Star in the Storm, Chapter 8

Roary- "Team Rocket's Big Comeback"

Did I leave you hanging off a cliff the last time I signed off? Well, I guess that's why they call 'em cliff hangers.

Anyways, back to the story.

Bits of debris were flying in every direction. One particularly large chunk of ceiling landed right smack dab in between Picassy and Lumius, breaking off the Thunderwaves completely. Picassy yelped as a shard of something big and sharp hit it in the side, sending it skidding into the wall.

"Picassy!" I yelled, running after my Pichu and holding up an arm to fend off falling pieces of plaster and cement. A chunk of ceiling directly in my path sent me spinning for a fall, but I pulled myself back up and kept running.

"Evacuate the premises immediately!" someone was yelling over my head. "Repeat, evacuate the premises immediately!"

As I swung out an arm and scooped up Picassy, cold vine whips landed on my shoulders and hoisted me out the emergency exit and onto the sidewalk outside. Gasping in exertion, I fell onto my knees outside the Gym doors, clutching Picassy in my arms.

"You could have just recalled your Pokémon, Aurora," an acrid voice snapped above my head. Bryar was standing there, golden eyes flashing with disgust. "Seriously, girl, do you have a death wish, or are you just stupid?"

"Bryar," I wheezed out as I staggered to my feet. "You saved my life! And Picassy's too!"

The Meganium sniffed. "Don't mention it," it informed me tartly. "I mean it, Aurora. Don't you ever dare."

Shouting broke out as one last figure emerged from the Gym exit behind us. It was Gym Leader Molly Hale, her long cape billowing out behind her. Then there was a huge crash as the whole domed ceiling of the Gym simply caved in, sending up a cloud of dust and debris.

When the cloud finally cleared, a black and silver ship was visible above the wreckage of the Goldenrod Gym. Atop the ship were two figures, dressed in black, each holding the hands of a kid behind their back.

One of the kids was a fair-haired girl of no more than ten or eleven, one that I had never seen before in my entire life. She wore the uniform of a Goldenrod Gym Junior Trainer, and at the moment, was cowering all terrified in the shadow of her captor.

The other kid was Shane, face twisted in anger. Gauntal had been muzzled and chained a few feet away and was snarling viciously, unable to protect its trainer.

"People of the Goldenrod City!" one of the black figures cried, stepping forward. "Team Rocket has triumphed over the glorious bastion that was once your Gym! Now we hold these two children captive! Surrender to us all your Pokémon or these children will suffer!"

The speaker's black-clad cohort leaned over and whispered in his ear. "On second thought, we'd like to make a modification to our previous statement," the speaker announced. "Surrender to us all your Eevee, or the children will suffer!"

"Not our Eevee!" a little girl beside me wailed, holding onto a handful of PokéCaps. "Kitsune just had puppies the other night! Please don't take them away! Please don't take them away!"

"You can forget about that!" I yelled loudly at the attackers, clenching my fists. "You're not getting any of the Eevee, not a single one! Even if it means I have to fight you myself!"

"Pichu!" Picassy whimpered in agreement, standing up bravely despite its many bruises.

"And she's at it again," Bryar lamented. "You never learn, do you, Aurora?"

The captive Junior Trainer girl cried out and started to sob uncontrollably, turning her face away from the crowd and burying it in her shoulder. Shane yelled something undistinguishable and struggled forward. His captor yanked him back and shoved him to his knees.

"That does it!" I shouted, reaching for a PokéBall. "Teach these crooks a lesson they won't forget, Vaporeon! You too, Jigglypuff!"

The thug sneered at me and my Pokémon as they emerged, roaring battle cries. (Well, in Jigglypuff's case, it was more squealing than roaring.) "What can one pathetic little girl and her weakling Pokémon do against the might of Neo Team Rocket?" he taunted.

"I don't know anything about any Neo Team Whatever-you-call-it!" I shot right back at them. "I've never even heard of such a thing! What I do know is you're not taking those Eevee and you're not hurting my friends!"

"Heck, Aurora," Bryar mumbled. "Do you even know that girl's name?"

"You're not making this any easier, Bryar."

Someone planted a hand on my shoulder, forcing me to step back. Spinning around, I saw it was Molly Hale, her pale blue eyes blazing. "Let them have what they want!" she declared to all those around her. "Let them take the Pokémon!"

I squirmed out from under her hand. "But, Ms. Hale!" I protested. "You can't just let them storm in, wreck your Gym, and take these Pokémon like that!"

"And I can't let them hurt those children," Molly finished for me. "We have to make sacrifices sometimes, Roary Ketchum. Sometimes it is wisest to stand down and take a blow or two. If you don't know that now, rest assured, you'll learn it soon." Without another word, she turned her back to me and started away, her long cape swirling about as she walked.

I gritted my teeth angrily as the Eevee owners began to form a long line, holding their PokéBalls and PokéCaps before them dejectedly. "She's wrong!" I insisted. "I know she's wrong! There's no way we can stand back and let them take those Pokémon! It's not right for them to win like this!"

Bryar's antennae drooped. "You think things always turn out right, Aurora?" it asked me in a sad voice, with none of its customary acid. "You think you can make them so that they always work out that way?"

"I can try, Bryar! Can't I at least try?" Lunging forward, I prepared to command my Pokémon into battle, but a pair of strong vine whips held me back. "Let me go, Bryar!" I yelled angrily, twisting and writhing. "Let me go!"

"If you think I'm going to let you, and everyone else around us, get themselves killed, you're wrong!" Bryar retorted, reeling me in like a Magikarp on a line. "Just shut up and don't say anything!"

I folded my arms crossly. "Back to your old self, I see."

Bryar smiled grimly.

As the last sniffing Eevee owner handed the Team Rocket person their PokéCap, a long ramp extended from the ship to the ground where we were standing. With a not-so-gentle push, the black-clad thugs forced their captives down the ramp before closing the ship door. In a rush of wind, they shot into the sky, disappearing above the clouds.

"Shane? Shane, are you alright!" I cried, breaking loose of Bryar's vine whips and dashing forward.

"I'm okay," he replied softly, getting to his feet. "Gauntal?"

With a yip, the Umbreon was at his side, placing its leash in its trainer's hand. Shane let loose a weary smile.

"I can't believe those Team Pocket-Rocket people!" I stormed. "Who do they think they are, wrecking the Gym and taking all those Eevee! Next time I find 'em, I'll be sure to teach them a lesson!"

Behind me, there was a golden blur, and the next thing I knew, the Junior Trainer who had been held captive moments before was hanging onto Shane's arm and wailing. "I was so scared!" she cried, tears leaking out of her eyes like it was the Niagara Falls or something. "I was so sure they were going to hurt us or something horrible like that!"

"Wow," Bryar sighed irritably. "She's even louder than you, Aurora."

"Who're you?" With one wipe, the tears were gone and the girl's eyes were perfectly dry. She was staring at me accusingly, black eyes narrowed in suspicion.

Shane stepped in quickly. "Dissembler, I'd like you to meet my friend Roary Ketchum," he said, taking a step back so the girl could look me in the eye. "Roary, this is Dissembler, a Junior Trainer at the Goldenrod Gym."

The girl, Dissembler, flicked back her golden curls and grinned. "Not a Junior Trainer anymore!" she informed me jovially, her mood shifting in an instant. "I just graduated outta there! Shane's taking me home, right after you guys go to Charicific Valley or whatever."

"Yeah, sorry about the delay, Bryar," Shane said, smiling hesitantly up at the disgruntled Meganium. "I just got the news Dissembler was ready to go, so I thought we'd make a small detour and pick her up. Dissembler and I go back a long way; we were classmates together at Pokémon U."

"The Pokémon University?" I gawked. The way Dissembler swung from weepy to suspicious to all happy and friendly in less than a minute was dizzying enough. Now discovering that the eleven year-old was just as much a genius as Shane, I thought I felt a serious migraine coming on.

"I flunked out, though," Dissembler admitted sheepishly. "Shane here's the real smart one." She giggled at the memory. "He was always doing my homework for me."

I nodded, then shoved my jaw back into its original socket. "It'll be great having you along, I'm sure," I told Dissembler in a friendly voice. "There's just one thing left that I have to take care of before we leave."

Scanning the crowd, I quickly spotted Molly Hale's shimmering blue cape. Holding Picassy in my arms, I walked towards her, jaw set.

"…not sure of the exact losses at the moment," a Goldenrod Gym official was saying to the Gym Leader. "The Gym will take millions to fix, if not rebuild. We were lucky no one was hurt."

Molly nodded wearily. "The Eevee then, how many did we lose?"

"Still counting. It's the strangest thing, though. Apparently, they didn't just take Eevee; Victoria says that someone emptied out the milk larder, the milk larder of all things, right before the attack. Though what they could want with all that milk, I don't know; maybe it's for the Pokémon they…"

There was a tickling in the back of my throat, and I sneezed before I was able to stop myself, cutting off the speaker in mid-sentence.

"So it's you again, Roary Ketchum," Molly sighed in annoyance, swerving about and staring me in the eye before I had a chance to speak. "I suppose you'd like to finish your Gym Match now, isn't that right?"

I nodded mutely.

Molly sighed again, straightening herself to her full height. Digging into a special pouch beneath her cape, she withdrew a small, silvery badge and held it out in my direction. "Here," she said. "Your Plain Badge. Go ahead and take it. I don't have time for a battle right now."

Shaking my head, I ignored the badge and stared her straight back in the eye. "I can't take that badge, ma'am, and you know it," I told her stonily. "I never won that Pokémon battle back there, and I never earned that badge. So you might as well take it back."

"My Gym has just been destroyed, have you not realized that?" Molly demanded incredulously. "How do you expect me to battle after what has just happened?"

I inhaled slowly, then bowed my head. "I'm sorry," I said finally. "I didn't think." Head still lowered, I changed direction and headed back the way I'd come, towards where Shane, Bryar, and Dissembler were waiting for me.

"Roary, wait!" Lifting my head, I caught a glimpse of sandy hair and a streaming blue cape. In the bat of an eyelid, Molly Hale was standing next to me, and she was smiling openly. "Here, Roary Ketchum," she said, opening a closed fist to reveal a golden bit of sparkling stone, shaped like a circle with a spiral in its middle. "If you won't take my Plain Badge, you might as well take this."

Gazing down at the glittering gold, I picked it up curiously. "What is it?" I asked, holding it up to the light and watching it glitter.

Molly's reply was low, almost in respect. "You hold in your hands, Roary Ketchum, the world's sole Goldenglow Emblem," she said reverently. "I have held onto it for some time now, but perhaps you can make better use of it than I."

"Pi, pi!" Picassy crooned, pawing at the light rays that streamed down, reflected off of the object's shimmering surface.

"It looks like some sort of badge, one made out of stone of something. Like, you know how the Orange Islands have seashells for badges?" I turned to my companions for help. "But I don't get it. What's it for –do I get to enter some sort of League or something?"

Molly's eyes clouded; she closed them briefly before turning them away. "That you must figure out on your own," she informed me cryptically. "For even I do not know. There are six Emblems you must find before their true purpose becomes clear. Good luck to you, Roary Ketchum, and may your travels reward you." And with a dramatic swish of her cape, she was gone, making her way through the crowd to talk with the police officials who had just arrived.

Bryar eyed the Goldenglow Emblem critically. "If you ask me, for the world's sole doohickey, it looks an awful lot like a bit of aluminum foil. Or maybe a small bottlecap. Seriously, Molly Hale could have put a bit more effort into the whole mystic riddle of the bottlecap thing."

"Bryar, please! You're ruining my moment here!" Placing the Goldenglow Emblem carefully in my pocket, I turned to my friends and grinned. "Well, what are we waiting for?" I said. "On to Charicific Valley!"

The next day....

It turned out that Charicific Valley wasn't actually too far from Goldenrod City, though we decided to stay in Goldenrod and stock up on supplies before setting out the next morning. Bryar balked a little when it realized Dissembler was going to have to ride in the balloon with us (it was already pretty crowded), but the girl just smiled and brought out a well-trained Skarmory. Ska-Ska, she assured us, would be happy to carry her the rest of the way to the Valley. Eyeing the bulky pack Dissembler carried upon her back, I had my doubts, but little Ska-Ska took easily to the challenge.

But once we were over the Charicific canyons, Shane ordered an abrupt halt.

"What's the matter up there?" Bryar demanded, shaking a vine whip at Shane and his Dragonite. "Why aren't we moving? Charicific Valley is right below us, in case you didn't realize!"

"I hear something," Shane said, cocking his head to the side in concentration. "Something big. And it's coming from the other side of the canyon."

"I'll go check it out!" Dissembler volunteered, veering around the side of the Valley on her Skarmory. "Yee-hah! Let's go, Ska-Ska!"

"Skah mor!" her Pokémon cawed, flapping its metallic wings to a silvery blur. In a blinding flash of sunlight, they were off.

"Dissembler, wait!" Shane cried, spurring Ragnarok into movement once more. "Get back here!" But the girl and her Skarmory had already disappeared.

"She's even more impulsive than you, Aurora," Bryar chortled, slapping me one on the back. "Looks like you've got competition!"

For more things than one, I thought jealously as Shane's head twisted about in all directions. "She's crazy, going off on her own like that," he muttered to Gauntal. "If she gets hurt…Ragnarok, go find Dissembler!" he shouted finally, digging his heels into the Dragonite's side. With another wild lurch, we were off, and Bryar was complaining loudly.

"You'd think he'd save some consideration for someone besides that scrawny, curly-haired, unruly little…oomph!" Bryar crashed into the side of the balloon, flattening both me and Picassy against it. "If I ever make it out alive, I am never setting paw into this balloon again!" it declared noisily to no one in particular.

Picassy yelped as the cable connecting the balloon to Shane's Dragonite snapped from the strain. Shane didn't even notice as the cable fell away, and continued to speed his Dragonite onward. The charge sent the balloon whipping to the side, knocking out the burner as well.

"If that cable just snapped and the burner just went out…"I started, "then what's holding us up?"

Bryar slammed its head against the basket and groaned. "We're gonna die!"

The balloon basket landed with a jaw-jolting bump and crashed, tipping me, Bryar, and Picassy onto the ground. I winced as the hot air balloon rolled across the rock-littered ground and exploded, sending bits of canvas raining all over the ground. Dad was going to kill me once he found out I'd broken his balloon.

"Of all the nerve…"Bryar fumed, but I held up a hand. A few feet away, Lody Chimera was sprawled on the ground, holding her arms over her head as if to fend off an attacker. In the distance, I glimpsed two people dressed in popcorn vendor suits, turning around and high-tailing it out of sight.

"Hey? You okay, Chimera?" I said tentatively, putting a hand on Lody's shoulder. The other girl jerked away, then peeked through her fingers and saw me.

"Roary?" she moaned, pulling herself onto her one good leg, "What are you doing here? Oh, please!" she cried as I held out an arm to help her up. "I can take care of myself, you know!"

I snorted. "You haven't changed a bit, Chimera. A stubborner person I've yet to meet."

"You haven't changed either, Roary," Lody retorted, bitter as ever. "I asked you once; what are you doing here?"

"Lody? Lody!" We spun around; Amulet, Lody's Espeon, and a Pikachu I took to be Pika, were coming up the ridge. Close behind was a police squadron led by an officer who, as she came, called to Lody.

"Are you alright, miss?" the police officer asked, scanning the surrounding area. "Your friends reported sightings of Team Rocket in the area. Have any clue where they might have gone?"

Lody grimaced as she propped herself onto her knees, then pointed in the direction of the popcorn vendors. "Team Rocket's what they called themselves, anyway," she told the police officer, who briskly sent her squadron racing in the direction Lody had pointed to. "I've never heard of Team Rocket before, though."

The officer shrugged. "Most people haven't," she informed Lody. "They were an underground Pokémon thievery organization that reached their zenith about thirty years ago, but have been relatively unheard of since. Very few people even know about Team Rocket nowadays…" She put a finger to her forehead in thought. "Surprising that your attackers didn't know that," she mused.

"Team Rocket, you said?" I butted in, turning to face Lody. "The people who attacked you were from Team Rocket?"

"That's what they said," Lody confirmed.

Picassy squirmed uneasily on my head. "Pi, pi! Pichu, oo!"

"Shane and I just came from Goldenrod City!" I explained hurriedly. "There's been an attack on the Gym there, by people claiming to be from the same organization! You don't suppose…"

"That Team Rocket has come back? Don't be silly," the officer laughed. "Whatever remnants of the organization remain are far too few and far too scattered to reengage their previous activities. Besides, even if Team Rocket did reemerge, they could easily be taken care of again. In fact, they were originally disbanded by a mere boy. A young man by the name of Ketchum broke 'em up some twenty-odd years ago, and they haven't been heard from since."

"Ketchum?" I echoed.

"That's right. A boy named Ash Ketchum, who later became the youngest Pokémon master in the world. Wiping out Team Rocket certainly looked good on his résumé, I can tell you that!"

Lody's eyes got all sharp and flinty, and I knew she was thinking the same exact thing I was.

"Ash Ketchum," I said slowly, "is my father. And he never said a word about Team Rocket, wiping them out or otherwise."