Sage for a moment."- Officer Jenney says as she appears at the entrance of the tent alongside Bugsy.
"Sure Officer. Now you three take good care of those Pokémon. I'll be heading back to the Pokémon Center if anyone needs me just drop by."- Nurse Joy excuses herself and departs. We then follow Officer Jenny and Bugsy wondering what this was all about.