Taking the first Steps towards Victory

Last time on Danny's Journey: The New Team Rocket took over Celadon City, taking out Officer Jenny and Gym Leader Erika in the process. Richard and Janine have both fallen into the hands of the NTR but Danny managed to escape with the help of a stranger. The mysterious guy told Danny that the plan of the NTR is to erase all humans from existence. Why do they want to do this? And who is this mysterious figure? Continue reading to find out.

"Can you please tell me what is happening?" Danny asked. "Erasing all humans from existing, why would they do that?"

Danny and the mysterious man had run for halve an hour and they were now in an old house, near the edge of the city.

The mysterious man was busy blindfolding the windows, but did take a look first.

"They moved quick. There is a NTR guard at this exit and I bet they have every exit guarded. Nobody will be able to leave the city." He sighed.

Danny was still waiting for an answer. Charmander and Squirtle, who had managed to flee with Danny, where sitting in the corner of the shady room they where in. In the middle was a giant table with a map of the city on it.

"Look kid. I'll try to explain. Team Rocket, and I mean the old Team Rocket and not this sad rip-off, wanted to capture every Pokémon so they could control humans. The NTR takes it a step further, they don't want to control all humans, they want to get rid of all humans."

"But why?" Danny asked.

"Their leader, Irena, apparently hates all humans. She promised the grunts that they can live if they help her. The truth is that only Irena and her admins, like Gordon, are guaranteed to survive. If they manage to succeed in their plan the grunts will perish as well." The guy explained.

"But that's terrible, how do we stop them?" Danny asked.

"There are three steps in this plan. They need to build a machine that will create radiation, enough to shut down the entire nerve system of a human. To make this, they will need to get a thing called an X-maker."

"What is that?" Danny quickly asked.

The man looked annoyed but continued. "Have you ever heard of a technical drug? Like a X-attack or X-defend?"

Danny shook his head.

"Well they improve a certain stat of a Pokémon. For example, if you use a X-attack on a Pokémon it's attacks will hit harder. It is a drug though and if it used on one Pokémon too much it will result in permanent damage. These drugs are created by a X-maker. The material in that thing is needed for the plans of the NTR."

"That's all? So we need to stop them from getting into the Department Store?"

"Don't make it sound that easy. Remember that this entire city is swamped with NTR grunts, we need to battle our way into it. Do you have any other Pokémon with you then the Charmander and Squirtle?"

"Yes I do." Danny said and he released his other five Pokémon.

The mystery man looked at all of them and nodded.

"That are some fine Pokémon, raised well." The man said. "We can use your Pidgey as a scout, give it a camera so we have eyes outside."

"Are you sure he won't be caught?" Danny asked insecure.

"Pidgey are really common around here, the NTR won't suspect a thing."

"Okay then. Pidgey, do you want to do that?" Danny asked.

Pidgey nodded combatable.

"Let me get the mini-cam." The guy said.

Suddenly, Danny realized a small but important thing.

"Hey, how do you know everything about the NTR's plan?" He asked.

The mystery guy turned around. "I pretended to be an admin and I worked close to Irena for almost halve a year. That's how I found out about their plans." He explained.

Danny nodded. "What's your name by the way?"

"My name is not important, but you can call me Gregg." Gregg said, and he walked away to get the camera.

Inside a dark layer in Celadon City

"At least it's a good thing Danny got away." Janine said and Richard nodded. They were all locked up in a giant room underneath one or the more prominent houses of the city. Erika and Jenny where there as well.

"Who is this Danny?" Erika asked.

"He is our friend and a Pokémon trainer. He has 3 badges so far." Richard explained.

"But why did he leave you guys if you are his friends?" Officer Jenny asked.

"I'm sure he had his reasons." Richard said. "What I'm also sure about is that he will find a plan to free us."

"How can you be sure?" Erika asked.

"Because he always comes true when he needs to. And besides, my Squirtle is with him as well, so if Danny can't fix it, Squirtle can." Richard grinned.

"Too bad they took all of our Pokéballs, my Victreebel would have been able to help easily." Erika sighed.

"Yeah, my Weezing could have been off help too." Janine said.

"Now I know who you are. You are the daughter off…." Erika started, but Janine shut her down.

"From the Fuchsia Pokémart owner, yeah you are right." Janine winked.

Erika didn't seem to follow… "Eh, that's it, now I remember." Janine was happy Erika played along. Richard looked strangely at the two, but since there were more important matters at hand, he decided to drop it.

Back at Gregg's house

"Good luck Pidgey." Danny whispered to his friend. Pidgey nodded and flew off.

"The cam works." Gregg said triumphant and Danny hurried in. On a small tablet they could see everything that happened outside from above. Danny had ordered Pidgey to fly towards the Department Store so they could keep an eye on it.

"Okay, as you can see the streets are filled with NTR members." Gregg told Danny.

"Wait, what are those guys doing?" Danny asked.

Gregg looked and his expression suddenly went from neutral to shocked.

"They are searching through the houses. We need to go." He jumped up and grabbed his stuff.

"Return your Pokémon. Quick!" He said. Danny did what Gregg ordered and followed the mysterious guy out of the house.

"Where do we go?" Danny asked.

"I know one place they will probably not look, follow me."

Gregg led Danny through all kinds of small streets and narrow paths until they faced the Celadon Game Corner.

"They won't look here? Are you sure?" Danny asked cynical. The entire Game Corner was filled with NTR grunts.

"No, not there. Look, there is a small door to the side. It leads to a large basement, it was used by the old Team Rocket as a hideout. Now we can use it. Almost no-one knows about it so my bet is that the NTR doesn't know about it either." Gregg explained.

Gregg was about to cross the street when Danny stopped him

"Watch out, two grunts over there." Danny pointed. Gregg looked and sighed.

"Thanks kid."

The NTR members seemed to have had a little bit too much to drink and both could barely walk. They slowly moved themselves in the Game Corner and their arrival was welcomed by a loud cheer.

"Okay, let's go." Gregg said after checking the street. Both ran quickly towards the small door, which was barely visible due to ivy growing all over it, and Gregg opened it.

"Come on in." He invited Danny in. Danny walked into a dark room. He had no idea how big it was until Gregg closed the door and turned the lights on: A giant room appeared, with one pair of stairs down and one up.

"This place has multiple levels, we want to stay as low as we can. The stairs up lead directly into the Game Corner and as you saw, that place is filled with the enemy." Gregg explained. They went down every stairs until they were at the lowest level.

"We can talk at a normal volume down here, they can't hear us. Concrete ceilings and walls."

Danny let all his Pokémon back out. "We do need to contact Pidgey that we moved though." Danny said.

"Yes, you are right. Do you perhaps have any other Pokémon that can fly?" Gregg asked but Danny shook his head.

"Only Beedrill, but he will attract too much attention."

"That's true. Beedrill aren't common here."

Suddenly, a loud noise could be heard on the tablet that Gregg was carrying. Het put it on the table and both men watched it.

"Get in here Dawson, Irena wants that machine at her headquarters." Gordon said angrily.

"You're Pidgey managed to find an open window, it sure is clever." Gregg praised. Danny nodded.

"Yes boss. But just one question: Why did we need to take control of the entire city, just for this machine." Dawson asked.

"Because Irena wants to show off, that's why." Gordon explained. "I tried to convince her that it was way easier to just sneak in this store, grab the machine and leave. This costs us a lot of manpower and everyone in the entire Kanto region now knows we are a thing."

"I agree. I heard there is an army of cops coming this way, what if we can't hold them off?" Dawson asked.

"We will. We got more grunts in here than there are officers outside. What I'm more worried about is that Elite 4 member that has been wandering around here. She must have left the city before we took over, because she is not among the prisoners." Gordon thought out loud.

"Do you think she will be a big treat?"

"I don't know. Now get back to work you lazy good-for-nothing employee. Find me that machine. The sooner we get it the sooner we can get out of here." Gordon said.

Dawson saluted and walked away while Gordon continued setting up what looked to be an office.

"What do we do now?" Danny asked.

"Well, if there is an army on its way, we should try to contact them." Gregg said.

"So wait?"

"No, we attack." Gregg explained. "We take the Game Corner and lock all the grunts up. They might be with way more than we are but they are also drunk and easy to defeat. We can use the room above us as a prison to lock up all the grunts we have defeated."

"That sounds like a plan. What if Gordon finds out he misses a ton of grunts?" Danny asked.

Gregg scratched his chin. "Then he knows there is someone sabotaging him. But he doesn't know who, and more important, from where. Let's do it. You got 6 Pokémon with you, I got a Rhyhorn. Together we can make an important stand here."

With the hostages

"Most police officers must be on their way right now." Jenny sighed. They had been sitting in the dark cell for hours now.

"Do you really think they will save us?" Janine asked.

"Don't buy it. If this officer had been a little bit more aware of her environment we wouldn't be here." A middle-aged guy said.

"And who might you be?" Erika asked firmly.

"My name is Riley." He answered.

"Well, Riley, you could have stood up if you had done so much better. I was there with her and the Machoke moved silent less." She said while rubbing her head. "Next time you start criticizing your local officer remember that you might nog have done much better in his or her place."

Riley scratched the back of his head. "You're right. I'm sorry miss Erika."

"I thought so." Erika said and she smiled.

"Wow, they really listen to you." Janine said impressed.

"Of course they do. I'm their gym leader." Erika said.

"And she is really cute." Riley whispered. Erika started to blush and giggle.

"Everybody silent!" someone shouted. A man in NTR clothes stepped in.

"My name is Ronald and sir Gordon asked me to take a hostage to him. A guy with black hear. That must be you." He pointed towards Richard.

"Stand up or I will use force to get you with us." He said. With that he most likely meant calling help because he was really small and thin, Richard would easily be able to overpower him. But seeing the three Pokéballs that the guy at on his belt he decided to just follow.

"That's a good boy." Ronald said as Richard went with him.

At the Hideout

"Okay guys, you know the drill right?" Danny asked his Pokémon, who all stood before him. They had been through it multiple times, but this was a completely different kind of battle so Danny wanted to be prepared.

Danny and Gregg would storm in together with Charmander and Rhyhorn by their side respectively. Squirtle and Bellsprout would follow directly after. Danny and Gregg would fight with the drunk grunts while Charmander and Rhyhorn would take care of any Pokémon that would come out. Bellsprout would try to tackle most grunts with its Vine Whip attack while Squirtle would blind everyone with Bubble, so the water would get into the eyes of the grunts.

Directly after Bellsprout and Squirtle was Beedrill, who would fly through the Game Corner, taking care of anything that would get dangerous too quickly. Krabby and Abra where the last to enter, they would aid Bellsprout and Squirtle.

"Okay, let's go then." Danny said, the fear in his voice was hearable and his Pokémon could feel it. They also felt a determination that was burning strong.

Gregg came walking in. By his side was a Rhyhorn.

"Wow, so that is a Rhyhorn, I have never seen one before." Danny said.

"They resist a lot and are really strong, the grunts won't know what happens to them." Gregg smirked. "Are you ready?"

"Yes." Danny nodded, swallowing his fears away. "Although it still feels strange to attack and fight with humans."

Gregg nodded. "I know, but they weren't afraid to attack humans so neither should we."

"You're right." Danny nodded. "Let's go."

In Gordon's improvised office

"Sit down." Ronald ordered and Richard decided to just follow the orders.

"That would be all, now go." Gordon said to the awaiting NTR grunt. Ronald nodded and walked away.

"You aren't really friendly to your employee's are you?" Richard grinned. For some reason he wasn't afraid at all. Danny was out there and there would be an army of police officers re-taking the city at any moment.

"I ask the questions." Gordon said angrily.

"Sure." Richard nodded. Almost everyone would have gotten really angry at this point, but Gordon swallowed it and stayed calm.

"So, we have been watching this city for the past few weeks. One thing we noticed was that you arrived this morning with two other people: The girl that is also in containment and a guy with a Charmander. We didn't capture that guy and you are going to tell us where he is." Gordon said.

Richard had been wondering why he was brought to the chief, now he knew.

"I have no idea." He simply answered.

"We didn't get your Squirtle either, it must have followed that guy you came in with. What's his name?" Gordon asked.

"His name is none of your business."

"He is in my city so he is of my business. So I will ask you again, who is he?"

"He's a trainer." Richard said.

"That I know. He has six Pokémon with him but I only saw his Charmander and his Krabby. My men reported that he had 4 more Pokéballs." Gordon explained. "I don't want such a guy running through this city, now tell me what's his name and where he could be."

"I told you, I don't know where he could be and his name isn't important."

Out of nowhere Gordon slapped Richard across his face, that hard that Richard took a few steps back. His check started to glow.

"Stop playing games with me, what's his name?"

Richard shook his head again.

Gordon's patience had reached its peak and he hit Richard right in the face with his fist. Richard fell down and his nose started to bleed.

The NTR admin walked over and pulled Richard up by his collar.

"Now tell me where he is and what his name is."

"You can slap me all you want, but I won't betray my friend." Richard coughed, as his blood was flowed into his mouth.

"Ronald!" Gordon screamed and he dropped Richard back onto the ground.

"Yes sir?" The grunt asked while walking in.

"Take this one back downstairs and get me the girl. Let's see how long she holds on if I start punching her." He said while cleaning up his hand. Richard turned white when he heard that.

"You wouldn't slap a girl." He said angrily.

"Do you want to find out?" Gordon said seductively.

Richard was facing an internal conflict: At one point he didn't wanted to betray Danny but on the other side he couldn't let Janine get hurt.

He sighed. "His name is Danny."

Gordon smiled. "That's a good boy." He said to the broken 15 year old. "Now throw him back in with the others." He ordered and Roland nodded.

"Sorry Danny." Richard whispered as Ronald took him back down.

In the Game Corner

"Hey Dawson, want a drink?" A NTR grunt said.

"No I don't want a drink. I got orders from chief Gordon to put you back to work." He said.

"Come on man, relax a little bit. We got the entire city in our hands. There are still a lot of our man searching houses and controlling the streets." The grunt said. "You can be missed right now, live a little."

Dawson shook his head. "I'm more important than you guys. I'm Gordon's second, I can't spend my days drinking like you do. Where did you find all the alcohol anyway?"

"Eh…" The grunt didn't knew the answer.

"Anyway, hand all the alcohol over, right now, and get back to work." Dawson said angrily.

"I'm afraid we can't do that." A female grunt said. A circle off drunken grunts started to form around Dawson, but the last one wasn't afraid.

"Yes you can. Hand it over, right now."

"No." That was the first grunt again. "We won't. You can't make us and neither can chief Gordon." They all laughed.

"You can choose." The female grunt explained. "Participate with us or lights out." While saying the last words she pointed towards a giant grunt, who reached with head and shoulders above Dawson. Dawson himself wasn't a small man. He had wide shoulders and had reached his position by fighting more than by thinking, but this guy was even bigger.

Just at that moment, a giant bunker door emerged from the ground. Dawson and the grunts turned around and saw two people run out of it, followed by four Pokémon.

Dawson recognized the Charmander and directly realized who it was.

"Damn it, it's that kid. Everyone, grab them. The kid is for Gordon. Do with the other what you'd like." He ordered.

The grunts, drunk as they were, managed to run, even though it was sloppy and almost halve fell before they reached the intruders.

Danny and Gregg reached the first grunts within seconds. Gregg punched one grunt right in his face. Blood poured from the grunts nose and he fell down.

Danny tackled another grunt, who's head hit the ground quite hard: The grunt was directly unconscious.

Dawson saw what happened and looked at the giant grunt. "What are you waiting for, grab them." The giant nodded and walked towards them.

Danny saw it happen and looked at Bellsprout, who had just managed vine whip some guy's feet from underneath his torso, making the guy fall to the ground.

"Bellsprout, take care of that giant." The Flower Pokémon nodded and used his Vine Whip on the giant's legs. The grunt had had too much to drink so he was already wobbling. The Vine Whip made him fall and his head hit the wall behind him. He was directly unconscious.

Two grunts, they had had less alcohol than the others, released their Pokémon: Two Ekanses and a Koffing. Beedrill saw what happened and picked up Abra, who had just entered the Game Corner.

Beedrill dropped the Psi Pokémon near the two Ekanses and flew towards the Koffing.

"Ekans, use Poison Sting." "You too Ekans." Both grunts ordered. Abra made easy work off both of them by using Psychic. Both Ekans fell down in defeat as soon as Abra was done.

Dawson saw that, even though his grunts where in the majority, they were a losing party.

He ran up to Gregg and punched him straight in the face, making the mysterious guy fall down. He had been fighting with two grunts at the same time and he hadn't seen Gordon's second coming.

Danny had just beaten down another guy with help of Krabby, who had used Bubble so the guy was blinded for a few seconds, but when he turned around he saw Dawson right in front of him.

"End of the road kid." The NTR grunt grinned.

Danny looked shocked, but then a big thing came flying in from the right and hit Dawson on his head. It was Beedrill, who had just defeated the grunt's Koffing and the grunt himself.

Dawson fell down but stood up directly.

"How dare you attack me? Golbat, go!" He let out the Bat Pokémon.

"Beedrill, use Twineedle." The attack hit but barely did any damage.

"Ha, you think that your Beedrill is strong enough to beat my Golbat? Golbat, use Supersonic!"

A loud screech could be heard and Beedrill didn't seem to be himself anymore. He started to fly around uncontrolled and eventually hit the wall and fell down.

All of that wouldn't be too bad, if his wings wouldn't have been the first to hit the ground: Beedrill's entire weight weighed onto his wings and both collapsed. Beedrill cried out in pain.

"Beedrill!" Danny screamed in agony. Beedrill only solfty groaned.

"Seems like your Beedrill is defeated." Dawson grinned.

A loud growl could be heard and a red creature jumped from behind Danny into the air. The otherwise so peaceful and friendly Charmander had turned into an angry battling machine. Charmander slashed Golbat and jumped back, preparing a Flamethrower attack.

Danny looked at Dawson, who for this first time that battle, looked afraid. Charmander released the Flamethrower and the Golbat fell defeated out of the sky.

"I'm not done just yet." Dawson said as he returned his Golbat. He took a second Pokéball and let out a Grimer.

"Grimer use Sludge."

Charmander made himself ready for another Flamethrower. At the same time he started to glow all white. Both Danny and Dawson did a few steps back.

Charmander's feet and paws grew and his tail became longer. On the back of his head a small horn-like figure grew. Three claws grew on both of his paws.

With a big Flamethrower and a loud growl the white colors disappeared and, instead of the Charmander that had been there, a darker-red colored Pokémon appeared: Charmeleon.

Before anyone could say anything, Charmeleon created another Flamethrower and aimed for Grimer. One Flamethrower was enough to beat the Sludge Pokémon.

Danny stepped forward and punched Dawson right in his face. Charmeleon swung his tail behind the legs of the NTR second and the last one fell on the ground.

Gregg rubbed his head as he tried to get up.

"Let me help you." Danny rushed to help his mysterious friend.

"What was that?" Gregg asked.

"That was that guy." Danny pointed towards the unconscious Dawson that laid on the ground.

"Did you take him out."

"Yeah, together with my newly evolved Charmeleon." Danny said.

He walked towards his friend and hugged him. Charmeleon happily hugged back.

"Congratulations Charmander…. O sorry, I mean Charmeleon." Danny said. "You look so much stronger now."

All around them defeated grunts where laying silently on the ground.

Together with the help of their Pokémon Danny and Gregg managed to drag all of them down to the third floor and lock them all up. All together they had beaten 22 grunts and Dawson. Only five of the grunts, including Dawson, had been smart enough to use their Pokémon instead of fighting themselves.

Almost all Pokémon came out unharmed: Rhyhorn had fought off a few Zubats but mainly took down grunts. Bellsprout and Krabby had been a dangerous duo as they took down multiple grunts as well. Next to the two Ekanses, Abra had had a very small role. His Psychic attack wasn't strong enough to lift up humans, so he couldn't do much. Squirtle had assisted Charmeleon, back when he was a Charmander, with beating grunts as well.

Only Beedrill had severe damage to his wings. Gregg had laid him on his belly on a table, but both wings were damaged too bad.

Danny sat next to his friend the entire time, while Gregg was locking up the NTR grunts. Charmeleon and Danny's other Pokémon where helping Gregg as well. Only Bellsprout stayed with Danny.

The Flower Pokémon hated to see his rival down like this. Even though Beedrill and Bellsprout always tried to compete with each other they had grown a mutual respect.

When Gregg entered the room, he saw that Danny still hadn't moved.

"I'm afraid we can't do much for your Beedrill here." He said. "But what we can do, is transfer it to Samuel Oak. There is a telephone down here, so we can send Beedrill towards the professor and maybe he can make Beedrill better."

Danny looked up. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea."

Gregg led him towards the telephone and they called Professor Oak. The old professor quickly appeared on screen.

"Hello?" The professor asked. "O Danny. It is good to see you."

Danny quickly explained the entire situation: How he had entered Celadon City with Richard and Janine but that the NTR had taken over. He told Oak about Gregg and how they had together retaken the Game Corner.

"Well, it is good to see you are doing well. Your parents were worried you had made it to Celadon City already, the takeover is on the news everywhere. I can tell them that you are fine. How about your friends?" Oak asked.

"They have been captured by the NTR." Danny explained. "But professor, I need your help. Beedrill got injured during the last battle and we can't heal him."

"Can you show it to me please?" Oak asked. Danny stood up to get the Poison Bee Pokémon.

Meanwhile, Oak studied Gregg, who had been standing next to Danny.

"I get the feeling I know you." The professor said.

"Familiar face, I hear that more often." Gregg said abrupt.

"That must be it." Oak said, surprised by the short answer.

Danny came walking back with his Beedrill.

'Ah, that doesn't look too good." Oak said. "But nothing I can't fix. If you send him to me I will take a look."

"Thanks professor." Danny said as he returned Beedrill to his Pokéball and put it in the transporter.

"Okay, all set?" Oak asked and Danny nodded.

The ball vanished and strangely, another Pokéball appeared.

"I have successfully received your Beedrill." Oak said.

"That's great, but what did you send me?" Danny asked.

"I send you your Grimer. I figured you might want to keep a full roster of 6 Pokémon." Oak explained.

Danny let out Grimer. The Sludge Pokémon seemed happy to be on the team. Danny kneeled down and petted the Grimer.

"Well, it seems like you are new on the team. Hey guys, say hi to Grimer."

The other four Pokémon came walking towards Grimer and welcomed it.

"I see your Charmander evolved." Oak said. "Congratulations, I knew you two would work perfectly from the moment you picked Charmander as your starter."

"Thanks professor. Take good care of Beedrill for me, okay?"

"I will, bye Danny." Oak said. "Before I forget, Gregg, can you stay on? There is someone who would like to talk to you as well."

Man, another cliffhanger. Who is this person? Well, that will be revealed in the next chapter. Also, 4700 words, this is a really, really big chapter. I'm sorry if it is too much, but I just couldn't seem to fit all of this in and make it shorter. The Richard plot will be important for the next chapter and I really wanted to include Charmander's evolution in this chapter.

For the Beedrill event. As you might know, there is barely anyone who plays the entire game with one of the two early bugs (Butterfree or Beedrill) and the animé got rid of Butterfree by letting Ash release it. I didn't want to have Danny release Beedrill but I felt like his time on the team for now was done. But what is a better sendoff to such a great Pokémon than to give it one last heroic action. And remember, Beedrill is not gone, he can be called upon as much as Danny would like, as soon as Beedrill has healed.